The Congress (2013)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2013
	Director: Ari Folman (Waltz with Bashir)
	Actors: Robin Wright (Forrest Gump), Harvey Keitel (Reservoir Dogs, From Dusk till Dawn), Jon Hamm
	Country: F, IL, L, B, PL, D
	Genre: Animation, SF, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 27.08.2013, CINEMA theater, MFFF2013
Synopsis: The cinema career of Robin Wright (herself) is on the decline and she wants to spend time with her children. She is offered the last role of her life.
Review: Before watching it, I thought that the opening movie of the Munich Fantasy Filmfest 2013 was a reflexion about the becoming of actors in a CGI world. The story made me think of how the image of Arnold Schwarzenegger (sampled from The Terminator, extrapolated and enhanced with computer graphics) was used in Terminator Salvation without him even knowing about it. But this is only the beginning of the story. The rest is more about a dream world in which people live, hidden behind the image they show of themselves (story influenced by The Matrix?). It seems to me an extension in the future of the current social networks. I love the first half hour shot with live characters. The role of Robin Wright as herself, inspired by her real life, is an excellent idea. Harvey Keitel is also fantastic as her agent. And at some point the movie becomes animated, a bit like when Detective Vaillant enters Toonville in Who framed Roger Rabbit? The imaginary world in which the main character evolves becomes then a bit confused and the story is hard to follow. There are some unexplained gaps and transitions, difficult references and not-so-funny jokes attempts. This might be due to the fact that the animation was done by eight different teams in the eight countries that co-produced the movie, and it took Ari Folman three years to make everythng consistent. So in spite of a great idea, concept and beginning, I got lost in the middle of the movie.
Rating: 5 /10