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Documentary films are about documenting real life and not creating life like the purpose of animation, ‘Waltz with Bashir’ (by Ari Folman), maintained simple story to get the message across, the filmmaker as the main character take us through the film and build up the story from not knowing what they are talking about to connect all the interviews to help us understand what actually happened. What make this film stand out other than the other documentaries, is when the interviewees tell the story the film will actually show us what’s happening, and this helps to get to the film and to fully understand what happened and what they been through in that war.
The film successfully captures the brutal and intense feeling of being in a war, by showing the audience the journey Folman had to go through to regain his memory, and what he has done during that time in full details. Folman was the eye of the audience through his journey, all the interviews engage the viewer through empathy and identification with unfolding narratives. As an example, when Ronny Dayag tells his sorry crossing the border inside a tank made him feel safe and nothing would happen until the commander got a shot and stopped responding then the explosion happens, later everyone dies except him and he swam to get to the other side of the sea. This example shows us the power of using animation, and make us understand what happened and feel what the character actually went through, seeing him swimming and being abandoned by his force gave us a perspective. Using animation helped Folman go beyond the limitation of the traditional live-action documentary.
The first interview scene when Folman visits Ori Sivan and talks about how memory works using the boy at a carnival as an example, was one of the best examples of how animation films can address some narratives other films can’t. ‘Waltz with Bashir’ was able to go beyond the boundaries of representation, what is done with the carnival make the scene stand more than the rest. Folman put the carnival scene behind himself in the window, as the carnival is part of the scene or the real world. Animation movies tend to be unreal and not sharing actual events, on the other hand, documentaries cover history or actual events. In ‘Waltz with Bashir’, the purpose is to live the experience to make feel like a narrative film.
Throughout ‘Waltz with Bashir’, Folman talks to friends and professionals about memory and experiences of trauma. One of the interviews Folman talks with post-trauma expert Prof. Zahava Solomon about memory and experiences of trauma, Prof. Zahava explains how one photographer viewed everything about war as imaginary camera. Until his camera broke, he stopped seeing the situation as fantastic as he thought. The photographer used the camera to view the world differently but once he saw everything in his own eyes, this broke his heart. The scene of dead horses wouldn’t be the same without animation, and that what made ‘Waltz with Bashir’ more powerful and made us attached to the situation and feel more empathy to the photographer.
The photography scene is a significance metaphor as providing a filter between reality and representation. Using animation helped to convey the experiences of trauma and memory in film form. As an example, the recurring nightmare from the war, a single vision appears from the mires of Folman’s mind. He and two other recruits rise naked from a black sea, clutching machine guns, walking toward Beirut’s Corniche illuminated by flares in the night sky, this scene is very affective to see and understand what Folman was going through and what he was seeing in his dreams. The unusual use of animation makes us aware of the form, and how we experience representations of war, violence, and suffering.
One of the best examples of using animation is, Folman had a flashback inside a taxi on the way to the airport to go to Amsterdam. This triggered his memories of the Lebanon War, this experience was not filmed, just as his experience in the tank on the first day of the war was not filmed. However, by reconstructing this scene in animation, Folman helps viewers to simulate his experiences, especially the experience of war.
The interviews in ‘Waltz with Bashir’ takes a different style than other documentaries, it gives more perspective and have a close relationship with the audience, the interviews continue in different styles with the subjects talk to Folman. As an example, when Folman visit Carmi Can’an, Carmi asked him: “Why you are here?’, and talked about how the soldier lost his memory. Another example the interview with Shmuel Frenkel. Frenkel asked Erez to give him the MAG, these examples give us a point of view or show perspective and this way allow the characters talk more intimately with the audience, this way show the audience the difference between a man composing interviews about the war and presenting himself as the person in the war.
Bill Nichols classifies ‘Waltz with Bashir’ as a documentary film that falls within the performative mode of documentary of representation. One of the examples is, the scene when Folman meets his friend at the bar and can’t remember anything about what happened. The performative mode underscores the complexity of our knowledge of world by emphasizing subjective and affective dimensions. In addition, the performative mode addresses the audience emotionally and expressively. The performative mode addresses subjective experience and emotional response to the world. ‘Waltz with Bashir’ highlights the subjective aspect of Folman’s own involvement in the war and his own journey looking for answers to regain his memory and heighten the audience’s responsiveness to the brutal feeling of being part of a war and to this experience. The documentary features a personal story from different perspectives the veterans, also the Folman himself has made this documentary in order to recollect memories if when he was there himself. The film is portraying through Folman’s eyes. The performative mode is not only about factual information and objective representation of the world. In performative documentaries, the filmmaker and his/hers subjective understanding of the problem at hand takes center stage. All the scene like his nightmare with the flares in the night sky, the last scene before the film turns into real footage, in the taxi on the way to Amsterdam and at the bar with his friend talking about his memory, are his own personal experience, sharing with the audience about what happened, and sharing his own perspective about the war experience.
One of the examples of performative mode in ‘Waltz with Bashir’ is the opening scene where Folman meets Boaz Rein Buskila at the bar, Buskila talks about having a nightmare for 20 years about dogs, and then share about his mission where he had to kill 26 dogs from there. In this example, this scene gives added emphasis to subjective qualities of experience and memory that apart from factual recounting.
‘Waltz with Bashir’ built of empathy and identifications this allowed audience both receive information’s and feel for the characters, this is what made different scenes especially the final part of the film so powerful because the divide that normally developed in a documentary film has been bridged.
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