Israel: Waltz with Bashir [film review]
Waltz with Bashir (2008) is an autobiographical film directed and written by Ari Folman, who also stars in the film. It centres around the 1982 Lebanon war, where Folman witnessed the Sabra and Shatila massacre, as a 19 year old. But he realises that he has no memory of this event. He seeks out others who were in Beirut at the time to discuss their memories of the massacre.
Folman "realised that he had never spoken about the experience before. It's not that I has total amnesia about it, he says now, but I had worked very hard to repress those memories. I had the basic storyline, but there were large holes." (Freedland, 2008).
In Israel the film is an anti-war film, but in Lebanon it is banned. "In Lebanon, 'Waltz' is banned under laws that forbid trade with Israel. But there is huge interest, said Monika Borgmann, who acquired a copy form a German distributor and organised a private screening in Beirut in January." (Nasr, 2009).
The film was made with entirely 2D animation: "Flash is a well-known tool but doesn't usually come to mind as a way to animate an entire feature film. But that's what director Ari Folman did, constrained by a tiny budget but certain that animation was the only way to tell his story." (Kaufman, 2008). Folman's studio, 'Bridget Folman Film Gang' (names after his dog), was very small consisting of only eight animators, four illustrators, one After Effects artist and one editor. This small team allowed everyone to play to their strengths and animate whole sections of the film by themselves.
In order of create the film they started by recording videos of interviews and war reenactments- "We tried to dramatize those scenes in the studio as much as we could, says Folman. We'd sit in two chairs with a plastic grill in front and pretend we were in a car." (Kaufman, 2008). From there the video recordings were turned into a storyboard and then an animatic- "we made the animatic very precise, says Folman. I want to minimize as much as possible any mistakes that could appear at the animation stage. The animatic was screened multiple, time, to see if the drama was working and to lock in the story." (Kaufman, 2008). "The next step was to draw 3,500 keyframes at crucial points in the movie; art director and illustrator David Polonsky drew 75 percent of them". (Kaufman, 2008). Autodesk Maya was only used for difficult shots, for example when "one scene goes from snow in the forest, up into the sky and then down into the boat." (Kaufman, 2008). Having the whole film made in 2D gave it a very specific style, especially with the limited colour palette that was used.
"[Folman] was obsessed that the character would really have a realistic style, he says. That meant more detailed faces with contours and wrinkles, etc, which made it more complicated to animate them. David also created the dream style, for the surreal scenes, which is not less detailed but more free in terms of proportions, color and basic design." (Kaufman, 2008). Having realistic characters meant that even though it was animated the audience still knew that these were real people and that what they were talking about actually happened.
In order to achieve realism in the background, they used photographs and then added in background detail. "To achieve realism for the faces and bodies, animators broke them into sections and sub-sections. The face was typically divided into 8 sections and each section into 15 sub sections. This didn't work well for the lower part of the body - slow movements weren't realistic. In many places, we did the lower part of the body with frame-by-frame class animation. [Folman] says." (Kaufman, 2008). Although this must have been a painstakingly long process, the animation needed to look relatively realistic so that the audience could connect and knew that is was real.
The use of animation allowed the film to explain and show difficult memories of the war without having to show graphic images the whole way through. Although the switch to video footage at the end was an important aspect of the film.
Illustration List
Figure 1. Waltz with Bashir movie poster (2008) [poster] At: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1185616/ (Accessed 31/01/19)
Figure 2. 2D animation of dogs at the beginning of the film (2008) [film still] At: http://www.lagosfilmsociety.org/2017/09/19/history-memory-and-identity-ari-folmans-waltz-with-bashir/ (Accessed 31/01/19)
Figure 3. Characters realistic faces (2008) [film still] At: https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Waltz-with-Bashir-Blu-ray/4642/ (Accessed 31/01/19)
Figure 4. Video footage ending. peacerebelgirl (2009) [youtube video] At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgmjH1XbqXM (Accessed 31/01/19)
Bibliography
Freedland, J (2008) Lest We Forget [online] At: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/oct/25/waltz-with-bashir-ari-folman (Accessed 31/01/19)
Kaufman, D (2008) How They Did It: Waltz With Bashir [online] At: http://www.studiodaily.com/2008/12/how-they-did-it-waltz-with-bashir/ (Accessed 31/01/19)
Nasr, J (2009) Waltz with Bashir draws Arabs despite ban [online] At: https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-israel-waltz/waltz-with-bashir-draws-arabs-despite-ban-idUKTRE5123XQ20090203 (Accessed 31/01/19)
Pri's The World (2009) Lebanon bans 'Waltz with Bashir' [online] At: https://www.pri.org/stories/2009-02-10/lebanon-bans-waltz-bashir (Accessed 31/01/19)
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| Figure 1: Waltz with Bashir movie poster |
Folman "realised that he had never spoken about the experience before. It's not that I has total amnesia about it, he says now, but I had worked very hard to repress those memories. I had the basic storyline, but there were large holes." (Freedland, 2008).
