One of the most glorious things that can happen to a filmmaker is to have the world talk about his/her film. But, even more glorious is to have the world talk about the issues is raises. This is exactly what's happening to Spike Jonze's Her. Upon the film's completion, Jonze shared it with friends, filmmakers, musicians, authors, and other creatives, and their reactions form the basis of the short documentary, Her: Love in the Modern Age, directed by Lance Bangs -- an intriguing discussion about artists' personal experiences, the nature of love in today's world, and how modern technology plays a role.
If you've found yourself obsessing over this film, you're not alone -- and I'm not just yoking you with me. The Internet is fascinated by Her. Vulture has shared a compilation of links from different sites across the net that break down the film's production, from the inspiration behind the clothes, the in-movie video game, the Arcade Fire score, even the high-waisted pants. (We posted about the more technical aspects of the film's cinematography, too.) And if your obsession, like mine, not only includes reading about the film, but actually reading the film itself, Cinephilia and Beyond shared a link to a Reddit thread where you can download and read the Her screenplay.
Her is the second film that I've seen in the last year that made me obsess over it (the first being Blue is the Warmest Color), and the reason for that, I've come to find, is because the questions it raises not only relate to me as a human being -- one of many, who shares a relatively collective experience with others, but also relates to me as an individual, who has a solitary, unique experience of the themes and ideas talked about in the film. And the kicker -- it does this in such a way that not even my cynical, disbelieving mind can suck up the light it emanates. It made me think about -- dare I say -- love, and how it's evolving, yet still staying the same. Theo may be engaging in a relationship with his operating system, but the issues that broke up his previous relationship threaten to do the same to his current one.
It's rare, these days, that a film comes along, especially one as overtly quirky and strange as this one, and wrestles with our minds and hearts, inspiring us to ask deeper, further-reaching questions. Jonze and his team packaged a very important and timely question inside a well-made, well-written, and numbingly tragic movie. The movie is but a vessel for something much, much greater -- "What, now, is love?"
What did you think of the discussion in the documentary? What questions arose when you saw the film? Let us know in the comments below.
[via Indiewire]
