A Scanner Darkly - The dark screen

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Movie
German title A Scanner Darkly - The dark screen
Original title A scanner darkly
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2006
length about 100 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Richard Linklater
script Richard Linklater
production George Clooney
Tommy Pallotta
John Sloss
Jonah Smith
Steven Soderbergh
Erwin fabric
Anne Walker-McBay
Palmer West
music Graham Reynolds
camera Shane F. Kelly
cut Sandra Adair
occupation

A Scanner Darkly - A Scanner Darkly is an American science fiction film by Richard Linklater from the year 2006 . The plot is based on the dystopian novel The Dark Screen by Philip K. Dick from 1977. The entire film recordings were subsequently digitized using rotoscopy .

action

The United States is for the near future a surveillance state seeking to contain the massive problems caused by drug use and addiction. Only the organization "The New Path", which offers closed withdrawal treatment for drug addicts, can evade surveillance through special contracts with the government. An agent, called Fred, is undercover as Robert Arctor in the drug milieu to find the manufacturer of the drug "Substance T". The abbreviation "T" stands for death. Fred / Arctor became a user of the drug himself during his investigation. His anonymity is protected by a so-called “everyone's suit”, which constantly changes the wearer's appearance and manipulates his voice so that he becomes unidentifiable. Living together with his barely less addict housemates Barris and Luckman in a totally depraved house, one day his supervisor with the code name Hank instructs him to observe Robert Arctor - that is, to supervise himself.

A holographic surveillance system will be installed in his house to monitor all activities in the house. At first Fred tries to disguise his actual identity, but "Substance T" splits his consciousness and leads to a dissociative identity disorder until he can no longer differentiate between his identity as agent Fred and the private person Bob. This culminates in a fatal introspection, in which he completely loses touch with his own personality.

Bob's girlfriend Donna is a supposed drug dealer, who is also an agent and works under the identity of Hank - and is therefore Fred's client. Due to the social conditions, the police plan only sees the possibility of convicting the "New Path" if an absolutely unsuspecting person is smuggled into it. This is supposed to passively provide evidence that the strictly controlling organization itself is behind the "substance T".

Bob Arctor, completely destroyed by the drug, is best suited for this after the long preparation and is prepared for it through so-called psychological examinations, although Donna subsequently shows concerns that it is not fair to sacrifice an involuntary for it. A conflict with Donna is also staged by encouraging him to give her flowers, especially small, blue flowers, from which “substance T” is also made. During his rehab, Bob is given the code name Bruce, ends up in a rehab clinic and is later transferred to a rehab farm, where he sprays fields as a worker. In the process, he discovers the normally camouflaged blue flowers from which “Substance T” is made in a maize field that he looks after, and takes one with him to show his friends on vacation. The outcome of the story remains open, but it seems that the police's plan is working.

Before the end credits, there is a dedication from Philip K. Dick's novel, in which he explicitly describes drugs as an "enemy" to be fought, as well as the naming of 15 of his friends (with reference to many more) who, due to Died from drug use or, like Dick himself, suffered serious and extremely serious health problems.

background

Charlie Kaufman wrote a script for the adaptation of the book, which was not taken into account after the people responsible for the film project had changed. Terry Gilliam was already working in 1991 after working on The King of the Fishermen on a film adaptation of the book The Dark Screen , which is based on the drug experiences of the author Philip K. Dick. However, the project failed due to the lack of consent from the film studios. Richard Linklater originally planned to film the novel Ubik by Philip K. Dick, but decided to adapt the novel The Dark Screen on the basis of a suggestion from Wiley Wiggins , who played the lead role in his film Waking Life , which was also released in comic style .

The film was shot in Austin and Elgin , Texas, and Irvine , California . Shooting began on May 17, 2004 and ended on June 9, 2004. The images were then digitized using the Rotoshop program developed by Bob Sabiston , which uses the classic rotoscopy procedure . Then, similar to tracing, was drawn over each image. The decision was made against a pixel-based and a vector-based method. Each animator was assigned to a team of up to ten people, each of whom was exclusively responsible for portraying a specific actor. In this way, it was possible to guarantee a consistent presentation over the entire duration of the film.

According to Richard Linklater, the shooting was completed within 23 days. The post-production , which was dominated by animation, took 18 months, although originally half the duration of only nine months was planned. After finishing work on the novel, Philip K. Dick's daughters gave director Richard Linklater the personal first edition of their father's dark screen .

It premiered at the 59th Cannes International Film Festival on May 25, 2006. In the US, A Scanner Darkly was released on July 7, 2006, but was initially only shown in selected cinemas until it was widely available on July 28, 2006 Theatrical release in the USA.

The premiere in Germany took place on July 15, 2006 at the Munich Film Festival . The film was shown at several other festivals, including on July 29, 2006 at the Fantasy Film Festival in Nuremberg , but was only part of the nationwide film tour "about tomorrow" by Aktion Mensch , Chaos Computer Club and the working group on data storage as well as in various non-commercial ones See cinemas. On October 19, 2006, the film premiered in Austria at the Viennale . Warner released the film on DVD in Germany on May 11, 2007 . The cinema release in Austria took place on August 15, 2007. In Germany, the film was shown for the first time on free TV on RTL II on December 26, 2009 .