In Israel the film is an anti-war film, but in Lebanon it is banned. "In Lebanon, 'Waltz' is banned under laws that forbid trade with Israel. But there is huge interest, said Monika Borgmann, who acquired a copy form a German distributor and organised a private screening in Beirut in January." (Nasr, 2009).
The film was made with entirely 2D animation: "Flash is a well-known tool but doesn't usually come to mind as a way to animate an entire feature film. But that's what director Ari Folman did, constrained by a tiny budget but certain that animation was the only way to tell his story." (Kaufman, 2008). Folman's studio, 'Bridget Folman Film Gang' (names after his dog), was very small consisting of only eight animators, four illustrators, one After Effects artist and one editor. This small team allowed everyone to play to their strengths and animate whole sections of the film by themselves.
 |
| Figure 2: 2D animation of dogs at the beginning of the film |
In order of create the film they started by recording videos of interviews and war reenactments- "We tried to dramatize those scenes in the studio as much as we could, says Folman. We'd sit in two chairs with a plastic grill in front and pretend we were in a car." (Kaufman, 2008). From there the video recordings were turned into a storyboard and then an animatic- "we made the animatic very precise, says Folman. I want to minimize as much as possible any mistakes that could appear at the animation stage. The animatic was screened multiple, time, to see if the drama was working and to lock in the story." (Kaufman, 2008). "The next step was to draw 3,500 keyframes at crucial points in the movie; art director and illustrator David Polonsky drew 75 percent of them". (Kaufman, 2008). Autodesk Maya was only used for difficult shots, for example when "one scene goes from snow in the forest, up into the sky and then down into the boat." (Kaufman, 2008). Having the whole film made in 2D gave it a very specific style, especially with the limited colour palette that was used.
"[Folman] was obsessed that the character would really have a realistic style, he says. That meant more detailed faces with contours and wrinkles, etc, which made it more complicated to animate them. David also created the dream style, for the surreal scenes, which is not less detailed but more free in terms of proportions, color and basic design." (Kaufman, 2008). Having realistic characters meant that even though it was animated the audience still knew that these were real people and that what they were talking about actually happened.
 |
| Figure 3: Characters realistic faces |
In order to achieve realism in the background, they used photographs and then added in background detail. "To achieve realism for the faces and bodies, animators broke them into sections and sub-sections. The face was typically divided into 8 sections and each section into 15 sub sections. This didn't work well for the lower part of the body - slow movements weren't realistic. In many places, we did the lower part of the body with frame-by-frame class animation. [Folman] says." (Kaufman, 2008). Although this must have been a painstakingly long process, the animation needed to look relatively realistic so that the audience could connect and knew that is was real.
The use of animation allowed the film to explain and show difficult memories of the war without having to show graphic images the whole way through. Although the switch to video footage at the end was an important aspect of the film.
 |
| Figure 4: Video footage ending |
The way the film ends with the sudden switch to live action video footage was "always the plan [says Folman] I just wanted to prevent a situation where someone somewhere would walk out of the theater and think it was a cool anti-war movie with great drawings and music, he says. I wanted to put it very clearly that this massacre happened - more than 3,000 people were slaughtered and most of them were kids, women, old people. That video footage puts my story in place, the design and animation style in place, the story in place, and the audience in place." (Kaufman, 2008). By having the sudden change to video footage at the end of the film, with fairly graphic images of the destruction, including dead bodies, made sure that the audience weren't disconnected from the fact that everything they had seen in the film had actually happened and that thousands of people did actually die.
Illustration List
Figure 1. Waltz with Bashir movie poster (2008) [poster] At: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1185616/ (Accessed 31/01/19)
Figure 2. 2D animation of dogs at the beginning of the film (2008) [film still] At: http://www.lagosfilmsociety.org/2017/09/19/history-memory-and-identity-ari-folmans-waltz-with-bashir/ (Accessed 31/01/19)
Figure 3. Characters realistic faces (2008) [film still] At: https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Waltz-with-Bashir-Blu-ray/4642/ (Accessed 31/01/19)
Figure 4. Video footage ending. peacerebelgirl (2009) [youtube video] At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgmjH1XbqXM (Accessed 31/01/19)
Bibliography
Freedland, J (2008) Lest We Forget [online] At: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/oct/25/waltz-with-bashir-ari-folman (Accessed 31/01/19)
Kaufman, D (2008) How They Did It: Waltz With Bashir [online] At: http://www.studiodaily.com/2008/12/how-they-did-it-waltz-with-bashir/ (Accessed 31/01/19)
Nasr, J (2009) Waltz with Bashir draws Arabs despite ban [online] At: https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-israel-waltz/waltz-with-bashir-draws-arabs-despite-ban-idUKTRE5123XQ20090203 (Accessed 31/01/19)
Pri's The World (2009) Lebanon bans 'Waltz with Bashir' [online] At: https://www.pri.org/stories/2009-02-10/lebanon-bans-waltz-bashir (Accessed 31/01/19)
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