COMPUTER CHESS written and directed by Andrew Bujalski, with Wiley Wiggins, Patrick Riester, Freddy Martinez and Gerald Peary. A filmswelike release. 92 minutes. Opens Friday (July 26). For venues and times, see listings.
Andrew Bujalski is used to people taking issue with the way he makes his movies.
In the mid-2000s, as independent filmmakers were embracing digital video for their cheap and easy productions, Bujalski was shooting Funny Ha Ha and Mutual Appreciation – dense, character-driven dramedies that inspired the mumblecore movement – on 16mm film.
Last year he finally shot on video – but on his terms. Computer Chess was made using 1980s video cameras for a watery, low-resolution aesthetic.
“I think you have to compose your storytelling for the medium you’re using,” Bujalski says from New York City, “and those [earlier] movies were movies I dreamed up in the language of 16mm. This one I dreamed up in the language of old black-and-white analog video. I mean, there is a Computer Chess movie to be made on the Red camera, but it’s not this one.”
Bujalski’s choice of camera equipment instantly plunges us into a world where “cutting-edge technology” means something very different. But the issues are the same as they are today, as programmers struggle to understand their machines – and each other – while their competitors swagger around like rock stars.
“I was very excited by the idea of setting something on the cusp between the 70s and the 80s,” Bujalski says. “We never actually specify what year it takes place, but we’re somewhere in that zone.”
Even though the story takes place three decades ago, Bujalski believes the theme of people struggling to make machines do their bidding is entirely contemporary – at least as far as he’s concerned.
“I am certainly not a particularly technically inclined person myself,” he laughs. “I’m the guy who’s always complaining about how I’m dumb and can’t make a computer work. I’m supposed to do an interview at 4, and the journalist wants to do it on Skype, but my Skype stopped working and I can’t open it.”
Computer Chess, in some way, is about capturing that feeling of disconnection from technology – and the sense that everyone else is further along than you are.
“There’s a feeling I’ve always kind of perversely enjoyed in spending time with tech people who are talking about things that are over my head,” he says. “I feel like they never quite believe that you don’t understand, you know? I kinda sit there and stare dumbly or smile and nod, and I can interrupt and go, ‘Hang on, back up – can you explain that again?’ and they’re usually very happy to oblige. But I think there’s some part of that tech person who’s so deep into that love affair that they kind of assume everybody else is there with them.
“Like, how could you not want to understand everything about the innards of your computer? On some basic level, you already understand it – you just need to feel comfortable with that knowledge. I liked that feeling, and I wanted to try to get that on screen.”
Interview Clips
Andrew Bujalski on the allure of terrible video:
Bujalski on the way most movies treat the transition between the 70s and the 80s:
Bujalski on planting actor and actual computer-game designer Wiley Wiggins among a cast of non-professionals:
normw@nowtoronto.com | @wilnervision
