{"id":13834,"date":"2021-12-14T22:36:35","date_gmt":"2021-12-14T20:36:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/?p=13834"},"modified":"2021-12-14T22:36:36","modified_gmt":"2021-12-14T20:36:36","slug":"the-matrix-resurrections-a-day-on-set","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/blog\/2021\/12\/14\/the-matrix-resurrections-a-day-on-set\/","title":{"rendered":"The Matrix Resurrections – A Day On Set"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

RETURN TO THE SOURCE\u2026 IN CINEMAS 22 DECEMBER 20<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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One thing comes to mind when attempting to describe the on-set atmosphere of director Lana Wachowski\u2019s latest feature effort: D\u00e9j\u00e0 vu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Or maybe not. I watch in blissful ignorance as Thomas Anderson\u2019s (Keanu Reeves) fingers fly across a sleek keyboard while light pours in through floor-to-ceiling windows, highlighting his beaming eyes as they shift back and forth across a bank of computer monitors. I can\u2019t help but think back to the time a little red pill jutted him out of his cubicle life into a reality plagued by apocalypse, so to be here, now\u2026 It\u2019s a bit dizzying. This is not the dark, brooding hacker who first graced the silver screen at the dawn of the millennium. Instead, we find ourselves face-to-face with a Mr. Anderson dressed in today\u2019s de rigueur office-casual: hoodie, sneakers, wispy long locks of black hair. It forces us to question, calibrate, then re-calibrate. Is this the present, or is it the future? Is this the real world, or is it the Matrix? Is this Thomas Anderson, or is it a posthumous version of the cyber-savior, Neo?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Now you understand what I mean by maybe<\/em>. Or maybe you don\u2019t, and that is entirely the point. The poet Emerson once said\u2014and I\u2019m paraphrasing\u2014that consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. So, what about a mind so creative it can come up with worlds within worlds within worlds, that is also open enough to revisit and redefine what it\u2019s created before?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is a virtue in this idea of consistency,\u201d Wachowski ruminates. \u201cMaybe it’s parental or leadership-based, and I appreciate that. I think many people can make great art that way. I’ve made great art that way. But, there came a time where I couldn’t make art like that anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This rejection of familiarity is not a gimmick, but rather a means of discovery. Finding something new. For her newest film, in place of consistency, the director appears to be embracing improvisation, an ingredient seldom added to the pot of major Hollywood blockbuster franchises: \u201cI wanted to bring something that felt exciting again and allowed me to be with all my friends.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working with friends like longtime collaborators and producers James McTeigue and Grant Hill, for example, the director adds that they approached \u201cThe Matrix Resurrections\u201d differently from the outset. \u201cWe just said, \u2018We won’t do it like we used to. We won’t do pre-vis,\u2019\u201d recalls Wachowski. “The freeway chase in Reloaded<\/em> was so methodically planned. It’s an amazing, incredible scene, and I couldn’t have done it any other way when I was that young. But now, I know so much more about every single aspect of filmmaking, I can improvise in a way that allows us to shoot this wild, crazy chase with a thousand extras, and we shot it in six nights.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It took time for Wachowski to evolve into the kind of multi-faceted filmmaker she is today, a metamorphosis that franchise star Keanu Reeves has reveled in observing. \u201cI can talk about Lana Wachowski the filmmaker, and then I can talk about the filmmaker I worked with in 2001, and they\u2019re very different,\u201d says Reeves. \u201cFirst of all, she\u2019s worked with John Toll, who taught her about natural light, which was not a big factor in the original trilogy. Also, traditionally my relationship with the Wachowskis has been behind a monitor, and now working with Lana, she\u2019s in front of the monitor. So, what we have now is an artist who\u2019s interested in natural light, who wants to be next to the camera, who literally connects herself to the camera and becomes this other thing which I\u2019ve not witnessed before. It\u2019s cool to see.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reeves also reflects on the appeal of this new film, asking playfully, \u201cSo, what the heck is going on here? Isn\u2019t Neo dead? Wasn\u2019t there peace? I mean, in Revolutions<\/em>, the Machines stood down. They were gonna live and let live. They were gonna let people out of the Matrix. In Zion, people were dancing and cheering; everything seemed great… Well, what we\u2019ll come to learn is that things didn\u2019t quite go the way we thought. That was really intriguing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n