Reality and Hyperreality in Cinema

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Reality and Hyperreality in Cinema

• A Case Study of Matrix

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Table of Contents

• 1) The Matrix as an Allegory
• 2) Simulation and Simulacra
• 3) Visual Images as Simulacra

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The Matrix as an Allegory

• The Matrix (1999)
• Written and Directed by Andy and Larry Wachowski

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The Matrix as an Allegory

• A short synopsis
• Computer hacker Thomas Anderson has lived a
  relatively ordinary life until he is contacted by
  the enigmatic person called Morpheus who leads
  him into the REAL world.

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The Matrix as an Allegory

• Morpheus makes Anderson
• realise that the world around
• him is a computer simulation,
• a false version of twentieth-
• century life (exactly speaking
• 1999) named the Matrix
• and the REAL world (of 2199)
• has been laid waste and taken
• over by advanced artificial
• intelligence machines.

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The Matrix as an Allegory

• The computers have
• created the Matrix to
• keep the human slaves
• satisfied, while the AI
• machines draw power
• from the humans.

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The Matrix as an Allegory

• Morpheus and other
• rebel warriors are
• constantly pursued by
• the police or "Agents"
• (computers who take on
• human form and
• infiltrate the Matrix),
• while struggling to
• overthrow the Matrix.

8
The Matrix as an Allegory

• The Truman Show (1998) written by Andrew Niccol
  and directed by Peter Weir
• The heros home town and the surrounding area is
  the worlds largest soundstage (television stage).

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The Matrix as Allegory

• Dark City (1998) written and directed by Alex
  Proyas
• The decrepit urban labyrinth is eventually
  revealed to have been built by aliens for
  observing human behaviour.

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The Matrix as an Allegory

• The Thirteenth Floor (1999) written and directed
  by Josef Rusnak
• One of the scientists perfecting a sim-city
  realizes slowly that he himself, and everything
  he knows exists merely as part of another sim.

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The Matrix as an Allegory

• Sim City is a city building simulation game,
  first released in 1989 and designed by Will
  Wright.

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The Matrix as an Allegory

• Allegory
• The war between machine and man
• (The possibility that) Reality is a hoax and
  simulation.
• Our anxiety about what our relationship to the
  real should be, or what our relationship to the
  fake should be.

13
Simulation and Simulacra

• One of the keys to understand the allegorical
  meanings of The Matrix
• A brief shot of a book, Jean Baudrillards
  Simulacra and Simulation

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Simulation and Simulacra

• To dissimulate to feign (or pretend) not to
  have what one has.
• To simulate to feign (or pretend) to have what
  one does not have (there is nothing)
• "to simulate is not simply to feign...feigning or
  dissimulation leaves the reality intact...whereas
  simulation threatens the difference between
  'true' and 'false,' between 'real' and
  'imaginary' (Baudrillard, p. 5)

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Simulation and Simulacra

• Simulacrum what is simulated a copy of reality
  which has already lost its originality and
  meaning
• Simulacrum an empty sign which refers to only
  itself and is devoid of meaning and value
• Our reality itself is made of simulacra

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Simulation and Simulacra

• There is nothing which is not simulated in our
  reality - postmodern reality.
• Present-day simulators make the real coincide
  with their simulation models.
• Images - films, TV, photographs, computers, etc.
• Copies, replicas, models

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Simulation and Simulacra

• "Disneyland is presented as imaginary in
• order to make us believe that the rest is real,
• when in fact Los Angeles and the America
• surrounding it are no longer real, but of the
• order of the hyperreal and of simulation" (25).

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Visual Images as Simulacra

• What The Matrix shows us is the reality like ours
  which consists entirely of simulated and mediated
  people and objects - hyperreal objects.
• The Matrix present a simulated reality which is
  more real than our reality. But how

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Visual Images as Simulacra

• Digital image surroundings
• Videogames The Matrix deploys digital effects in
  a way resonant for gamers
• Whether one played on a PC or a platform like
  PlayStation or X-box, videogame images are all
  digitally coded.

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Visual Images as Simulacra

• We are surrounded by digitally created images
  video game and computer game
• Wire fighting effects
• example

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Visual Images as Simulacra

• Immersion effects (effects which make you
  completely absorbed in the film) You leave your
  reality for a moment and are absorbed in another
  reality. Made possible by digital effects
  digital effects
• Wire-fighting choreographed by legendary Hong
  Kong choreographer/director Yuen Wo Ping (Yuen
  Cheun-Yan)

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Visual Images as Simulacra

• Jackie Chen films
• The Matrix
• Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon (2000)
• Kill Bill (2003)

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25
Visual Images as Simulacra

• Bullet time a computer enhanced, extreme
  slow-motion effects
• It is thrilling, and filled with visual pleasure,
  and designed to surround ones consciousness
  utterly. Matrix, Trinity