Waking Life (2001)
Coming Out at 19 October 2001 in theaters.
Animation, Drama, Fantasy
Waking Life is experimental philosophical adult animated docufiction film directed by Richard Linklater. The film explores a wide range of philosophical issues, including the nature of reality, dreams and lucid dreams, consciousness, the meaning of life, free will, and existentialism. It is centered on a young man who wanders through a succession of dream-like realities wherein he encounters a series of individuals who engage in insightful philosophical discussions.
The film was entirely rotoscoped, although it was shot using digital video of live actors with a team of artists drawing stylized lines and colors over each frame with computers, rather than being filmed and traced onto cels on a lightbox. The film contains several parallels to Linklater’s 1991 film Slacker. Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy reprise their characters from Before Sunrise in one scene. Waking Life premiered at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival.
An unnamed young man lives an ethereal existence that lacks transitions between everyday events and eventually progresses toward an existential crisis. He observes quietly but later participates actively in philosophical discussions involving other characters—ranging from quirky scholars and artists to everyday restaurant-goers and friends—about such issues as metaphysics, free will, social philosophy, and the meaning of life. Other scenes do not even include the protagonist’s presence, but rather, focus on a random isolated person, a group of people, or a couple engaging in such topics from a disembodied perspective. Along the way, the film also touches upon existentialism, situationist politics, posthumanity, the film theory of André Bazin, and lucid dreaming, and makes references to various celebrated intellectual and literary figures by name.
Director: Richard Linklater
Writer: Richard Linklater
Stars: Ethan Hawke, Trevor Jack Brooks, Lorelei Linklater, Wiley Wiggins, Bill Wise, Julie Delpy
Cast:
Trevor Jack Brooks | … | Young Boy Playing Paper Game |
Lorelei Linklater | … | Young Girl Playing Paper Game |
Wiley Wiggins | … | Main Character |
Glover Gill | … | Accordion Player |
Lara Hicks | … | Violin Player |
Ames Asbell | … | Viola Player |
Leigh Mahoney | … | Viola Player |
Sara Nelson | … | Cello Player |
Jeanine Attaway | … | Piano Player |
Erik Grostic | … | Bass Player |
Bill Wise | … | Boat Car Guy |
Robert C. Solomon | … | Philosophy Professor |
Kim Krizan | … | Self |
Eamonn Healy | … | Shape-Shifting Man |
J.C. Shakespeare | … | Burning Man |
Ethan Hawke | … | Jesse |
Julie Delpy | … | Celine |
Charles Gunning | … | Angry Man in Jail |
David Sosa | … | Self |
Alex Jones | … | Man in Car with P.A. |
Otto Hofmann | … | Self |
Aklilu Gebrewold | … | Self |
Carol Dawson | … | Coffee Shop Chatter |
Lisa Moore | … | Coffee Shop Chatter |
Steve Fitch | … | Chimpanzee |
Louis Mackey | … | Self |
Alex Nixon | … | Man Writing a Novel at the Bar |
Violet Nichols | … | Woman Talking to the Novel Writer |
Steven Prince | … | Man Talking to the Bartender |
Ken Webster | … | Bartender |
Mary McBay | … | Woman on TV |
Kregg A. Foote | … | Man on TV |
Jason T. Hodge | … | Man with the Long Hair |
Guy Forsyth | … | Self |
John Christensen | … | Guy Talking about Turning the Light on in Dreams |
Caveh Zahedi | … | Self |
David Jewell | … | Man Talking to Caveh |
Adam Goldberg | … | One of Four Men |
Nicky Katt | … | One of Four Men |
Jason Liebrecht | … | One of Four Men |
Brent Green | … | One of Four Men |
RC Whittaker | … | Man on the Lamppost |
Hymie Samuelson | … | Mr. Debord |
David Martínez | … | Man on the Train |
Ryan Power | … | Young Disappearing Guy |
Tiana Hux | … | Soap Opera Woman |
Timothy ‘Speed’ Levitch | … | |
Steve Brudniak | … | Goatee Man |
Marta Banda | … | Friendly Girl |
Steven Soderbergh | … | Interviewed on Television |
Charles Murdock | … | Old Man |
Mona Lee Fultz | … | Quiet Woman at Restaurant |
Edith Mannix | … | Older Artist in the Park |
Bess Cox | … | Old Woman Sitting for a Portrait |
Louis Black | … | Kierkegaard Disciple |
Richard Linklater | … | Pinball Playing Man / Man on Back of Boat |
Sources: imdb & wikipedia