Dude is the creator of a computer game for a Japanese corporation a few days before the release of his new game learns that it is infected with a virus. Because of this virus, the character of the game acquires self-awareness, and this condemns him to the pain of being just a puppet in an artificial reality. The main character decides to go against the corporation and demolish the entire game before release. Probably tired of living a full and rich life in a super-tech house. Along the way, he decides to rob this corporation for some reason. And he is looking for some very stuffy, but beautiful maid who left him a few months ago, taking all his money, but he can not forget her, and so we are forced to watch the inserts, where this young lady leads some pseudo-philosophical conversations with herself.
Judging by the number of good reviews, I am one of the few who did not smoke at all. There's kind of a plot there, but it's so (addicted) crumpled and overloaded with unnecessary, meaningless details that the further it goes, the harder it is to understand why all this is happening at all. Even with a discount on the age of the film, it feels that it is not improved not only in terms of history, but also editing and sound. The atmosphere is a bit like Johnny Mnemonic, but everything is done much more sloppy. Which is sad because there was clearly potential. But the budget was not that big.
In addition, the genre is not very clear. There’s a lot of humor in this movie, in almost every scene, but it comes out suddenly, in the middle of something serious. Still periodically insert gloomy philosophical thoughts of the hero in the background, and it does not fit with children's jokes, devoid of any subtlety. The main character in general was kind of boring and sluggish, the story was brightened up only thanks to bright secondary characters.
But at least there's cyberpunk. And it's not bad, though it's shown superficially, without going deep into how the whole universe works. The most fun was the scene where one of the characters is changed eye implants. I really enjoyed watching that. It was great.
Overall, I’ve tried to think of this film as not the most interesting exhibit I need to look at to understand the big picture of cyberpunk. But I will not review and recommend this miracle.
It is very difficult to evaluate Nirvana in the epistolary genre. To be completely honest, I did not have any serious expectations. At all. Cyberpunk as a genre is very amateur. And here is not even cyberpunk, but something like Judge Dredd with Stallone, but with drama twisted into the ceiling and the almost complete absence of an action movie. Small skirmishes with a very crooked production should not be considered a militant. Rusty filters are present. The antagonist ... here it is much more complicated.
So what's in front of us? If I were to say one word, I would call it a parable. Very capacious, two-hour.
I don’t know who the genius is that welded this ball together, but here, as Maity Bush said, there is everything:
+ A suitable soundtrack, after studying which you can stumble upon good discoveries for those who are not yet familiar.
Not bad camera work, in which individual scenes look not so ridiculous.
+ Drama. It's everywhere.
+ Cultural Easter eggs. Literally full of religious references and their geometric location.
+ Satire on cultural Easter eggs. Without leaving the cash register.
Actors are often in the ridiculous state of ‘what I’m doing here’, but it’s perfectly appropriate.
+ Design. He's good. The atmosphere of futuristic decline, apathy, greed and heartlessness literally oozes from the screen.
+ Props. With its simplicity, it has everything you need and nothing superfluous.
+ Antagonist. Perhaps one of the most merciless.
+ Heroes? Forget it. There are no heroes.
In general, I could praise the organicity of the team’s work endlessly, but let’s get to the point:
The main idea is a personal injury and the pursuit of that ... in general, at this moment, a piano version of Trent Reznor's song - Something I can never have should play. The protagonist is literally desperate. But not the one that came to him. And if he is a victim, the victim is himself.
The film asks a very important question about whether we actually fall in love.
In myself. In their manias, desires and unrestrained fantasies. The human being ... is just a shell with which the brain rubs neural connections like bridges. And bridges are only a reflection of the nature of their architect.
Can a bridge change what's on the other side? Yeah.
But will the bridge ever be able to be that shore?
It's funny how a person who breaks out of the system is quickly branded a "parasite," becomes a stranger. Perhaps it is in the emptiness of loneliness that reason is born?
Is it the fear of loneliness, which is worse than the deadly cold, that leads to the abyss of blessed ignorance?
