MA Research Thesis Film Studies DYSRECOGNITION Emotional Engagement and Estrangement at The Congress (2013) Name: Lucia ten Berge University of Amsterdam Student number: 10221557 MA Film Studies Supervisor: dr. G.W. van der Pol Date: 23 June 2015 Second reader: dr. A.M. Geil Word count: 22,998 ABSTRACT This thesis focuses on the problem of recognition in Murray Smith’s model of the structure of sympathy; a system that is said to be applicable to any feature film. To investigate this problem, Ari Folman’s 2013 film The Congress; that consists of both live action and animation, will be explored. The fact that this film was poorly attended leads to questions about the emotional engagement experienced by the spectator. The specific narrative structure of this film, combined with the mix of live action and animation, results in a structure of sympathy that deviates from Murray Smith’s version. In The Congress, the live action world is transformed completely into animation at some point. This particular combination of live action and animation could result in an alternative mode of spectatorial engagement that eventually causes the spectator to experience alienation from the characters. The central question then, is why this would happen specifically in this case, and what this means for theorizing spectatorial engagement. To investigate this, different theoretical approaches are applied to the film. The research will start off with an introduction to the concept of spectatorial engagement by exploring different approaches to the term. In chapter two, the position and context of the spectator will be studied. The third chapter is centred on the influence of expectations raised by the film on the engagement of the spectator. Subsequently, the levels of realism and artificiality are discussed to explore how the balance between the two can influence the emotional connection of the spectator with the characters. After focusing specifically on the narrative of The Congress, the former approaches will come together in a concluding chapter about engagement, which problematizes Smith’s structure, introducing an alternative to this structure. The conclusion will put the analysis in a broader perspective concerning spectatorial engagement and the revised structure of sympathy. Key words: cinema, spectatorship, emotional engagement, animation, realism, estrangement, recognition DYSRECOGNITION 2 Contents List of illustrations 6 Introduction 8 1. Spectatorial Engagement: Theories 12 1.1. Sympathy: Cognitivism and the Problem of Identification 1.2. Empathy: Mimicry, Affect, and Embodiment 1.3. (Mis)recognition in the Structure of Sympathy 2. Theories About The Spectator 23 2.1. Animation in The Congress: Who’s Watching and Does it Truly Matter? 2.2. The Implied Spectator: Address and Reception, Spectators and Viewers 3. Expectations: Animation and Realism 32 3.1. Genre and Visual (Re)presentation 3.2. Animated Recognition 3.3. Realism, Remediation and Simulation 4. Experiencing The Congress: Recognition/Dystopia 44 4.1. Recognition and the Voice 4.2. Recognition: Avatars and Appearances 4.3. Individuality and Freedom, Time and Space 4.4. The Congress as a Dystopian Narrative 5. The Congress: Estrangement and/or Engagement? 60 5.1. The Distance between the Spectator and the Film: Immersive Estrangement? 5.2. Problematizing Recognition 5.3. A Revised Structure of Sympathy Conclusion 73 Appendix 76 Bibliography 77 DYSRECOGNITION 3 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1. Smith, Murray. “Character Engagement.” Engaging 17 Characters: Fiction, Emotion and the Cinema. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995. 105. Figure 2. Gilliam, Terry. The Man Who Took Leave of His Senses. 2015. 19 24 February 2015. < http://bit.ly/1bCxnCM>. Figure 3. “Reviews & Ratings.” The Congress. IMDb.com. 20 29 March 2015. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1821641/board/nest/ 233522543?p=2>. Figure 4. “Reviews & Ratings.” The Congress. IMDb.com. 20 30 March 2015. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1821641/board/nest/ 233522543?p=2>. Figure 5. The Congress (2013). Poster. 2013. The Congress. The Internet 33 Movie Database. Web. 2 February 2015. <http:// www.imdb.com/ media/ rm2314128384/tt1821641?ref_=tt_ov_i#>. Figure 6. The Congress. Poster. 2013. The Congress (2013) Movie 34 Poster #3. SciFi-Movies. Web. 15 February 2015. <http:// scifi-movies.com/images/contenu/data/0003421/affiche-le- congres-the-congress-2013-3.jpg>. Figure 7. The Congress. Poster. 2013. The Congress (Film). Wikipedia. 35 Web. 15 February 2015. <http://upload.wikimedia.org/ wikipedia/en/8/8d/The_Congress_film_poster.jpg>. DYSRECOGNITION 4 Figure 8. “Lysergic Acid Diethylamide.” Episode 3.19. Fringe. Fox. 36 15 April 2011. Figure 9. Congress, The. Dir. Ari Folman. Drafthouse Films, 2013. 37 Figure 10. Congress, The. Dir. Ari Folman. Drafthouse Films, 2013. 38 Figure 11. Congress, The. Dir. Ari Folman. Drafthouse Films, 2013. 39 Figure 12. Congress, The. Dir. Ari Folman. Drafthouse Films, 2013. 48 Figure 13. Congress, The. Dir. Ari Folman. Drafthouse Films, 2013. 