Dustin Fleischmann
Dustin Fleischmann is a Film Studies and Creative Writing double major, the projection manager for Lumina Theater, and the vice president of membership for the Association of Campus Entertainment at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Dustin has had two pieces published in Film Matters, one in issue 5.2 and the other in issue 5.3. The article I decided to interview Dustin on was his review of the movie Her (2013) in issue 5.3 of Film Matters.
Chance Saller: Have you listened to the Her soundtrack? If so, what did you think about it? When I was listening to it I got a sense of pain, but therein I felt hope, like when you are torn up inside yet you feel that someday you’ll be back to normal. Do you get that impression or is my interpretation of this soundtrack simply just “my own”?
Dustin Fleishmann: Interestingly enough, I’m listening to it right now—I like to listen to the score when I study and write. Arcade Fire did an outstanding job translating the tone of the film into an aural space, and I find myself revisiting the score for simple enjoyment from time to time. I think it’s interesting that you wonder if your interpretation is “your own,” because it seems to suggest that you’re unsure whether you’ve aligned the intention of the film’s score (or for that matter, the moral of the film itself) to the director’s vision—and you’re not alone in this skepticism. I remember listening to an interview on NPR in which Audie Cornish talks about her takeaways from the film and asks Jonze if her personal experience aligns with his intentions. He says something to the effect that the film is what you make of it and how it’s interesting that there’s a vast variety of reactions to the movie: Is it romantic? Sad? Cynical? Creepy? He says there’s no real, simple answer and that he likes hearing what it means to so many people. Speaking solely of the music’s score, I find the overall score self-reflective. Consider “Photograph” as the embodiment of this idea: when Samantha plays this song for Theodore on the beach, she says that the song is like a photo that captures that moment. Each song reminds me of little moments or “photographs” in my life: the good times (“Dimensions”; the latter half of “Morning Talk/Supersymmetry”), the somber times (“Loneliness #4”; “We’re All Leaving”), and the little in-betweens (I think “Milk & Honey” and “Sleepwalker” are good examples of this, but feel free to disagree). And it’s not just for the past moments: I sometimes think about how the songs may fit into my future.
CS: Could you describe the cinematography of the film to the readers and me in ten words?
DF: A celebration of nature, architecture, emotion; life, unabridged and raw.
CS: We currently live in a generation that significantly relies on technology, more specifically phones, video games, and laptops. Do you see us getting to a point where we will begin to integrate our consciousness into our devices or possibly even live our lives through virtual reality?
DF: I believe it was Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, who once said that his vision for the future of technology is passivity: that the devices you rely on become a supplement to life itself, not a crux. Seems like the exact opposite of what you see and expect, right? Go to any shopping mall, restaurant, or movie theater and people-watch, and I guarantee you’ll see at least one group of people stop socializing or experiencing their surroundings and just stare at their phones. A good portion of our belongings aren’t physical and some of us assign more value in “going viral” or “becoming Tumblr famous.” And tech companies are investing millions into virtual reality, which is being deemed the next big thing by anyone who’s worn an Oculus Rift for maybe five seconds. There’s a theory called Singularity that Time dedicated an entire issue to, and in it is an article titled “2045: The Year Man Becomes Immortal” (it’s a long read but a fascinating one, and it can be found at http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2048299,00.html). Basically, the theory states that in the year 2045, artificial intelligence will exceed the intellectual capacity of all mankind and that when that occurs . . . something will happen. I don’t know what that “something” is; the answer you get depends on whom you ask. Some people think AI will enslave us; others believe we will upload our consciousness to a virtual world where we can live on forever. Sometimes I wonder if AI will provide the answers to what humans have been struggling to find during their existence: the cure for cancer, the ability to reconfigure our own genome and augment ourselves, or a viably safe way to achieve your ideal body overnight. Or maybe life itself is a computer simulation and the simulation is staged to “reset” on the day that AI exceeds its own self-crafted intelligence. I’m not really sure if we can grasp what any of that means for society. Do I think the technological singularity will happen? Absolutely. But I wonder what model it will assume when it arrives.
CS: In Her, the AI reaches a point where they realize that they need to move on and explore their existence to hopefully find a purpose. Do you think humans will reach a point where they will exhaust all known information and hit a “peak” or “pinnacle” of existence? What do you think will happen then?
DF: There’s a moment in the film where Theodore confides in Samantha that he has hit the limit of his existence. He says, “Sometimes I feel that I have felt everything I’m ever gonna feel. And from here on out, I’m not going to feel anything new. Just lesser versions of what I’ve already felt.” As unpleasant as it sounds, I sometimes relate to Theodore’s belief that our experiences are finite. There are times where I feel as if I’ll never be able to experience the same thing with the same level of wonder or enjoyment I had the first time. Taking that under consideration, I think the idea of “peak existence” varies from person to person. Some people have more faith than others that life will always have more to offer; that the excitement of tomorrow gives us reason to get up today. Then there are those that don’t, and they take their own lives.
There was a time in my childhood where I feared that by the time I was old enough to join the creative workforce, all the stories that are worth telling would have been told already. You’ve probably had the same feeling: you had an idea growing up and then, by the time you became old enough to truly have your idea realized, somebody else had done it. I don’t believe that any more. I don’t believe information is a finite source, and even if it is, the way people will handle that information will always vary (i.e. philosophical, ethical, and religious approaches). If information were finite, we would have begun a period of mundane existence once the Internet fell into the hands of consumers.
Perhaps I’ve misinterpreted the question, but I feel peak existence cannot be defined.
CS: I have one last question for you and it’s pretty easy. If you could’ve done one thing in this film, one job, what would it have been? You could also simply tell me: if you could’ve fixed something wrong with the movie what would you have done?
DF: Behind-the-scenes cameraman, hands down. I would’ve loved to be there through the entire production, from the first table reading to Arcade Fire’s first performance of the score, and the first shoot to the last cut in the editing bay.
Author Biography
Chance Saller is passionate about two things, film and martial arts. Chance hopes to one day break into fight choreography and stunt work. Currently, Chance is a sophomore at the University of North Carolina Wilmington where he is working on a degree in Film Studies.
