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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Code46 (possible spoliers, I guess)

trouble at bill

17:20 / 11.08.06

I’m finding it slightly incredible that the ‘Lith hasn’t already had a thread on the film Code46, the sites of which are here and also (offering more detail) here. However, the Search function, rightly or wrongly, is not bringing anything up, so I’m throwing this out. (Mods – obviously do delete this thread if I am blundering about like an idiot creating a duplicate thread.)

Just in case this does get deleted, I’ll keep it brief. I saw the film on UK tv the other night by accident and I was blown away by it in a way that I have not been by a film for some years. It’s obviously not without its flaws but the comparisons which keep coming up are the books Brave New World and 1984 and the film Bladerunner, and such comparions are not totally far fetched IMHO. But its fans talk about it being an all-or-nothing, or acquired taste, or cult following sort of affair. And its detractors often round on the characterisation (or lack of) and some of the acting. So, what do the citizens of Barbelith make of Code46? Am I alone in feeling politically and aesthetically haunted by this film?

Mysterious Transfer Student

11:08 / 12.08.06

I like this film a lot, but I haven't seen since it opened in the UK two years ago, so my memories of it may be hazier than is useful for this thread. Some of my impressions:

> The sci-fi conceit of a "brain virus" that allows one to read minds (by which the film seems to mean, radically increasing one's intuitive capability rather than imparting "telepathy") was exciting and seemed like a much more credible future technology than those normally seen in superficially comparable movies like... ehh... Strange Days. It would make perfect sense to have an investigative bureau made up of cookie-cutter Derren Browns.

> Shanghai was such a perfect choice of location, as its air of dizzying futurism built over a surviving third-world nation allowed the film-makers to evoke that "future present" mise-en-scene they seemed to be aiming for, which if filmed in a Western city, would have ended in endless shots of 1960s tower blocks and skyscrapers. The world of Code 46 felt much more lived in, even in sterile locations like the ID-processing works.

> Michael Winterbottom (one of my favourite directors for his evident workaholism and versatility) seems to enjoy putting actors in incongruous settings - I liked his use of British sitcom-acting mainstays such as Nina Wadia, Benedict Wong and Nina Sosanya as bureaucratic/medical functionaries. (Benedict Wong's choice to give his nominally Chinese character a Winston Churchill accent was especially enjoyable for its randomness.)

> Tim Robbins' and Samantha Morton's sex scene in the final act was surprisingly explicit and didn't really seem to fit the rest of the movie. In fact the uncomfortable bondage element (and I freely admit it may just be my own personal comfort levels and not anyone else's that are bothered here) reminded me mostly of Cat People, a movie I've never been able to enjoy for its misogynistic tone.

> Mick Jones was in it!

Henningjohnathan

21:38 / 22.08.06

This movie really exempflifies my favorite kind of guerilla science fiction filmmaking. Very inexpensive and much more fascinating and enjoyable than similar types in the genre (like PRIMER, THE HANDMAID'S TALE or GATTACA). I am saddened that it didn't get more acclaim since I feel it really is the best sort of speculative fiction.

04:08 / 23.08.06

I thought Code64 did a pretty good job of following in the footsteps of Bladerunner and Gibson's Sprawl Trilogy in terms of tone and theme. The power difference between the two characters made me pretty uncomfortable, which I suppose was the point, especially at the end...

SPOILER...

ALMOST THERE...

KEEP GOING....

...where Robbins' character faces no sanction while Morton's was cast out from society, especially in the light that Robbins' character was the prime instigator, and had all the information. I took the victimization of Morton's character to be a statement on the status of women in general. Perhaps I'm reading too much into it.

END SPOILER

So, yeah, I enjoyed it on a really superficial level. I guess that the fact that Tim Robbins was in it should have clued me into the fact that it would have a deeper message.

The Natural Way

09:07 / 23.08.06

Much as I enjoyed Code 46, the end really fucks with my memory of the film. Yeah, I hate Coldplay/Travis/etc, but, regardless, the reliance on nasty, nasty sentimental music to make a point, which should have been obvious anyway, left me scratching my head.

I can't remember; did she whisper the words 'I miss you' in time with the lyric. I think she did, didn't she. Awful. Wrong, wrong, wrong, Mr Winterbottom.