The world on display is not blind. He knows what he is drowning in. He is well aware of this.
I'll go further: even us. You and me. Our knowledge of the banal things we consume every day is superficial. About their properties and essence, we often just guess, and many do not even try to understand and understand.
Voluntarily shutting your ears and closing your eyes.
The moment we open them and let the heart kick in. Real, not forced, like the notorious piston. At this point, the game will end for many.
For some, it's just beginning.
Or maybe it never ended at all?
For the characters, the facet of reality has long been erased. But that's not the problem.
Like us, each in his own way denies responsibility for his life. The consciousness of what is happening is hammered far into the cramped and darkest corner so stubbornly that literally physics itself is trying to push it out of there.
And so, unconsciously, the protagonist created something he did not want to be aware of: his personal world, where he could start all over again. And even if his incarnate alter ego shouts at him to let go, his strength is unlikely to suffice. And the question "where and with whose hands each of us is sealed" remains an invisible phantom that leaves no shadow of hope.
After all, living on the sidelines is unlikely to want many. Whatever view of the desert we see.
The movie is in no mood like Blade Runner or Johnny Mnemonics.
It seems that the actors came to some morning chat, to show themselves. It creates a sense of unprofessionalism, as if removed from one take. Play actors does not contribute to the creation of an atmosphere of seriousness and hopelessness, which should have cyberpunk.
In the film there is a scene when Joystick is changed eyes, show the insides, meat. It was disgusting, I'm sure you could do without savoring the insides.
There are two plot lines: the one that happens to Christopher Lambert and the Italian in the game of Nirvana. The action is sluggish. It feels like the actors are very tired and tired and the writer was writing this script. It was only the fifth time I saw it.
Some scenes are made beautifully - it's snowing outside at a gas station (20 years to 2049). Interesting locations. Pretty programmer Stephanie Rocca. There are positives, but is it worth spending time on this film? The authors could give more, and it is difficult to get satisfaction when viewing.
If the negative moments do not scare you, then ... welcome to cyberpunk.
Well, there are a few days left until the moment of X, the release of the game Cyberpunk 2077. And whatever this time does not last like gum, we suggest to delve into the universe of cyberpunk together with the Italian film directed by Gabriele Salvatores ' Nirvana', rightfully considered a classic of this genre.
Logline: Jimi tries to erase the game, the developer of which is, along with solving personal problems.
As for the situation, in the film it is presented in full: body modifications, implants, drugs, hackers, low quality of life of the population, and of course, powerful corporations. All according to the canon, as bequeathed by William Gibson. But you won't get enough of entourage alone.
Going inside, we see the central theme: relationship of the creator and his creations, where Jimi is God, and the character of his game, Solo, a projection conscious of himself. Solo is doomed every time to die and be reborn, which pushes him to ask the main character to erase the whole game.
But what makes Jimi want to do this? The answer lies in his personal life. He is tired of loneliness and aimless existence. And the very fact of finding the girl who left him, Lisa, gives rise to such a dangerous adventure.
At the beginning of the film we see Kali, a blue-skinned Hindu goddess who represents death. Note that the campaign of the whole film this color symbolizes death: blue liquid marijuana, blue hair Naima, companion of the protagonist (this nuance will be revealed in the final).
Thus 'Nirvana' can be compared with cabbage head. 'One hundred clothes and all without fasteners' And tearing off sheet after sheet, you're amazed at all this diversity of ideas and metaphors. Who says Italians can't make a great cyberpunk movie?
8 out of 10
Nirvana is a film with a very good idea, a plot, a certain philosophy, because now we are all inside the network, “live”, for the most part, in various gadgets. Or maybe we’re someone’s game in the beginning. This film is a very interesting idea, but when watching it, it did not attract me. The cast is good, each hero has his own life, his worldview, and it is undoubtedly pleased. From the plot, the most attracted scene from the optometrist, special effects, makeup, acting is all very impressive.
