Dreamstate, USA
Dreamstate, USA
The Metaphysics of Animation
This chapter examines the use of rotoscoping in Richard Linklater's Waking Life (2001) and A Scanner Darkly (2006), in order to realize metaphysical enquiries on film. Within the field of metaphysical enquiry, the key question for characters in the cinema of Linklater appears to be whether the world exists outside the mind. This prompts conceptual musings on the interaction of the mind and the body gives rise to the monologues and dialogues of Slacker (1991) as well as informing those in Before Sunrise (1995) and Before Sunset (2004). It also inspires the banter and debate of the protagonists of Waking Life, and the manic monologues of Barris (Robert Downey Jr.) in A Scanner Darkly. The use of rotoscoping for these films, and the relay discussion of metaphysics in these films, is apt because the animation adds an extra level of transcendence sought by saints and philosophers alike to the reality of live action footage.
Keywords: rotoscoping, Waking Life, A Scanner Darkly, metaphysical enquiries
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