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CLOUD ATLAS: Lana Wachowsky & Tom Tykwer & Andy Wachowsky: OCT 26

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Aloysius J. Gleek:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2012/10/27/cloud_atlas_meaning_what_does_the_wachowskis_movie_say_about_reincarnation.html


  The World According to
Cloud Atlas
By Forrest Wickman
Posted Saturday, Oct. 27, 2012, at 10:53 AM ET



Top row: Tom Hanks in three different roles in Cloud Atlas.
Bottom row: Halle Berry in three different roles in Cloud Atlas.



The first question you’re likely to have after walking out of Cloud Atlas  is: What was up with that leprechaun ? But you’ll probably have some more substantive questions nagging you as well. Like: What did it all mean? What are the Wachowski Siblings and co-director Tom Tykwer trying to say about reincarnation, revolution, and the fate of mankind? And how do the movie’s six narrative strands fit together? Herewith, is our best effort at sorting it all out:


Reincarnation

The film casts a number of actors in multiple roles across time to underline the themes of reverberating actions and eternal recurrence in David Mitchell’s novel. But the movie seems to believe in a more direct process of reincarnation than the book, which merely suggests reincarnation as a possibility.

The Wachowskis have suggested that each actor in the movie plays a soul that evolves across time. As they told The New Yorker,  “Tom Hanks starts off as a bad person … but evolves over centuries into a good person.” The soul depicted by Hanks goes from being a murderous quack (Dr. Henry Goose) to a physicist (Isaac Sachs) to a cockney gangster (Dermot Hoggins) and finally to a troubled tribesman of the post-apocalypse (the Valleysman Zachry); the soul played by Halle Berry goes from being a young Polynesian native to a Jewish composer’s wife (Jocasta Ayrs) to an investigative reporter (Luisa Rey), and so on.

But is it that simple? If Hanks always plays the same soul, then what happened between 1970 and 2012 to turn him from a whistle-blowing scientist into a murderous memoirist? Hanks’ progress, if indeed it’s from a “bad person” to a “good person,” hardly seems to follow a linear path. Also: the filmmakers decision to use nearly all of their actors in multiple roles is arguably as confusing as it is clarifying. Are all the characters played by Hugo Weaving the same soul? Perhaps—they’re  certainly all evil. But what about Halle Berry? In 1973, when she’s a muckraking journalist, and in “106 years after the Fall” (well into the future), she’s heroic. But in the 1930s she’s the mostly silent and occasionally adulterous wife of an egotistical composer.


Birthmarks

Which brings us to the comet-shaped birthmarks, which one character in almost every plot possesses. In Mitchell’s novel, the birthmark is thought to suggest that everyone who has one is actually a different incarnation of the same person. But in the movie, different actors, including Ben Whishaw (when he’s portraying Robert Frobisher) and Halle Berry (when she’s playing Luisa Rey) are seen with the birthmark. So which is it: Are all the characters played by Tom Hanks the same soul? Or is each character with the birthmark the same soul?


Good vs. Evil

There may be a way to resolve this question. Perhaps only some actors play the same soul across time—including Tom Hanks and possibly Hugo Weaving—while other actors play different incarnations of the same soul (i.e., the soul with the birthmark). This interpretation might also help explain how the filmmakers see the six storylines connecting. There are essentially three main characters in each story. One, who the Wachowskis have said embodies “the Everyman,” is played by Tom Hanks. The second is a force of conservatism, evil, and oppression, who is represented (because it’s a Wachowskis film) by Hugo Weaving. The third is a force of good who can see beyond superficial differences of race, sexual orientation, and genetic engineering, and who is represented by various actors, all of whom own the birthmark: budding abolitionist Adam Ewing, the composer Frobisher, journalist Louisa Rey, fabricant Sonmi, and hero of the future Meronym. (Note: These characters have the birthmark in the book, and some certainly have it in the movie. Do they all? We can’t quite remember. If you do, let us know in the comments.)


Interconnectedness

However they work, exactly, the device of actors playing multiple characters across time and the device of repeating the birthmark across time both convey one of the film’s major themes: The interconnectedness of all human life. This theme is also underlined by events in each narrative. One individual’s actions—Sonmi’s standing up against an oppressive corporatocracy, or Robert Frobisher’s completion of his haunting sextet (itself about eternal recurrence)—are shown to have effects reaching far into the future. Frobisher’s sextet is heard again and again across the film, and Sonmi’s rebellious speech seems to eventually become scripture to the people of the future. And it’s not just their words and speeches that resonate down the ages, but also their stories: Just as in Mitchell’s novel, each character tells his or her own story, and each of these stories is shown being read (or in some cases, watched) by the people of the future. Our actions, the movie seems to be saying, don’t just affect our present: They’re shaped by mankind’s past and will in turn shape mankind’s future.


