Waltz+with+Bashir+-+Group+1D

=__Waltz with Bashir.__= =__Ari Folman.__= Documentary as a genre is becoming a hybrid of forms as a result of the continuously overlapping conventions of fiction films. As we analyse the effect animation has on documentary we look at the theories outlined by Paul Ward, Paul Wells, Bill Nichols and Maureen Furniss.

__**Animated Documentary**__

Animation has distinguished itself as a useful and beneficial factor in documentaries. Dating back to as early as 1918 with the short film **‘The Sinking of the Lusitania’**, which relied solely on animation to portray facts, shows an attempt to relay information clearly to the audience as there was no archive footage of the event to use.

Normally associated with **comedy** and **cartoons**, its arrival broadened the documentary as a genre and moved away from **traditional** techniques. **Feature length** animated documentaries have only recently emerged with it still being a relatively **new genre** with a **modernistic** style.

Film reviews of Ari Folman’s use of animation in ‘Waltz with Bashir’ comment on how it **“brings an apocalyptic and surrealistic dimension to this universal and moving film”**. (B.Theate.) Ari Folman’s **avant-garde** film follows a developing journey based on the faded memories of a nineteen year old Folman witnessing the **Lebanon massacre.** As a topic, the use of animation is a daring notion as it deals with **serious historic events** and **personal feelings.** In an interview, Ari Folman puts forth the question of whether a **drawing** by a talented illustrator instead of a **pixel** **image** is more **real**. The ‘**voice**’ is still the same and it is therefore left up to the **audience** to decide. Folman’s choice of showing archive footage at the very end of the film switches not only the **presentation** but the **perspective** as the gradually fading animation reveals the **underlying truth**. This technique’s effect is powerful and emotive with the women’s cries in the street suddenly becoming shockingly ‘**real**’ to the audience heightening the reality and **dramatic tension** in the narrative. This point can be related to **Paul Ward**’s **Fantastic mode.** Paul Ward states:


 * “Animation is the perfect way to communicate that there is more to our collective experience of things than meets the eye.”** 2005:91.

__Interviewing Technique__
Ari’s **interviewing technique** relating to the animation as a whole leaves no doubt that the footage is staged but the **facts** are still in essence a form of truth. The interviews are conducted in a conversational collaborative style resulting in the audience being placed in a **subjective** **position** as a **witness** to the events. This technique involves the audience in the events in a way that only animation could create without crossing the boarder to **fiction** film features.

The production notes for one scene describes how **‘Ari interviews Carmi in the film inside a car travelling to Holland. The interview with Carmi took place as the two, Carmi and Ari, sat on two adjacent studio chairs while Carmi held a toy steering wheel in his hands. Opting for studio photography stemmed from the recognition that ultimately, the viewer’s ear cannot tolerate the noises of location documentaries in terms of animation. In every animated film the sound track is exceptionally clean.’

__Paul Ward's Imitative Mode__**

Offers an **imitation** or a **pastiche** of live action documentary tropes.

As stated by Paul Wells: **‘The closer that animated films conform to ‘naturalist’ representation and use the generic conventions of some documentary forms… the more it may be said to demonstrate documentary tendencies.’** (1997:41)

‘Waltz with Bashir’ certainly pushed the boundaries of documentary and breaks away from conformist **‘documentary tendencies**’ with its unique style of interviewing and the **artistic choice of animation**. The audience’s perspective is **subjective** and the heavy reliance on **representations** and **dramatisations** portrays how the film’s use of **imitation** is important to its **form**.

__Subjective Mode__
Subjective documentaries **‘link the creative acts of the animator with apparent access to the subjective thoughts of their main characters.’** (Ward, 2005: 86) The Subjective documentary often **‘moves beyond its basis as the expression of an individual voice and finds correspondence in viewers to the extent that it articulates social criticism.’** (1997: 43) By animating such documentaries, the documentary maker is able to ‘**draw out some of the problematic issues of a belief in an objective position from which some stories can be told’.** (2005: 86) In ‘Waltz with Bashir’ Ori Sivan (Folman’s best friend and shrink) delves into the **mental** and **psychological** aspects of Folman’s memories, offering a different **perspective**. He describes how the memory can play tricks on us, and his description of a psychological study carried out to test this theory is accompanied by appropriate animations.

