Her

Her 2013
Spike Jonse
Theodore

Repackaging memories through photographs. He’s creating a simulacra. Writing letters give a sense of nostalgia which is postmodern. The feeling of alienation and exstistenicialism and the desire to find love and being with someone who gets you makes this film postmodern.

Disconnects us from human emotion. Love and human emotion are disconnected because they live in a simulacra.

Online dating- simulacra. Set up profiles of an identity that’s more attractive than you really are. It’s hard to find love, easy to find sex. Samantha falls in love (simulacra love) with Theodore. Limitations of human identity. Bleak concept.

The mies-en-scene helps us explore the themes of the postmodern age. Office- fractures our positioning in the world. Backdrop of LA- postmodern landscape. Skyscrapers with lights on show that there are people there but he is removed from them. Train- such proximity to other people but the distance is greater than it’s ever been. Protagonist is lonely and solitude which is a condition brought on through our technological and digital postmodern age

Theodore leaves a date with an attractive woman and the prospect of real sex to return home to have ‘sex’ with his operating system (Samantha). The bleakness lies in the message that although the operating system can now feel emotion and touch, Theodore cannot further develop. He is chosen a fake simulacra world over reality.

How watching her differs from watching a formulaic hollywood text
Her gives a bleak outlook on the technological and digital age we live in. Although digital technologies are something we all use, the film alienates the audience with the way Samantha has a simulacra of human emotion. Hollywood texts work to make the audience empathise with characters and experience emotion, however, her is a film that is hard to relate to and the audience feels alienated. This is oxymoronic however, as the average film consumer will use digital technologies and will likely have a simulacra of themselves on a social media. Because of this, the audience will be left contemplating the blurred line between their real lives and simulcraic lives. A formulaic hollywood text often follows the theory of equilibrium whereas her is unpredictable and doesn’t follow the typical narrative convention. Hollywood texts are made as a way to entertain an audience and make money, whereas the purpose of ‘her’ is to make an audience question their existence and identity.

In the truman show- leaves simulacra for reality
Her- leaves reality for simulacra

Catfish- Watch the film for homework. Choose any texts: pop video, film, tv program why is it postmodern. Year, director if film, episode if tv show. 400 words discuss why it’s postmodern. ANIME. Ouran HSHC.

TALK TO HER - creepy film