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nTitle:nNirvana (1997)
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nDirector:nGabriele Salvatores
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nCast: Christopher Lambert, Diego Abatantuono, Sergio Rubini,nStefania Rocca
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nNirvana is a film that’s trying incredibly hard to existnwithin William Gibson’s seminal Cyber Punk novel, Neuromancer; a novel that’s all about anfuturistic world where people live only for the next cyber thrill; sometimesnpreferring the cyber world to the real world, in Gibson’s novel, the human racenis more cyber, than human, people have implants of almost every body partnimaginable. Some are willing to do anything to have their worn-out or damaged bodynparts replaced. So anyhow, this is the sort of picture that Gibson painted innhis novel and Nirvana, the film I’ll be reviewing today, is trying very, verynhard to exist in that same type of universe, a universe filled with hackersnliving in a bleak, futuristic world where the information super highwaynactually brings a sort of relief from the harsh realities of the world thencharacters inhabit.
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nIn Nirvana Christopher Lambert plays Jimi, a computernprogrammer who is working on his latest video game called ‘Nirvana’, hence thentitle of the film. The game is to be released come Christmas time and Jimi isnhard at work putting the finishing touches on it. Everything changes when he realizesnthat one of the characters in the game, a guy called ‘Solo’, becomes selfnaware. Solo apparently can’t take the fact that he is conscious of his ownnexistence, so he asks Jimi to delete him. Jimi then decides to travel to the head offices of ‘OkasamanStar’ his employer, in order to delete the game from their main system. At thensame time, Jimi is trying to deal with the fact that his wife has left him andnapparently doesn’t love him, so at the same time, the film is all about Jimintrying to bring closure to the relationship, or rekindle the love that was oncenthere? It’s a film that’s very cyberpunk, but at the same time deals with somenvery human issues.
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nNirvana is an Italian film that comes to us from directornGabriele Salvatores, a director best known for having won the best foreign filmnOscar in 1991 for Mediterraneo (1991). What’s interesting for me is thatnSalvatores doesn’t usually direct sci-fi films, his films fall more on thendramatic or comedic side, so it’s interesting to see him tackling a sci-fi film.nThe thing about sci-fi films is that if you don’t have the budget to create a fictionalnworld convincingly, it always shows. In the case of Nirvana, its budgetarynrestraints are evident in the cramped sets and small in scope story, but youncan still see that the filmmakers tried their best to offer us interestingnvisuals in spite of their low budget. Salvatores plays with the color palette anlot and gives the film a distinctive feel and look, I enjoyed that. Low budgetnsci-fi films can end up looking terrible, unfinished and half assed, but whennin the hands of a skilled filmmaker, sometimes the film can end up looking betternthan it should’ve.
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n I love how lownbudget productions can force filmmakers to play with ideas and push the envelope and in that respect, I thought Nirvana did well. It hasnmany ideas that help establish the futuristic elements. One scene towards the end in which Jimi andnJoystick are running from bad guys through the rooms of a hotel wasnparticularly entertaining, every room they go into offering some crazy ass situation, amusing to say the least. Nirvana was made in the 90’s, when virtual reality was a fairly ‘new’ concept that Hollywood decided to exploit in films like Freejack (1992)nand Johnny Mnemonic (1995), two films that undoubtedly influenced Nirvananbecause they all play around with that idea of maintaining a consciousnessnalive through technology. I love how many cyberpunk films involve that visualnof putting a helmet over your head and just drifting away into the matrix. Thenthing with cyberpunk films is that they all go back to that one novel thatnstarted it all: William Gibson’s Neuromancer. In one form or another, all ofnthese films owe a lot of what they are to Gibson’s novel. Visually speaking,nNirvana is also reminiscent of Blade Runner (1982), especially when it comes tonscenes filled with over crowded streets, neon signs and lots of videonbillboards.
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nWe can divide Nirvana into two different stories, on the onenhand we have Jimi coping with separation anxiety and all the emotional issuesnthat breaking up brings with it, and on the other half we have Jimi trying toninfiltrate Okamasama Star’s system to delete Nirvana. Through Solo, thencomputer character that becomes sentient, the film goes into existential territorynwhich I liked. It’s in these scenes that the film plays with the idea of humansnquestioning our existence. Why we are here and what’s the meaning of it all? Inliked the character of Solo because he is an inquisitive character,nrepresenting that small part of humanity that ‘wakes up’ and starts seeingnthings for what they are. Another element that makes Solo an interestingncharacter is that he speaks with hisncreator, Jimi. This gives Solo the opportunity to ask his creator all sorts of questions to try and make sensenof his existence; essentially assigning the role of God to Jimi the gamenprogrammer, the hacker. So the film gets existential, I mean, what would you ask God if you had the chance to talk to him? Interesting partnabout both characters, Jimi and Solo, is that they are both looking to be atnpeace with the world around them and with themselves. Will they achieve it? Willnthey ever achieve Nirvana?
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nJimi meets up with some interesting characters throughoutnhis journey; two hackers known as Joystick and Naima. Naima is beautiful andnbecomes Jimi’s love interest, but Joystick is the coolest one for me, in fact,nif you ask me he offers up the liveliest of the performances in the film, evennsurpassing Lambert, who to be honest comes off as rather bland. But the coolnthing about Christopher Lambert is that he projects a naturally likability, so his characters come off as likable as well. Both Joystick andnNaima, the characters that aid Jimi on his journey, seem to be taken right ofnof William Gibson’s Cyberpunk universe. Joystick with his electronic eyes andnNaima with her brain implants. I’d say that if you’re in the mood to watch angood cyberpunk film and you don’t mind seeing a film that’s smaller in scopenbut big on ideas, well, Nirvana is not a bad little film to see. My recommendation is don’t expect huge actionnscenes or big special effects, because this is a more personal story, smallernin scope. Also, it’s dubbed, so there’s that. Still, the cyberpunk and sci-finelements are very strong on this one, which makes it for me a must watch fornlovers of cyber punk cinema.
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nRating: 3 1/2 out of 5
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