Anomalisa

Though giving a lively impression, the disturbingly identical marionettes, with the exception of the protagonist, enabled Kaufman to undertake his so far most thorough elaboration of his hobby in the externalisation of a person’s inner experience. This time, it is a person for whom strangers and loved ones merge into an anonymous crowd in which he has lost all interest. A telephone call with his wife and son, the latter of whom is interested only in whether his father has already bought him a gift, reveals that the indifference is mutual. However, Michael ceases to understand not only others, as he no longer even understands himself. Combined with an identity crisis, the protagonist’s existential anxiety reaches its peak when he stares blankly into the bathroom mirror, unable to control his mimic muscles. At the last moment, he is saved from losing his face by a voice from behind the door, a voice that is different from the voices of everyone else. ___ In Michael's predictable world of interchangeable people, Lisa is an anomaly, a being with her own individuality. Only she gives meaning to the phrase about the uniqueness of every person, which Michael likes to use in his lectures to help managers of major corporations increase productivity. For Kaufman, the transference of corporate strategies into interpersonal relationships is one of the symptoms of alienation in a society based on mutually beneficial transactions and the ceaseless generation of profit. People involved in the production process become mechanical marionettes with fake smiles and without their own uniqueness. However, Lisa, who is not distinguished by extraordinary beauty, intelligence or peculiar hobbies, proves that the cure for apathy is not to find someone exceptional, but is rather to appreciate that which is exceptional even in someone who is seemingly ordinary. ___ After Kaufman's previous films, which occupied the viewer with their complicated narrative structures, Anomalisa surprises with its narrative straightforwardness. At the same time, however, it is consistently disturbing due to the ambiguity of its fictional world, which is just as unstable as the protagonist’s personality. Outwardly, it works according to the same rules as we know from our own lives. In places, however, unsettling cracks appear in it. Beside the fact that everyone except Michael and Lisa look the same and speak in the same manner, at certain moments the protagonist seems to realise who he really is – a puppet. When, at the end of the film, he gazes sadly at the broken Japanese automaton that he had bought for his son in an obscure sex shop, it seems to be the only “being” that understands him at least a little in his own home. ___ The skilful oscillation between dull reality, filmed in aloof long shots with very slow camera movements, and the nightmare, which with its absurdity defies rational understanding, also passes on the existential uncertainty of the characters to the viewer, who is forced to ask the same questions as Michael. 80% (09.09.2020) (weniger) (mehr)