TRIBUTES AND RETROSPECTIVES

Double Take

Gattaca

Andrew Niccol
1997 - United States - 1h46

Screenings : monday 22 - 2:30 pm - Pathé - 2 - presented by Sébastien Farouelle - film teacher saturday 27 - 7:30 pm - Pathé - 1

In an asepticised near future, Vincent Freeman, an employee of the Gattaca Space Agency, employs superhuman efforts to live the life of another. To succeed in his dream of becoming an astronaut, in a society where people are classified depending on their genetic “perfection”, he has to lie about his identity. A crime committed in his workplace jeopardises this double life.

Bolstered by the success of The Truman Show,which he wrote, Andrew Niccol wrote and directed the ambitious Gattaca within the Hollywood system. This fable about genetic manipulation centres on the character of Vincent (Ethan Hawke). An “In-Valid”, to use the vocabulary of this eugenic society, Vincent has opposed his brother Anton, a “Valid”, since. Then there is Jerome (Jude Law), a paraplegic who helps Vincent live a double life motivated by Vincent's idea that identity is something that needs to be constantly invented. Anton and Jerome work as counterpoints to the hero's quest for freedom. Characters who provide a sort of hall of reflecting and inverted mirrors, doubles for a character himself leading a double life.

CAST AND CREW

Cast : Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, Jude Law, Gore Vidal, Xander Berkeley, Jayne Brook, Elias Koteas, Maya Rudolph
Screenplay : Andrew Niccol
Cinematography : Slawomir Idziak
Editing : Lisa Zeno Churgin
Music : Michael Nyman

Production : Columbia Pictures, Jersey Films

French distributor : Park Circus