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A feat of a linguist. Review of ”Arrival” (Topic)

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A feat of a linguist. Review of ”Arrival”

Image If " Arrival " Denis Villeneuve does not take the "Oscar" even for script and direction, it will not be easy to call it a misunderstanding. A monstrous conspiracy will be the reason. Or the incompetence of gentlemen academicians. It's a common thing. But for any discerning moviegoer, a voluntary decision to ignore this film at the box office will be an inexplicable act of disrespect. World cinematography has not pleased fans of serious science fiction for a long time with close contacts of the third kind in the most detailed, detailed examination.

Twelve orange-like UFOs appear in a seemingly irregular arrangement above the Earth's surface. The first attempts of earthlings to establish contact with aliens reveal the intention of the latter to communicate exclusively in a passive manner: only to give answers. Talking to guests and asking the right questions - these tasks are tackled by the best linguists on the planet. One of them, Louise Banks (Amy Adams), is responsible for working with Scarecrow and Lumberjack , xenomorph negotiators from the module hovering over a picturesque valley in Montana. The process of learning a foreign language will turn into a real journey to the secrets of time and consciousness.

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"Language is the cornerstone of civilization," writes the film's heroine Louise in the foreword to her book. Ted Chan, author of Your Life Story , from which Eric Heisserer made a flawless script, says in the afterword: “It occurred to me to use the variational principles of physics to tell a story about a reaction person to the inevitable". Higher theoretical linguistics and quantum physics are not those, it would seem, areas of knowledge, extracts from which can become material for creating a movie hit. But it's all about the talent of storytellers.

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And also, probably, in the fact that it is within those mysterious limits where advanced science meets living religious and philosophical thought, and one should look for answers to basic human questions that worry everyone: "Who am I?" , "Why am I here?", "How much time do I have?". By the way, they are the ones that sound in the finale of Blade Runner, to which Villeneuve is currently engaged in a sequel. Is this coincidence a coincidence? Hardly. In general, these five steps - Captives, Enemy, Assassin, Arrival , and Blade Runner 2049 are too elegant a sequence to be random .

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"Arrival" is a film of action, dense, intense, sometimes so redundant (in a good way) that it passes from a quantitative category to a qualitative one, and, accordingly, there is no place for action here and cannot be. The tension is palpable, even, like the rumble of engines on a submarine at 200 meters depth: a constant annoying sound, informing you that you are not falling into the abyss. The general armed death hysteria of the population, nervous hands over the protective visors of the "nuclear" buttons, and - the unhurried dialogue of giants, with their knowledge of equal to gods, with the best representatives of humanity. What other action game is needed?

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A dull, but rich in half-tones picture activates the viewer's attention and helps, if not to relax, not to miss the most delicious author's visual finds, of which darkness. In general, the video sequence is like an artfully draped treasury, which does not blind, but beckons. The semasiographic (non-verbal) language ofheptapods- a door in nonlinear time - is beautifully shown and at the same time worked out in such detail that it seems that it can even be learned, with all the unpredictable quantum consequences like “the world is text”.

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Inimitable Forest Whitaker and funny Jeremy Renner in this film with backing vocals. The lead violin is played by Adams , and nowhere has it been so appropriate and compelling. Close-ups of her face take up a considerable part of the screen time, but it is not because of this that Louise seems like a titan holding the fate of humanity in his hands. The military, who almost ruined the whole thing, the tsereushniki and other riffraffs, look like ants not only against the background of giant visitors, but also in comparison with the scale of the deeds and personality of the heroine Amy . The scientist's routine work turns into a magnificent odyssey of knowledge. A series of Louise communication sessions withheptapodslooks like a tense linguistic thriller, although it is inferior in informational content to the corresponding book scenes, and the transformation of consciousness,
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The film is quite worthy to enter the golden fund of film science fiction. The rating of 16+ assigned to the picture is for reasons, albeit sad, but controversial. Probably, the distributor implies, albeit not entirely groundlessly, that by the age of twelve, few had mastered, for example, the legacy of the Strugatsky brothers, or, say, “ The Tao of Physics ” by Fridtjof Capra. But, without a doubt, there is such a viewer, and it will be interesting for him to watch " Arrival ".

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The Topic of Article: A feat of a linguist. Review of ”Arrival”.
Author: Jake Pinkman


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