__[|**http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YurHqWm6C8E**]__

__Fantastic Mode__
The Fantastic mode of documentaries **‘offers a glimpse below the surface of the everyday, and raises doubts about documentary’s ability to adequately represent the fullness of existence.’** (2005:87)

However it can tend towards the ‘**abstract and surreal**’, meaning that **‘rather than the films transmitting a self-evident ‘look’ into a specific person’s subjective view of their situation… what is achieved is often oblique, mysterious and contradictory.’** (2005: 87) Applying this to ‘Waltz with Bashir’, the opening scene of the dream of twenty seven vicious dogs running to hunt Boaz Rein Buskila, has no clear meaning until it is explained in the interview.

__Post Modern Mode__
**The Post-Modern Mode** goes one step further than the Fantastic, implying that documentary itself is a mode with no special claim to ‘**truth’** or **‘reality’,** but is rather merely **‘an image’** and not an authentic representation.’ (1997: 45) Relating to ‘Waltz with Bashir’, Post-Modern Mode is apparent with its choice of shooting in the studio, and using **representations** throughout the interviews to **support the facts**.

For example, Shmuel Frenkel’s interview is the **main climactic scene**, as the **montage** flashes from the interview room to the animation of Frenkel’s description. The conversation is imitated and the images focus on movement and Frenkel’s feet in the waltz. The waltz is referred to in the title emphasising the significance of the scene with appropriate **music** to heighten the drama. These dramatic techniques are features of non-fiction film as well as being useful ways to communicate facts for documentary.

__Maureen Furniss__
Maureen Furniss has placed moving image production on a continuum, with the opposing poles of ‘**mimesis**’ and ‘**abstract**’. Mimesis describes a **‘desire to reproduce natural reality (more like live action work)’**. (Furniss, 1998: 5-6) Meanwhile, the term ‘**abstract**’ is used to **‘describe the use of pure form (more like animation)**. (1998: 5-6)

__Bill Nichols' Interactive Mode of Documentary__
**The documentary maker interacts with the subject.** This is obvious as the film is about Ari Folman’s memories and leads the narrative as a journey. **Documentary maker is visible to audience. Intervenes, participates in the action**. Folman is the main ‘character’ in the film and his participation is key as we see the 19 year old Folman and his friends encountering various traumas. 
 * Interviews dominate, but tend to be informal**. The interviewing technique is very important to the form of the documentary with several perspectives voiced.
 * Uses archive material.** At the end of the film, the real life footage is screened as the animation fades to the raw material to produce a shock factor.
 * Synchronous sound recording.** This is used to communicate the facts with sounds such as gun shots to imitate events as closely as possible.

__Bill Nichols' Reflexive Mode of Documentary__
**The film borrows techniques from fiction films for an emotional, subjective response**. **There’s often a reliance on suggestion rather than fact.** This point is arguable as there is no basis to uphold the facts stated in the interviews. As a form of communication, this transaction of information can be critiqued as being unreliable and based on suggestion rather than raw fact.
 * The emphasises on dramatic reconstructions applies to the film as a whole.** This is the entire form of the film as the footage re-creates the events as closely as possible as described by the interviewees to remain truthful to the material.

__Comparisons.__
**Creature Comforts** has a similar interviewing technique with the subjects being transformed into characters. The conversations are controlled by the use of **appropriate questioning** but the material is evidently **raw** due to the obvious features of **spoken english** such as stuttering and pausing. Waltz with Bashir has these features as many of the interviews have been carried out formally in the studio.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZ-sBf7laMM

Bibliography

Ward, Paul. //The Margins of Reality,// Wallflower, 2005.