Un articolo di Nicholas Barber per BBC riguarda il nuovo film di Tom Hanks, intitolato “Here”, e l’uso della tecnologia di “de-aging” che permette agli attori di apparire più giovani.
Tom Hanks’s next film, Here, is set in the far future, the distant past, and every time period in between. Directed by Robert Zemeckis and adapted from Richard McGuire’s graphic novel of the same name, it jumps through the history of one piece of land, as seen from a single viewpoint over many thousands of years. Most of it, though, is about the decades when the area is part of an American house owned by a couple played by Hanks and Robin Wright. For fans of Forrest Gump (1994), the most significant aspect of the trailer, which debuted last week, was the reunion of its two stars along with its director Zemeckis. But what was just as notable was the digital de-ageing that allowed Hanks and Wright to play the characters from their teens upwards. Hanks, now 67, is shown as being slim and fresh-faced, with a thick head of curly hair, just as he was when he was in Splash and Bachelor Party (1984) all those years ago.
La tecnologia di “de-aging” utilizza sofisticati effetti visivi per ringiovanire digitalmente gli attori e combina scienza, arte e abilità tecnica per far sembrare gli attori più giovani sul grande schermo, sollevando al contempo dilemmi etici e professionali.
Nel trailer del film è evidente come Hanks e Wright siano stati digitalmente ringiovaniti per interpretare i loro personaggi dall’adolescenza in su. Questo solleva domande sul futuro uso di questa tecnologia. Se Zemeckis può ottenere questo effetto in “Here”, quanto tempo passerà prima che il “de-aging” diventi comune? La tecnologia di “de-aging” potrebbe consentire agli attori di generazioni più anziane di continuare a interpretare ruoli che dovrebbero spettare a giovani attori emergenti. Tuttavia, c’è anche l’inquietante possibilità che le superstar possano essere sostituite dai loro doppioni AI nel lungo termine.
“Here” solleva interrogativi sulla relazione tra tecnologia e arte e su come il “de-aging” possa influenzare il futuro del cinema.
What’s striking for now, though, is how limited the uses of the technology have been. So far, de-ageing is still more of a gimmick than a serious storytelling device, and its primary purpose seems less to make characters appear younger, than to remind viewers of the films they saw when they were younger themselves.
The emotional impact of a fake young Hanks in Here relies on our memories of a real young Hanks when he was just starting out. The de-aged Ford in the last Indiana Jones film evokes the thrill of watching Indy’s classic adventures. A de-aged Mark Hamill turns up in the Star Wars TV series The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett to exploit our love of the original big-screen trilogy. Meanwhile, the Abba Voyage concert residency, which opened in London in May 2022, has virtual “Abbatars” resembling the four musicians as they were in 1979.
In most cases, then, de-ageing hasn’t been used to extend superstars’ careers, or to facilitate chronology-twisting narratives – it’s been used to trigger nostalgia. Ironically for a technology that feels so futuristic and revolutionary, it’s still fixated on the past.
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