Fringed brunettes and despair in Blade Runner 2049
by Evren Kiefer on October 19, 2017

Last weekend, I went to see Blade Runner 2049. There are fringed brunettes and despair in this film: two things that attract me. In addition to all the philosophical and transhumanist considerations....

Before I say more... Be warned, reader, it's going to spoil.  Go to the movie before continuing further before reading the post.

And rewatch the first opus too. (I haven't had time yet).

2049 has caused a lot of ink to flow. Or bytes rather. I mean, we're talking about it. Some like it, others hate it.

    Most of Alex Rallo's criticisms in his article "Like tears in a void" are legitimate. Even if, for me, this void has a function. I will come back to that.

    Wired's critique is condescendingly titled "Is the audience too lazy to enjoy Blade Runner 2049?" (article in English). Despite this debatable title, the quotes from their podcast are really interesting.

    Priscilla Page gives us a very positive criticism. She sees it as a form of cinematographic poetry rather than a prose narrative (article in English).

Me? I'm divided. Critics are right to say that this film is arid and dry. However, this does not seem to me to be a defect but a deliberate intention.

Telling the story of the collapse of the world and loneliness

The film is based less on plot than on the sensations and ideas it evokes. For me, it is indeed a poetic form. In 2049, the world sank and those who cannot leave it are waiting to die there. We don't have the vocabulary to imagine the environmental collapse that is the backdrop of the film, on the one hand. (Amitav Ghosh examines, moreover, this inability to represent the cataclysm of global warming in "The Great Derangement" that I have not yet read). On the other hand, rarefied social relationships and generalized loneliness remove the possibility for interpersonal dramas to propel the narrative. The film provokes the revulsion of some critics and some of my friends because, among other things, it enshrines a form of (almost) total defeat. The world crawling with life in the first one has been evacuated or the inhabitants have died. The survivors are all talking about relocating to the space colonies.

Blade Runner, the first film, ending with Deckard and Rachael's escape left the viewer with the option of imagining an optimistic interpersonal space. Heart with fingers and tears. A redeeming love relationship. In 2049, we learn that love sometimes requires separation, as Deckard told Joe. And everything ends very badly.

Solitude

In a world so wrecked, we are no more than companions in misfortune. What would we have to say to each other? The characters are not related to each other - at least not on screen. K is isolated: he is only bullied at the police station and in his stairwell. He only has conversations with his superior and his companion Joi. This alienation makes it difficult to identify and feel connected to the characters.

Some of my friends find this solitude completely unrealistic. However, it is possible to go days without talking to anyone. On holiday, alone, in a country whose language is unknown to you. Or even at home: by using automatic checkouts at the supermarket, by living alone, by working alone... it is possible.

Everything that seems to be a matter of exchange and community is atrophied. Communal spaces are very clearly contrasted with private spaces. Communal spaces are not maintained and they are not really theatres of life. The stairwell is swarming but it seems that people take shelter there and do not talk to each other except to insult each other. K crosses the stairwell and goes to his apartment. A private space that is sanitized like the other private spaces of the film. The woman who makes the memories of the replicants, for example, literally lives in a bubble.

I would have liked to make comparisons with the first opus, to talk about Wallace and his mysterious motivations. Maybe I'll do it in another post, later... No promise.

It's brown with fringes and despair on infertile lands; Elvis' holograms and softcore waiting for death. It's Blade Runner 2049.

Translated with the help of www.DeepL.com/Translator