Prejudice and Oppression

Often in the film’s stories, the evil force that the hero is fighting against is a form of imprisonment rooted in some kind of prejudice. In the earliest tale, Adam Ewing fights against the American institution of slavery. In the 1930s, Frobisher is threatened with imprisonment on account of his homosexuality. In the Neo Seoul plot, Hae-Joo Chang and Sonmi 451 fight against a totalitarian government that treats clones like cattle. Each of these systems insists on the fundamental difference between the dominant group and the dominated one, thus violating the fundamental principle of interconnectedness.


Revolution and Change

So how do you go about effecting change in the world of Cloud Atlas ? How do the forces of good wage their eternal battle with the forces of evil? It’s worth noting that each story plays out in remarkably similar ways. What allows each hero to prevail over his oppressor is, in nearly every case, a recognition of himself in another.

Take, for instance, the story set in 1849. The hero is Adam Ewing (Jim Sturgess), who recognizes himself in the slave Autua (David Gyasi) as he’s being whipped. As a result of this moment of recognition, Ewing decides to help Autua escape from bondage and Autua in turn saves Ewing’s life. Later, Ewing rises up against his slavery-supporting father-in-law (played, of course, by Hugo Weaving) and becomes an abolitionist. In the story set in 22nd-century Neo Seoul, Hae-Joo Chang (Jim Sturgess) recognizes his other in the genetically engineered fabricant Sonmi-451, and together they lead an uprising against an oppressive regime (their rebellion will fail in their own time, but echo meaningfully into the future). After the apocalypse, Zachry (Hanks) and Meronym (Berry) are able to look past the differences of language, culture, and skin color to unite and start a new civilization on a distant planet.

Aloysius J. Gleek:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2012/10/25/the_cloud_atlas_phrasebook_your_guide_to_yibberin_the_true_true_language.html

 
The Cloud Atlas  Phrasebook:
Your Guide to Yibberin’ the True True
By Forrest Wickman
Posted Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012, at 5:08 PM ET



Zachry (Tom Hanks) and the demon Old Georgie (Hugo Weaving) in Cloud Atlas.



Of all the intermingling plotlines in Cloud Atlas,  perhaps the most daunting is the sixth and final one, which concerns a future tribe of Hawaii-dwellers called the Valleysmen, one of whom is played by Tom Hanks. What makes it daunting, even frustrating, is the Valleysmen way of speaking. The English of the future has become a post-apocalyptic pidgin, which is frequently difficult to understand.

But you don’t have to sail into that future land unprepared. The best way to pick up a little Valleysmen would be of course to read the book, but in case you won’t have time to do so before you see the movie, we’ve cobbled together a guide. You’ll want to know that to judas,  for example, means to betray, and that the Valleysmen of the Big I  have a diresome tendency to add the suffix –some  willy-nilly to all their adjectives. We focused on those parts of the lexicon that feature in the movie, but of course this glossary could be helpful to Old Un  readers of the book as well.

Anyway, that’s enough of my yibberin’.  But if you want to cogg  what’s going on in the film, mem’ry  a few of these phrases. Yay,  that’s the true true.



babbit – n. baby. I got the tenderlies like she was my own babbit slumbrin’ by me.

Big I – n. the Big Island of Hawaii, home of the Valleysmen and the Kona. Savages on Big I norm’ly had more gods’n you could wave a spiker at.

cogg – v. to know or recognize. I cogged for the first time there’n’then. I knowed why I shudn’t kill this Kona.

curio – n. curiosity. But her answers didn’t quench my curio none, nay, not a flea.

The Fall - n. the apocalypse, 106 winters before the time of the Valleysmen, described as a period of flashbangin’.   Back when the Fall was fallin’, humans f’got the makin’ o’ fire.

far-far ­– adj. very far. I cogged she was far-far from her own fam’ly’n’kin.

howzit  - interj. Valleysmen greeting similar to “How are you?” or “How’s it going?” Past Cluny’s Dwellin’ a bro o’ mine, Gubboh Hogboy shouted, “Howzit.”

judas – v. to betray, sell out. Whatever Meronym’s cause for scalin’ this cussed mountain, I din’t b’lief she’d ever judas no Valleysmen.

