 |
| Figure 1: Waltz with Bashir Poster |
Waltz with Bashir directed by Ari Folman tells the story of Folman who was a soldier in the Israeli Defence Forces on duty in Lebanon. As he starts to hallucinate images of himself being harassed by a group of 26 rabid dogs when he was back in the war he tries desperately to uncover the secrets in his foggy memory to correlate the reasoning behind the hallucinations and fill in the blanks as to why they are cropping up now.
Waltz with Bashir is the second Isreali animation to exist. The films aesthetic has a very unique, noir melancholy quality with the characters and environments having harsh chiaroscuro (fig 2) which shows the nostalgic quality that Folman has as he tries to recollect his memories. Folman describes his lapses in memory which contributed to the look of the film with "I had a memory: I just had black holes in the storylines that I wanted to fill during the search in this film. The memories got suppressed because I tried really hard not to remember." Foleman (2008)
The overall storytelling technique is that of a documentary film as Folman tells the story of his time serving for the Israeli defense forces through the malleable means of animation. Speaking of his choice to use animation to tell his story Folman states "A digital image that you see on a screen that is made out of pixels and dots and lines, or a drawn one, both of them are speaking in the same voice? Who decides the video picture is more real than an artist who drew the images for four months?". Folman (2008) Folman visits old veterans to try and piece together his hallucinations and these comrades then delve deep into their subconscious to recollect their sides of the story which is all shown beautifully through the animation.
 |
| Figure 2: Harsh chiaroscuro |
Folman got his inspiration from graphic novels for the look of the film with the technical aspects mainly being done in flash with some elements being hand drawn and some CGI such as aerial shots. Although Folman has made it adamant that he does not like CGI and it has to be tasteful. People assumed that the majority of the film was done with rotoscoping but in interviews Folman had to dispel this rumour many times. Folman describes the reasoning behind not using rotoscoping techniques "for me, rotoscoping has a big problem in conveying emotions. You see the technique, you see the drawings, and that takes your focus. If this film had been rotoscoped, it would have been hard for the audience to get emotional with the characters." Folman (2008)
Folman's studio entitled "Bridget Folman Film Gang" consisted of a very small team that worked on Waltz with Bashir which includes eight animators, four illustrators, one After Effects artist and one editor. A budget of a mere $1.7 million instated for Waltz with Bashir in comparison to Disney and Pixar with budgets of $150 million. Folman recreated the stories that were told in the animation by dramatising them in a studio such as by sitting in two chairs with a plastic grill to represent sitting in a car. Foleman made the animatic as accurate as possible to minimise any cumbersome issues in the animation stage. After the animatic stage 3,500 keyframes where drawn at the most extreme parts of the film with art director and illustrator David Polonsky drawing 75 percent of them.
 |
| Figure 3: Folman as depicted in the film |
The closing part of the film shows real scenes from the massacre at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camp. the juxpasition going from the animation to live scenes from the massacre cements the seriousness that war has on people and shows that the animation as a whole tells the impact of war. The film has been banned in Lebanon because of the negativity towards war although the film has been critically acclaimed and has won many awards some of which include Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and Writers Guild of America Award for Best Documentary Screenplay.
Bibliography
Freedland, J. (2008). Waltz with Bashir film maker Ari Folman on war and art. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/oct/25/waltz-with-bashir-ari-folman [Accessed 3 Feb. 2018].
Kaufman, D. (2008). How They Did It: Waltz With Bashir - Studio Daily. [online] Studio Daily. Available at: http://www.studiodaily.com/2008/12/how-they-did-it-waltz-with-bashir/ [Accessed 3 Feb. 2018].
Strike, J. (2008). 'Waltz with Bashir': Animation and Memory. [online] Animation World Network. Available at: https://www.awn.com/animationworld/waltz-bashir-animation-and-memory [Accessed 3 Feb. 2018]
Illustration List
Folman, A. (2008). [image] Available at: https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=1591590#post1591590 [Accessed 3 Feb. 2018]
Folman, A. (2008). [image] Available at: http://thecia.com.au/reviews/w/waltz-with-bashir/ [Accessed 3 Feb. 2018].
No comments:
Post a Comment