The Congress

The Congress is a one of a kind movie, directed by Ari Folman, the same genius who brought us Waltz with Bashir. I personally really enjoyed it even though I found it a bit messy at times.

The story evolves around Robin Wright, the famous actress we all know and who is playing here, her own self. Obviously, even though, she is playing herself, this movie only borrow facts from her life, it is not autobiographical...at all. Of course, Robin Wright is getting older and is not anymore the young & innocent actress we remember from The Princess Bride. Apart from these small facts, the story doesn't match Robin Wright's life. In this parallel world, she is an aging actress on the way of being forgotten, who is getting less and less movie offers, and who needs to take care of a sick little boy at home. Feeling powerless against the passing time, she decides to sell her body image to a film studio in order to remain young forever and come back to a more successful movie career. Then, starts an amazing journey in a colorful and unique universe that is shown through animation. But, of course, it is not only flowers and butterflies since, Robin Wright has very little control over her young, animated self.

The up side of this animation is that it is limitless since it helps creating a crazy universe with splendid creatures, brilliant scenery... it all seems very magical. On the other hand, I feel like this "other world" is pushed maybe a little bit too far, and it can confuse the spectator.

However, this movie passes quite powerful messages about existentialism, being part of a corporation, being dependent of your body image and most of all, it shows, metaphorically of course, what could be the future of the movie industry.

All in all, even though it has some flaws, I highly recommend The Congress, it leads you to a unique and unforgettable journey, and I think you'll remember this movie for a while.

THE CONGRESS (2014). Director Ari Folman's THE CONGRESS not only uses lead actress Robin Wright's persona, but, in the film her whole acting being is taken over by Hollywood. Director Folman, who made the stunning WALTZ WITH BASHIR (an Oscar nominee), adapts Stanislaw Lem's (Solaris) novel The Futurological Congress by making it fully contemporary. The central idea is that an actor's image can be 'bought out' by Hollywood by digitally scanning them and then do what they want by incorporating that image in any movie or TV show they wish. The actors themselves then are free to "retire". For well over a decade we've seen CGI versions of dead actors placed into movies, TV and commercials - so this isn't so much sci-fi as near-future - or, even, Today what with the de-aging of DeNiro in THE IRISHMAN and Harrison Ford in the current Indy 5.

The key for most viewers is how they view the largely animated second half of the movie where Wright lives out her artificially created being in an advanced hallucinatory Virtual Reality world. I went with it all the way, but Folman's animation style may not be for everyone (as it was with WALTZ). The movie was much better received in Europe than stateside where it was barely released (the reviews were decent). Robin Wright is terrific and brilliant in a similar way to how John Malkovich was in BEING JOHN MALKOVICH - themselves, but, not quite. The supporting cast including Harvey Keitel, Paul Giamatti, Danny Huston and the voice of Jon Hamm is solid. Max Richter's terrific score abets the visuals.

THE CONGRESS is a film which grows in impact as the years roll on, as evidenced now by the twin SAG and WGA strikes where AI has become a sticking point in the negotiations. Reportedly, the Studios asked for permission to allow background actors to work for one day and be scanned for permanent re-use without additional pay or permission. Nine years ago THE CONGRESS was sci-fi, now....????

The movie itself is a metaphor for some of the new trends that are happening around us. It makes a hinted implicit discussion about things like the Internet culture (avatars, virtual life), Intellectual Properties, rights, freedom, terrorism, capitalism, life extension. The movie is deep and few people can really get to the bottom of it and get the messages. My wife for example, got out from the movie unable to explain it. I, on the other hand, thought that the messages in the movie were powerful. It reminded me for moments "Vanilla Sky" and the "Matrix" though a bit different. The animation seems deliberately hand made and old (as Disney's movies) and I believe this is yet another critique about the cutting-edge Pixar computerized movies, made by hundreds of people and co-producers that shape up each character (which is an owned intellectual property). Producing this movie was a bold and brave move – it may get mixed critique from the intelligent, and might be mocked by the superficial crowd, but I say it is brave and brilliant!

This film gets an average score of 6,5 out of 10, it seems like a score you'd give to your average, passable flick with average (=little) imagination. I'd give it a 7,5 at least. I didn't know what to expect at all and was in for a surprisingly odd visual treat that looks mostly like an animated dream.

I'm not sure I want to re-watch this film again (I might get a headache), it was quite something to ingest. There's also a lot there to think about and not everything makes sense. Nor did it have to as the film chose to display a dream world mostly.

The transitions between animated and live action are horrible, non-existent even. Also, the motivations (why does Robin escape to the dream world in a fancy car) are not always clear, neither is it always clear what's going on.

Juggling with too many ideas, it's not consistently sticking to a core concept. I feel like I watched 2 movies. One like S1mone, but more serious. The other, more like an animated Being John Malkovich, less quirky but more poetic and equally self- referential (there's references to Robin Wright's actual acting career, she plays herself...).

I could live with all it's flaws, because it was quite an intriguing film. I still give it a high score because it's concepts interested me and I think you have to see it also as a work of art to behold, not necessarily to comprehend. It's so different from the usual film, even if you watch (partially) animated films. The animation is the highlight of the film.

I watched Planete Sauvage (trippy 1973 animation) a week ago and found this one equally stimulating for my brain as it feels expanded. Hadn't seen something like this since Paprika and this had more substance to boot even though it didn't focus and flesh it's ideas out enough. It was a bold attempt nonetheless.

It's a great allegory about the avatars of ourselves, on the social networks, on the smartphones and ipads. while, in the real world, people are getting poorer each day, wars are declared, people don't have water to survive. But this is mostly about identity. we sell it really easily, we want to be someone else, and someone can profit from that. Robin wright character is very well built, all her pain, her realization of being "old" for the job, the love for the kids.

The problem is that the dialogues are too expositive sometimes, at certain parts it can get confusing it's truth. but it talks about today, it wants to amaze us visually , and makes us think about all the virtual networking we're having now a days. we are selling ourselves each minute on the internet,

Really good stuff, highly recommended.