Now I'll turn to the minuses. Maybe it's just not my movie. These gray tones in which he is filmed influence me too calmingly. All actions were very monotonous, not dynamic, calm. I wouldn’t say that the grayness conveys the film’s atmosphere, just like the night, rather than the gloom it should seem. I'm getting bored and not following the story. And in addition, for the most part, very calm music, which also did its own. And many moments and dialogues seem unnecessary, as if stretching the film, although it is not long in time, but to remove the scene about Jimi’s love, or at the gas station, or just shorten, nothing will change. Scenes with Solo, although there are few of them, and they show his experience, feelings, but they are very slowly stretched, although this conveys life in the game, where there is nowhere to rush, but the viewer needs dynamics, and by the way, it is the scenes in the game that cause more interest. Nor did I always understand the transition from play to reality. And all this despite the fact that the color of the picture does not change, and it would be logical. And after a meeting with Jostic, the whole plot goes haphazardly, in terms of the fact that you do not have time to master the material, as if they had just been to the optometrist, when suddenly already at the gas station, then at the robot girl and now the final. The meaning of Jimi’s love line is also not clear, because by and large it does not affect the course of the film, and these sad experiences and memories are probably not necessary for this film, it only appears on the network when Jimi is there, and it is necessary that he sort out his thoughts and reach the goal. I didn’t find anything in this movie that would interest me. And because of the gray shades and calm music, it is not that boring, but still abstract from the film.
I believe that if the film had been shot in a slightly different style, with the addition of colors (both literally and figuratively), then, undoubtedly, the assessment would have been higher, because I have a positive opinion for acting and almost all actions.
As a result, it should be said that I lacked the atmosphere, because of this grayness you get distracted in your thoughts, the film does not drag on, and did not attract my attention. Although I have a rather positive attitude to films of this genre, and to this atmosphere, but “Nirvana” did not “drain” me.
4 out of 10
It is no coincidence that the film gained a cult status among the audience, who gave it the title of cyberpunk classic. Its main advantage is in creative versatility, which can be just entertaining fiction and at the same time be a purely author's film, full of a lot of hidden symbols and meanings, if you can and want to dive deeper behind the visual range.
And the visual side of the production turned out on top, showing an amazing fantastic world, striking with insane eclecticism, where “the past, present and future were reunited in dance”, as sounds in one of the phrases of the script. Before us is a crazy whirlpool of combined incompatible styles, peoples and cultures of the West and the East, concentrated in a futuristic living cauldron of the fictional city of Bombay City, crowded with whom and what is only possible and impossible. There goes the main character of the story - a game developer, trying to erase his brainchild in spite of a large corporation-employer, because one of his characters marked himself as an independent intelligent person and refuses to dance to the tune of the storyline, becoming a friend to the creator. Naturally, this is far from the tip of the iceberg of the story, necessary for the entertainment aspect. The elements of cyberpunk are good from colorful characters, constantly traveling through unreal worlds full of dangers to the mind connected to computer devices. The circle is placed solid catches, the exciting atmosphere of the ephemeral plane and the charming eternal snow in the present, turning viewing into a memorable genre whirlwind of science fiction.
However, the director Gabriele Salvatores is increasingly impressed by the core conflict at the heart of the story, addressed to the existential essence of human nature, which for centuries needs to become a deity, as the Creator of something, endowing it with a separate life of its own, and also one day to gain complete spiritual freedom, to break out of the bounds of others’ imposed rules, committing actions that come only from the heart. The programmer represented, played by Christopher Lambert, is still the same artist, writer, sculptor or God, who breathed the spark of life into a creature that began to think, who wished to leave the virtual cage of material existence, going into the bottomless void of the erased program ... into the cherished Nirvana, where again the director makes a cunning hint. In addition to the talking title of the film, it generally has a full-fledged framework of Buddhist philosophy with a genre shell worn over it, allegorically demonstrating the eternal sacred search for the soul of the final reconciliation with itself and the universe through endless reincarnation - the death of a computer character and the repetition of attempts again and again from the very beginning of the game to avoid mistakes, gaining wisdom. But if someone created it, allowing him to make his own decisions, then perhaps the Creator is the fruit of someone’s fantasy, which invented our hectic world with falling snowflakes? And to understand this esoteric question can only leave the mortal body, freeing the mind to fly into the boundless information space through meditation, played out in the picture by connecting to a computer network, where live their "angels" - hackers and "devils" - dangerous programs that can destroy a person, thereby taking his soul.
