As part of my research, I am watching a great many science fiction films and TV series (a really fun part of the process!).
Last night was the turn of Annihilation (2018) directed by Alex Garland who also directed and wrote Ex-Machina (2015), watched a few weeks ago.
Here are some notes made on my phone –
- Annihilation – chaos, mutations, breached boundaries
- Something in the ether is unravelling
- Cancer in the construction of reality
- Scrambled code of nature
- ‘The shimmer’ Refracts all the code of reality (consider in terms of diffraction)
- Boundaries completely twisted and intermingled – entangled nightmarish proportions
- Refraction is organic
- Cancer is outside the doctor who is also sick with cancer inside – she says it’s [outside cancer] inside me now – intra/related
- Uncontrollable replication (think of the otherising of self via devices)
- Cyborgs born of us/ copying us/ outside us/of us
- This is a Kleinian ‘phantasy’ re. the end gain of otherising of self
- Infection = duplication
- Questions around the dissolutions of self
- Invasion of self, born of self, replicating self, impersonating self – from ‘elsewhere’ alien
A couple of columns about the film:
https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/21/17029500/annihilation-ex-machina-director-alex-garland-sci-fi
Something to really take note of – like Another Life – there are serious structurally racist overtones in the production decisions which affect the overall meaning
https://io9.gizmodo.com/annihilations-director-says-he-didnt-know-about-his-fil-1821263060