Fig 1. Waltz with Bashir Movie Poster.
Waltz with Bashir is a graphic novel styled animated documentary where the director explores suppressed memories from his time in the army, he was part of the 1982 Lebanon war and witnessed the Sabra and Shatila massacre. In order to recover his memories, Folman seeks out others who were in Beruit, a psychologist for post traumatic stress disorder and a journalist who wrote about the massacre. The core themes of this film are war, trauma, memory and psychology, this film is challenging because it’s based on real events that Folman and one of his friends put a lot of effort into forgetting his memories as a way of coping with their trauma, it’s not until one evening when Foleman’s friend talks about a dream he has had over and over that they make the connection that it has something to do with the war which neither of them can remember well.
This film is a search for the director’s (Ari Folman) memories from when he was nineteen years old. After the war the director went on to the entertainment industry 1991 onwards where he wrote for several documentaries and tv series and won awards. Israel doesn’t have much of an entertainment industry, Waltz with Bashir had only six animators doing everything, this film is Israel’s second animation.
Fig 2. Art direction supports aligns with film's themes.
Waltz with Bashir took four years to make, six animators making 2300 illustrations in Adobe Animate (formerly known as Adobe Flash) but this software has its limitations which meant some of it had to be hand drawn and put together - some parts of the film used little 3D elements. Before production came the 90 page script first followed by live action footage based on this script and from that footage storyboards were made then the animation. Graphic novels serve as the art direction for this documentary, this works well with the software as they both serve to be 2D. The style supports the theme of war, the thick black lines and harsh shadows suggest something shady and sinister, also graphic novels are usually fictional stories which reflects the theme of memories, a memory is never 100% accurate so at the end when the graphic novel ends and we see actual footage it represents the fact he has his memory back. Folman chose a graphic novel art direction and to make his autobiography in animation to be more visually appealing to an audience, in an interview for the press book Folman explains why he made these decisions:
“A middleaged man being interviewed against a black background, telling stories that happened 25 years ago, without any archival footage to support them. That would have been SO BORING! Then I figured out it could be done only in animation with fantastic drawings. War is so surreal, and memory is so tricky that I thought I’d better go all along the memory journey with the help of very fine illustrators.” (Foleman, 2008).
He also explains the repeated scene of soldiers emerging from the water was a vision - a day dream it didn’t really happen, fig 2 is a still from this vision and it is visible how the art direction aligns with and supports the themes.
Waltz with Bashir was made by Bridgit Folman Film Gang which is a small studio because Israel doesn’t have much of an animation industry, the budget for this movie was $1.7 million USD in contrast to America’s Pixar and Dreamworks which has $150 million budget. The documentary is banned in Lebanon, but was received well by the rest of the world and praised for its original and vital history lesson, it appeared as one of the top 10 films of 2008 for many film critics. It was nominated for an oscar, won 44 awards and was nominated for 58 awards including Best animated feature film and Best foreign language film.
Bibliography:
Strike, J. (2008). 'Waltz with Bashir': Animation and Memory. [online] Animation World Network. Available at: https://www.awn.com/animationworld/waltz-bashir-animation-and-memory [Accessed 3 Feb. 2018].
The-match-factory.com. (2008). Waltz with Bashir Press Book. [online] Available at: http://www.the-match-factory.com/films/items/waltz-with-bashir.html?file=assets/downloads-public/films/w/waltz-with-bashir/waltz-with-bashir-pressbook.pdf [Accessed 3 Feb. 2018].
Illustration List:
Figure 1. Waltz and Bashir. (2008). [Poster] At: https://www.kinopoisk.ru/picture/854116/
Figure 2. Art direction supports aligns with film's themes. (2008) At: https://www.awn.com/blog/art-documentary-animation-book-review
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