Of course, films with a similar concept of escapism from something purely physical a lot. And I don’t even want to mention the popular “The Matrix” by the Wachowski brothers, since it will be palpably secondary for the viewer, if we recall, for example, its progenitor “Welt am Draht” Rainer Werner Fassbinder, which was released in the early 70s. But still distinguishes the picture under consideration a special subtle mix of genre and author's cinema, which found a harmonious balance of bright memorable futuristic form of cyberpunk and philosophical content, rooted in the esoteric teachings of the East.
7 out of 10
Throughout the action, I couldn’t shake the impression that I was watching Cronenberg’s Lunch naked (all those closed neighborhoods with Latinos, Hindus, Buddhists, shootings from strange weapons and acid tones of what was happening), in the realities of the world of cyberpunk 1.0 (the classic Gibson atmosphere with short-haired girls hackers, drug addicts addicted to not yet synthesized drugs, visual hacking methods, hacking transnational corporations with black ice, who in the topic, he will understand who is not in the middle of the universe – read Gibbsone’s cyberspace).
It is easy to guess from the title of this film that it is imbued with the ideology of Buddhism, ranging from the main theme - the desire to disappear self-conscious computer program, a character who in the game remembers his past incarnations and seeks to free himself from the circle of samsara and become a snowflake, to private references to individual elements associated with Buddhism - the parable of strawberries, for example.
Actually, for the well-translated desire for disappearance, dissolution in the universe, this specific component of the general atmosphere, I put the film a couple of points more than it hears objectively.
8.5 out of 10
The film is not for lovers of Lambert, dynamic fiction or bomber drive in the spirit of “The Matrix”, it is for fans of cyberpunk and only. Moreover, it is made here "adult", so that the more famous "Johnny Mnemonic" on his background becomes a more pop gray running Reeves back and forth with tantrums "get this out of my head!!!", and anime cyber-elder "Akira" modestly retreats into the burrow.
In addition, this craft is purely European origin, which already speaks for itself. And it's just nice to see the roaring Italian heroes. This is very unusual in this movie.
And more: there are completely no standard chases, shootings according to the scheme - and become a hero and get a beauty. Nice to meet you.
Visually, it's amazing. Constant night and flakes of melting snow, junk, dirt. The city of the future, which mixed nationalities, cultures, faith and almost equally colorful - a diverse world of virtual games, but there is already daylight, gray faded faces and only bright colors like chameleons constantly changing the color of clothes, interiors, lipstick, street signs will diversify this grayness. Original.
Such a flow of information falls from a film about this world, that in the course of the action and not much time to digest, and when it comes to Marrakech and Bombay City, cities inside the city with their noisy ethnic diversity (ethnics in general in the film is smacked into oblivion), you understand – it is clearly not for one view.
Drugs of all kinds, and it looks like their legal advertising - what was there, liquid marijuana? Oh, and Joystick's eyes? I immediately remembered the cyborgs from Ghost in the Shell. Spooky... And in all this whirlpool, as the devil jumps out of the snuffbox at the turn, one of the “Zen stories” (the tiger over the cliff), and “Nirvana” – an artificially created character from the game, who realized his cyclical meaningless existence and preferred erasure to him – is it so bad to be like snow? Looks like this cyberpunk has a philosophy.
The music is picked up unexpectedly, but oddly enough, in the theme, who would expect a shrill “Sodate” from Cesaria Evora here? It’s the best place to be.
The feed is somewhat confused, memories are mixed with reality and virtuality, the flow is very fast.