49 Figure 14. Congress, The. Dir. Ari Folman. Drafthouse Films, 2013. 52 Figure 15. Congress, The. Dir. Ari Folman. Drafthouse Films, 2013. 53 Figure 16. Congress, The. Dir. Ari Folman. Drafthouse Films, 2013. 55 Figure 17. Congress, The. Dir. Ari Folman. Drafthouse Films, 2013. 58 Figure 18. A revised version of Smith’s structure of sympathy. 67 Figure 19a. Selection of the revised version of Smith’s structure of 69 sympathy, emphasizing the role of recognition. Figure 19b. Selection of the revised version of Smith’s structure of 70 sympathy, emphasizing the role of dysrecognition. DYSRECOGNITION 5 INTRODUCTION Can these computerized characters create in us the same excitement and enthusiasm, and does it truly matter? – Ari Folman (“Press”) When Mary Poppins jumps into a chalk drawing on the street in 1964, something remarkable happens: no longer do the rules of the real world apply, and anything becomes possible (“Plot Summary”). When Cinderella leaves the animated fairy tale world and enters live action New York City in 2007, she undertakes a sudden transformation into a ‘real’ person. This too allows for new possibilities: a new world with different rules. There are many forms of this combination of animation and live action (Bruckner 23). For example, a film can (permanently or temporarily) shift from one to the other, there can be live action within an animated setting, or animation within a live action setting. But how does the spectator experience these changes emotionally? This paper argues that these transformations can affect both the way the spectator connects to the characters and the level of this emotional engagement. The question however, is how emotional engagement works in a film with both live action and animation. The combination of live action and animation is by no means something new. Already at the beginning of the twentieth century there were experiments of live action interacting with animation. One of the earliest examples is The Enchanted Drawing, directed by J. Stuart Blackton in 1900 for Thomas Edison and Vitagraph Studios. A man is seen with an easel, drawing a cartoon face with several objects. The man takes the objects out of the drawing, uses them in real life, and puts them back in the drawing again. This seemingly simple example already hints at the potential of this hybrid type of film. Many experiments and developments have led up to an idiosyncratic, relatively small group of films that are not live action or animation, but both. As was said above, these films can be either hybrid (where live action interacts with animation) or shifting between the two modes. Another prominent example of a hybrid animation/live action film is Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Zemeckis, 1988), in which the animated parts are seamlessly interwoven with the live action world, creating a completely new world. This unique combination can be of great influence for the emotional engagement of the spectator. Especially when live DYSRECOGNITION 6 action characters become cartoons, or cartoons become real actors, something changes for the emotional experience of the spectator. The Congress (Folman, 2013) is a remarkable film within this group. The film breaks boundaries between fiction and non-fiction, and between live action and animation. The narrative revolves around actress Robin Wright, who plays herself in a fictional story where she literally sells her image to be digitalized when her career is nearing its end. This means she does not have to act anymore, and her whole image would be owned by a distribution company called Miramount. She agrees, signs the contract, and her digital self takes over her acting career. Twenty years later, when this contract has ended, she is invited at a congress which takes place in an “animated zone”, meaning that everyone present will take certain chemical drugs to see the whole world as a cartoon. Boundaries between what is real and what is inside your head are constantly questioned, sometimes literally by the protagonist. The idea is that everyone creates the world around themselves depending on their cognitive and emotional state, so this world is different every time one enters it. Eventually, Robin must look for her son and daughter, one being in the animated world, the other in the “real” world. Because it is impossible to find her son, she goes back into the animated zone and becomes him instead to trace his steps, living their life all over again, this time in animation. Although the narrative about a mother in search of her children and striving for the preservation of identity and freedom comes across as quite engaging, Robin’s transition to the animated zone and the way she eventually embraces this alternate reality communicates an extraordinarily depressing feeling to the spectator. The central question for this research is why, and more importantly how, The Congress succeeds or fails to emotionally engage its spectator1. In a broader perspective, this leads up to questions about the way spectator engagement is investigated in film theory, and why different approaches show similarities and differences with respect to emotional engagement.