Geog/Film

Comparing novel spaces

Think some more about how the memory space in Eternal Sunshine can be related to either the full scale digital space in The Matrix and the shared dream space in Inception. Are the "patients" in Eternal Sunshine more like the self-aware agents in the matrix or the subjects of Cobb's team's shared dreams? Are the Lacuna techs & Howard like the Dreamer/Architect in Inception? Is the relationship between material space and memory space more like that between the "real world" and the matrix or that between material space and dream space in Inception? Do the movies have signs in common to show these relationships?

Minds and bodies in THE MATRIX

Continue our discussion of mind/body relationships (or, as noted in class, relationships between mind and bodies - digital and "real"). How do the film makers use character bodies to signify differences in the space of the matrix and the space of the real? For you, what are the most effective devices used to show the relationship between mind, digital body, and material body? By the end of the film, how has Neo reconfigured that relationship to do things that no one else can do? By reference to the film text, can you offer an explanation for how or why he is able to do this?

Intertexuality and THE MATRIX

Following our discussion on R, use this entry to catalog the references to other texts that you noted while watching The Matrix. In comments, take note of:

1. What form the reference takes: quotation or allusion;
2. How the appropriation is made - lines of dialogue, visually, in the narrative;
3. The source, or sources, of the quotation or allusion;
4. What the appropriation is meant to signify.

Feel free to discuss references more informally here as well.

Open entry on THE MATRIX

Use this space for a general discussion of The Matrix.

5/45/85: THE MATRIX

Here are the frame grabs from The Matrix for the 5/45/85 assignment.

Five minutes:

Forty-five minutes:

Eighty-five minutes:

Preview for THE MATRIX

Here are keywords and questions to think about during our screening of The Matrix.

1. Keyword: the body. What is the relationship between mind and body while "in" the matrix? How is this relationship signified by the film makers? What are the capabilities of the "digital body" in the matrix? How does one become able to use these capabilities? What visual devices are used to show these capabilities? What does the article by Lee say about the body of the action hero as conceptualized in The Matrix? How does it differ from prior conceptions?
2. Keyword: outwardlookingness. What is "residual self-image"? How does the expression of John/Neo's residual self-image change during the course of the movie? What do these changes mean and how are they signified?
3. Keywords: space, place, trace. What distinguishes the space of the matrix from the space of "the real world"? How does the film use the character of Cypher to explore this question? Is it possible to conceive of "place" in the context of the matrix? What kind of language does Lee use to describe the space of the matrix? How are these differences shown through the mise-en-scene or otherwise signified by the film makers?
4. Keyword: space. As you watch the film, look for elements that seem drawn from other texts/films. What genres does the film draw from? Where are appropriations from or allusions to other texts made? How do these references help you to make sense of the narrative space, the diegesis, of the film? Or are there references that confuse your understanding of that space?