Perhaps there will be accusers of the picture in boredom and sadness - but this is already the master's business. Personally, I think cyberpunk is very clean.
Sorry. It's just that if I can't argue with a real person, with my only real friend, then I'm really nothing.
The nineties were a wonderful time, especially for those people whose childhood was in this turbulent time. People were kinder to each other than they are now. There was no general suspicion and the desire to do nasty things to your neighbor just because everything in your life goes wrong. And parents tried to isolate us from adult content, as well as from what is happening in our world. There were trips to museums and exhibitions. There were gatherings at the campfire, behind which scary or funny stories were told. And ten rubles received for pocket expenses were considered almost a fortune. Oh, it was a wonderful time. I miss him. Why did I start this conversation? And the fact that in the nineties there were no stupid talk shows and advertising did not last for half an hour. In the nineties, there were basically six channels, including which you got into the amazing world of cinema. Fortunately, no one paid any attention to the age rating or the fact that good films should be shown at three in the morning, as is done now. At that time, so many films were shown that my eyes ran away, and I had to choose where to stop my eyes. And so, as a ten-year-old boy, your submissive came across a film set in the distant future, and the picture then touched me to the core. I didn’t know the name of the movie, but now I do. And I'm going to tell you about it today. So this is Nirvana.
There is such a theory that any universe created by the inflamed consciousness of this or that author exists somewhere. In other words, the Enterprise team is plowing through space, a blue telephone booth and its permanent commander fly from one center of the universe to another in order to prevent the apocalypse, and a team of brave chipmunks once again disrupts the plans of the treacherous cat and his gang. What if it’s not just a theory, but something more? After all, the universe is endless and maybe somewhere and really live and die heroes of our favorite books, movies and computer games? The creators of this film tried to answer this question.
The character of the computer game "Nirvana" suddenly realizes that his whole world is a fiction, and he is only a puppet in the hands of any person who decides to play the game. And with the realization of this, Solo wakes up and the desire to fight the “regime”. Solo trying to cope with those situations and bear traps that abound in the world of "Nirvana" finds a way to contact the creator of the game and ask him for one small favor, namely to be erased. Jim Deeney looked around in search of Arnold Schwarzenegger, but not finding the latter came to the conclusion that he would have to erase Solo himself, and to do this, you need to penetrate the super-secure corporate network and erase a copy of Nirvana from there. And all would be well if you do not take into account the fact that such penetration can end in the fact that Jimmy will be burned out of the brain, but what you can not do for the sake of your own creation, which in a few days of acquaintance could become a single programmer’s best friend.
This is the beginning of a long and intricate story that tells the dark world of the future in which the sale of drugs to children and murder on the streets of the city became the norm. In a world where even the most perverse whim will be fulfilled, the main thing is that you have money. In a world where the most popular entertainment was the attempt to hack into the network of the corporation and still stay alive. And what is typical when watching this movie does not arise the question, how does everything work here? All the things that are present in this picture look harmonious, and those that do not look can be attributed to the fact that we have cyberpunk. After all, if there are implants in the world of gloomy technology that make you better, stronger and smarter, why can't you sell fears and phobias? And this world looks fascinating. In the sense that such a future is quite possible, only I would never want to live in it.
As for the actors, all the heroes of the picture gave their all. What about Christopher Lambert, whose hero Jim suffers from unrequited love and wants to help his creation find well-deserved peace. That Diego Abatantuono goes through the same game over and over again and no matter how hard he tries and no matter how much he makes the story ends with his death and Solo has to go through everything again. That Sergio Roubini, whose hero Joystick would become Jim's friend and teacher. Other equally talented actors.
Also, you can not but enjoy the excellent musical accompaniment. All compositions are selected perfectly and not one does not get out of the rhythm of the film, but rather, on the contrary, creates the right mood and enhancing the effect of presence.