The budget of the film was 8.5 million US dollars estimated. In the US, the film grossed over 5.5 million US dollars, including a good 391,000 US dollars on the opening weekend. Over $ 7.6 million in revenue worldwide.

Trivia

“For now we see through a glass darkly; but then, face to face: now I know in part; but then I shall know even as I am known. "

Now we look in a mirror and see only puzzling outlines, but then we look face to face. Now I know imperfectly, but then I will know through and through, just as I was also through and through. "

  • During the scene in which Robert Arctor waits for the start of his speech on the stage of the Brown Bear Lodge, his "Jedermann-Suit" shows the face of the author Philip K. Dick - a reference to the novel in which it says After several million permutations, suit also shows the image of its creator.
  • As a tribute to the band Uranium Savages , who popularized the number 709 as a "secret" number, the director assigned this number as the house number of Robert Arctor's apartment.
  • In Robert Arctor's kitchen, a picture can be seen which, in addition to a portrait, contains the words “Time to thaw Walt out!” (Eng. “It's time to thaw Walt out!”). This is an allusion to the modern legend , according to which the animator Walt Disney had himself frozen using cryonics .
  • When Freck bought a bottle of wine, the label “St. Ubik ”, an allusion to the novel Ubik by Philip K. Dick.
  • Another homage to the author is the writing "Phil D.", which can be read on the headphone of the woman in the monitoring room, as well as the brand name "Philip" of the armband computer that Barris wears.
  • For the scene in which Freck makes an unsuccessful suicide attempt, it was planned to use a passage from his book read in 1976 by Philip K. Dick for the Californian radio station KPFK-FM. However, as the sound material was in too bad a condition for use in the film, the text was recorded again by Leif Anders .
  • The scene in which Barris tries unsuccessfully to build a silencer for his revolver was taken up in the film adaptation of Sherlock Holmes , in which Robert Downey Jr. in the title role undertakes the same endeavor again.
  • In the scene in which Robert Arctor is subjected to a medical test for the second time, a device similar to a laptop can be seen with the inscription "VK mk1". The abbreviation “VK” stands for “Voight Kampff”, a test based on the novel “ Do androids dream of electric sheep? “Is taken from Philip K. Dick.
  • Robert Downey Jr. wrote down most of his dialogues on sticky notes that he placed on the film set so that they could be read during filming. In post-production , these notes were digitally removed, except in the notebook he presented to the police as evidence in the film.
  • The conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is a cameo seen as a street preacher.
  • The film crew sighted 60 houses before choosing the Robert Arctor house featured in the film.
  • Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder played lovers in Bram Stoker's Dracula back in 1992 .
  • The book is based on Philip K. Dick's personal experience with drugs.
  • The red pills, which are known as substance T and which change the perception of reality, are a reference to the red pills that Douglas Quaid gets in the film Total Recall , which the protagonist allegedly takes from the perception caused by the recall memory implant should pull. The red pill is a recurring theme in science fiction , it also frees Neo from the virtual reality of the matrix .

criticism

The lexicon of international films states: "A science fiction adaptation that is successful thanks to technology and cast, which creates the vision of a dark utopia and, precisely because of its disturbing character, offers convincing genre entertainment."

Duane Byrge criticized the Hollywood Reporter for containing too much dialogue.

Michael Wilmington wrote about the "dark" worlds of Philip K. Dick's novels in the Chicago Tribune . Stylistically, he called the film "fascinating" and praised the performances, especially those by Robert Downey Jr. and Woody Harrelson.

Nominations and Awards

In 2007, the film won the Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Animation and director Richard Linklater won the Austin Film Award . In the same year it was nominated at the Saturn Awards for Best Animated Film , at the Hugo Awards in the category Best Dramatic Presentation - Long Form and at the Prism Awards in the category Feature Film - Limited Release . Richard Linklater was also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the Chlotrudis Awards , while Robert Downey Jr. was nominated for Best Supporting Actor.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. In the English original, both in the book and in the film, “Substance D” is equated with “Death” in only a few places.

    "D" is dumbness, and despair, desertion-desertion of you from your friends, your friends from you, everyone from everyone. Isolation and loneliness ... and hating and suspecting each other, "D" is finally death.

    “Substance T”, “T”, “T” stand for folly and desolation and separation, the distance between your friends and you, between you and your friends, between all people, for isolation and loneliness and hatred and distrust of one another. "T" is ultimately death, the creeping death from the head down. "

    Otherwise only “Substance D” is used.

  2. a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Background information according to the Internet Movie Database
  3. Locations according to the Internet Movie Database
  4. a b c d budget and box office results according to the Internet Movie Database
  5. a b c d e f g Start dates according to the Internet Movie Database
  6. 1 Cor 13.12  EU
  7. A Scanner Darkly - The dark screen. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  8. ^ Duane Byrge : Film Review. (No longer available online.) In: www.hollywoodreporter.com. Hollywood Reporter , May 26, 2006, formerly original ; Retrieved July 6, 2013 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.hollywoodreporter.com
  9. Michael Wilmington: Movie review: 'A Scanner Darkly'. Tribune movie critic. In: metromix.chicagotribune.com. Chicago Tribune , archived from the original on June 30, 2007 ; accessed on July 6, 2013 .
  10. a b c Nominations and awards according to the Internet Movie Database