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Posted: |
Nov 23, 2016 - 2:48 AM
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By: |
Thor
(Member)
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One of the main points of the story was that how you process reality through language absolutely determines your point of view. So in the story her "innate" ability is the ability to learn language, and when she learns the alien language, it changes her perspective of time.
Yeah, as I said earlier, it was the communicative aspect that interested me the most after the first viewing -- how (deliberately or not), the mise-en-scene and thematic ideas mirrored ideas in linguistics and semiotics, which I have studied somewhat over the years. There are bits and pieces of De Saussure, Barthes, Langer, Levi-Strauss, Derrida, Eco, Peirce etc. all jammed into in the film. Which is why it requires some further deconstruction for me (a propos Derrida).
Just like THE MATRIX (which channeled Plato, Baudrillard, Descartes, religious philosophy) or EX MACHINA (which channeled Plato, Carroll, Gita...), I love it when science fiction films incorporates these ideas into a seemingly streamlined genre form.
But obviously the 'time' aspect is relevant too, also as it relates to communication (this is not an idea I have explored much in my studies), as is the human aspect which Villeneuve emphasizes strongly. These are things I would need to investigate further.
What makes a film like ARRIVAL interesting is that it presents these complex ideas in a simple, more or less straightforward story -- as opposed to a more artfilm-oriented aesthetic wherein the complex ideas are communicated through a complex and more metaphysical form (like, say, SOLARIS, THE FOUNTAIN and 2001).
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Thanks for posting the vulture article, Joan. I like that they called out "Hannah" as you did in your first post. (I don't think the daughter is ever named in the story. It's in first person from the main character's pov, so the daughter is always "you.")*
*I know I keep harping on the story. That's the English major in me. I may love films, but I love words and music more.
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I enjoyed the movie very much, although I still can't rationalise why the aliens came to Earth in the first place. Altruism? Hmmm...
This was my disappointment with the original story, which didn't even have the "we'll need your help in 3,000 years" gambit. Unfortunately, the aliens are just a deux ex machina widget that makes the story go, they have no intrinsic meaning. They came to earth just to give the main character the new way of experiencing time and space. That's not good science fiction, even if the story is an excellent illustration of the underlying concepts.
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