Summing up, I want to say that I have seen many films both about the unenviable future that awaits humanity, and films in the genre of cyberpunk. Most of them were wonderful paintings that fell into the annals of history and became a parable in the tongue, others were not very, since the creators so effectively and could not play the cards that were on their hands. The same film, despite the fact that all the components of the film were brought almost to perfection, was undeservedly forgotten and lost against the background of its more successful, commercially, colleagues. However, if you are not indifferent to films of this genre, then I certainly advise you to watch this film, you will not regret it.
10 out of 10
The owner of the prestigious statuette “Oscar” for the best film in a foreign language ( “Mediterranean Sea”), the Italian Gabriele Salvatores has not earned his laurels among the audience, preferring entertaining cinema, so far the most famous film from Salvatores remains arthouse fiction Nirvana, which is already, it is scary to think, for fifteen years and during this time the director and the public has not been so excited.
Of course, it is clear to everyone that author’s cinema rarely finds a large mass of fans and often participates only in film festivals, where individuality and innovation are appreciated. Nirvana is a good example. This is another version of our future, where computer technology has stepped to an incredible distance, but the structure and society has become quite different: devastation and marginality are the main features of our future. More than once this was involved, Salvatores and two writers with him did not think of something particularly new and sharp. The film contains an easily readable plot, its only nuance is an attempt to combine realism with fiction, chimera, which lives inside a computer game.
With "Nirvana" everything is quite simple: either the viewer is captured by neofantasy, or quickly loses interest in it. This is due to the visual transmission of the material: gray-dirty colors with rare glimpses of something like “khaki” are the gamut of the film, not everyone will be able to appreciate the scrupulous work of the operator and artist, but even this is not enough – this appearance of the tape is endowed with a depressing effect, the scenes begin to merge by themselves, and the dynamics of the action seems to trample on the same place.
I am far, far from the euphoria of Nirvana. It may have influenced subsequent films, similar in genre and script (for example, "Existence"), but for me "Nirvana" was more of a boring action, too stuffed with unnecessary dialogue. I listened to the older film Blade Runner, maybe I expected something like this from Nirvana, but I got tired of waiting, switched to her personality, but she was too superficial? I don't know.
Even Christopher Lambert and Emmanuel Senier did not save the picture from such a final characterization, although I love these actors very much. In general, if you think about the actors, then the only non-inert character here is the hero of Sergio Roubini.
Fans of arthouse or tapes about computer space film is suitable, but I, as a simple viewer without special claims, the tape did not fit. Maybe you should watch her in the mood.
'I am sailing again on the sea of nothingness. Maybe it never happened to you. You wake up in the morning and all you want is for the darkness to consume you. And not to dream, and even better not to live. I>
A worthy representative of the lonely genre of cyberpunk.
Christopher 'Uncle Highlander' Lambert plays a virtual game developer who recently left a girl. And then another of the heroes of his new game "Nirvana" suddenly ceases to follow the rules and moreover - realizes his artificiality and asks him to erase because it is impossible to live in the Game hard.
And then our hero throws everything he had and "ceases to follow the rules of the game." He is no longer a wealthy citizen who spends his weekdays sniffing cocaine and swearing at his home computer - he goes to fight a cool uber corporation in order to erase all copies of Nirvana.
Did you enjoy doing this with me?
Yeah, but we're just two fucking equations, which is so sad.
While the Hero moves to the conquest of the Uber computer, the protagonist of his game goes level after level, dies, is reborn again, dies, and all this for some reason is very funny, and sometimes looks funny. Death in the game does not matter.
The whole plot is so light and well-built that it looks in one breath and only towards the end begins to turn your brain inside out with surreal scenes in virtual space (a la, Johnny-Mnemonic).
'You think you have a real life? Look around! Sure, you have a lot of beautiful things, a nice house, but what if everything you see doesn't exist? If it's like here, if you're like me. The only thing I can't do here is stop playing. But you can! Stop playing, Jimi, then you'll be free.
It's not an action movie or even a drama - it's a journey through the night through the underworld. Beautiful movie.