Kona – n. a violent tribe of cannibals, enemy to the Valleysmen, and its tribesmen. If I’d been rebirthed a Kona in this life, he could be me an’ I’d be killin’ myself.

mem’ry – v. to remember. You’ll mem’ry I, Zachry, was curled in my hideynick in the Icon’ry.

minder – v. to mind or care for. I’d the goats to minder.

nay – adv. and n. no. Used also for emphasis, like the Biblical nay. I won’t answer nothin’, nay, so don’t ask no more.

Old Georgie – n.  A devil in the belief system of the Valleysmen, resembling a leprechaun in appearance. An’ ev’ryun knowed how he’d done a deal with Old Georgie.

Old Uns – n. The old ones; the people of Earth who lived before The Fall. Old Uns s’vived the Fall b’yonder the oceans, jus’ like you, Zachry.

Prescient – n. The survivors of the Fall, usually darker-skinned, who still wield pre-Fall technology. The Prescient’d got her spesh gearbag with her an’ I thanked Sonmi for that.

presh – adj. precious. The whole true is presher’n’rarer’n diamonds.

scav – v. to scavenge or steal. She’s scavvin’n’sivvyin Big Isle Smart what truesome b’longs to Valleys-men!

–some – suffix, similar to English –ful. Used in adjectives like diresome, scarysome, wondersome, politesome, lustsome.

sivvy – v. to search. Why don’t you sivvy thru my gear again an’ thief my spesh Prescient Smart yourself?

Smart – n., also adj. The futuristic technology held by the Prescients. It din’t need wind nor currents neither, ‘cos it was driven by the Smart o’ Old Uns.

Sonmi – n. The One Goddess of the Valleysmen. Used in phrases like by Sonmi, meaning by God, and thank Sonmi, meaning thank God. Valleysmen only had one god an’ her name it was Sonmi.

spesh – adj. special. Makin’ ‘cusations against a spesh guest, it jus’ ain’t politesome, Zachry.

spiker – n. A sharp weapon, such as a knife. Also v. to stab (esp. with a spiker). What he said next was a spiker thru my guts.

true true – n. the truth, esp. in contrast with conventional wisdom. Then the true true is diff’rent to the seemin’ true?  See also: the hole true.

Valleysmen - n. the more civilized, Sonmi-fearing tribe of post-Fall Hawaii. Meronym knows a lot ‘bout Smart an’ life but Valleysmen know more ‘bout death.

yibber – v. to talk, jabber, or gossip. Also n. a rumor. Shut up your yibberin’ an’ sleep now.

yarn – v. to tell a story. Most yarnin’s got a bit o’ true, some yarnin’s got some true, an’ a few yarnin’s got a lot o’ true.

yay – adv. and n. Yes. Used also for emphasis, like the Biblical yea.  Yay, but fleas ain’t easy to rid.

Aloysius J. Gleek:




[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o75FEJUXVtA&feature=related[/youtube]
Published on Oct 13, 2012 by Snouty Pig



This is an extensive inside look of Cloud Atlas  featuring interviews with Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, and a round-table discussion with the Directors and some behind the scenes footage. Cloud Atlas  arrives October 26, 2012.

Cloud Atlas  is a six stories in one film with actors playing themselves across different centuries sometimes male, sometimes female sometimes alternating between good and bad. The three directors previously stated of the film that it is "massive in scope" but "relative to normal life, to human beings" while being "political" with "lots of action" where characters represent the core concept of "an idea of connectedness and karma".

https://www.facebook.com/cloudatlas

http://cloudatlas.warnerbros.com/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1371111/

Some of the songs from the trailer/inside look:

"Sonera" by Thomas J. Bergersen


"Outro" by M83.
=1m38s

Visit http://www.snoutypig.com for movie news, articles, and more.

southendmd:
So, John, have you seen it?  And what do you think? 

Aloysius J. Gleek:


--- Quote from: Bunny Darko on October 29, 2012, 05:15:22 pm ---So, John, have you seen it?  And what do you think? 
 :)
--- End quote ---


Crazy Person JG saw it at the 12:01 Midnight Showing Thursday night/Friday morning at the 42nd Street AMC. I really liked it a lot. First 30-40 minutes, and I was interested, but I bit detached, but then--boom, I was there.

There WERE problems, a couple of issues I can't reveal at the moment for their spoilerish natures, BUT. I really, really enjoyed it. Three hours--go like nothing. TOTALLY absorbed. I cried. What else can I say? I'll be seeing it AGAIN, and that soon.

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