#220: Existenz, Movies recommended or seen lately... les films a voir

Genre: Sci-fi/Science-Fiction
Annee/Year: 1999
Country: Canada
Format: DVD
Existenz is a really under rated movie in my book. Directed by David Cronenberg (Shivers,Rabid, The brood, The Fly, Videodrome, Eastern promises, Crash and more) one of the most prolific and respected Canadian director. There are a few movies issued lately about alternate universes (Matrix, Exception...) which are quite succefull. This movie is about the same theme but treated in an interesting quite relevant way: virtual reality video games.
Through cool biotechnology living interface consoles which plug directly into your nervous system through a plug which is installed in your spine the close future people interact in very rich virtual reality games where designers reproduce reality with all senses in it's smallest detail until it becomes hard to know what is reality and what is the game. The movies exploits multi layered realities where the protagonists: Ted Pikul (Jude Law) a marketing trainee who has to assist the most well known game designer of her generation Allegra Geller (Jennifer Jason Leigh) through the world in her latest game environment in order to insure the game is not damaged by a hardware problem. Follows an exciting discovery of the different virtual worlds and their inherent rules. Willem Dafoe plays a secondary role which is very interesting as well. A very beautiful metaphore for current gen video games if there is one. The question is can someone loose his own reality through these alternate universes? A great movie from Cronenberg.

Existenz un film définitivement sous évalué par plusieurs. Le célèbre réalisateur canadien David Cronenberg (Shivers,Rabid, The brood, The Fly, Videodrome, Eastern promises, Crash et plus).
Dernièrement il y a eu plusieurs films avec des couches de réalités alternatives qui ont connus pas mal de succès (Matrix, Inception). Existenz traite ce thème mais sur un ton différent: les jeux vidéos basés sur la réalité virtuelle. Avec une technologie futuriste biotechnologique qui utilise des consoles d`interface vivantes, les personnages de cette époque rapprochée se branche sur des réalités virtuelle à travers des ports de communication qui leur sont installés directement à leur système nerveux par leur colonne vertébrale. Cool. Une fois dans ces mondes virtuels les personnages y visitent et interagissent comme si ils y étaient vraiment mais il sàgit de jeux complètement fait par des designer vedetttes qui y mettent autant de détails que dans la réalité. On peut même accéder à d`autres mondes virtuels pour une approche par couches, concept que ce film exploite pleinement. Nos personnages principaux Ted Pikul (Jude Law) un jeune agent de marketing qui doit assister Allegra Geller (Jennifer Jason Leigh) la plus grande designer de jeux virtuels de son époque à travers l`environnement de sa toute dernière création afin de s`assurer que le jeux n`a pas été compromis par une destrucution partielle de la console sur laquelle il était sauvegardé. S`ensuit une excitante poursuite contre des puissances compétitrices qui veulent le comprettre. Willem Dafoe joue un rôle intéressant dùn personnage nommé Gas que vous n`oublierez pas On y découvre alors les règles qui régissent le jeu. Ce grand film est une métaphore intéressante sur les jeux videos qui envahissent nos vies de plus en plus. Bravo Cronenberg pour un film qui nous stimule et fait réfléchir!

Great quotes:
Allegra: So how does it feel?
Ted: What?
Allegra: Your real life. The one you came back for.
Ted: It feels completely unreal.
Allegra: You're stuck now, aren't ya? You want to go back to the Chinese restaurant because there's nothing happening here. We're safe. It's boring.
Ted: It's worse than that. I'm not sure... I'm not sure here, where we are, is real at all. This feels like a game to me. And you, you're beginning to feel a bit like a game character.
...
Ted: What the fuck are you doing? You killed him. Are you going to kill me next?
Allegra: Pikul, he was only a game character. I didn't like how he was messing with my mind.
Ted: You didn't like that, so you killed him?
Allegra: He's only a game character!
Ted: Allegra, what if we're not in the game anymore?
Allegra: If we're not.
Ted: If we're not then you just killed someone real.
...
Ted: It's none of your business who sent us! We're here and that is all that matters... God, what happened? I didn't mean to say that.
Allegra: It's your character who said it. It's kind of a schizophrenic feeling, isn't it? You'll get used to it. There are things that have to be said to advance the plot and establish the characters, and those things get said whether you want to say them or not. Don't fight it.
...
Ted: Free will is obviously not a big factor in this little world of ours.
Allegra: It's like real life. There's just enough to make it interesting.
...
Ted: What was your life like before?
Gas: Before?
Ted: Before it was changed by Allegra Geller.
Gas: I operated a gas station.
Ted: You still operate a gas station, don't you?
Gas: Only on the most pathetic level of reality.
...
Allegra: You have to PLAY the game, to find out WHY you're playing the game.

Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120907/

Entertainment rating: 8/10
Cast/acting rating: 7/10
Artistic rating: 8/10
Reflexion rating: 9/10
Production rating: 8/10
Adult factor: 6/10
Wide audience: 5/10
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Overall personnal rating: 8.5/10