Aningaaq

November 20, 2013 12:20 PM

Aningaaq is a short companion piece to Gravity, written and directed by Gravity co-writer Jonas Cuaron.
posted by brundlefly (30 comments total)

It's so fantastic. Lovely idea, perfect execution.
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates at 12:34 PM on November 20, 2013

The scene it parallels is, for me, the most amazing bit of Gravity - which is a film not short on amazing bits. Really happy to see this.
posted by Artw at 12:35 PM on November 20, 2013

I haven't seen Gravity, but this was amazing. I wonder what this would be like if I didn't know the basic story of the movie.
posted by moonmilk at 12:38 PM on November 20, 2013

"I am many days into the Fjord" is my new favorite bit of dialogue ever.
posted by mannequito at 12:39 PM on November 20, 2013 [2 favorites]

I'd like to play this picture in picture with Gravity -- I have a sneaking suspicion that the bang against the pod's outside window (by an unexpected visitor) happens at the same moment the gun goes off.
posted by mochapickle at 12:42 PM on November 20, 2013 [13 favorites]

Cool... but not to be too crotchety but the Inuits are on the water and the term Mayday is pretty international. Physics "inconsistencies" are pretty much unavoidable in a narrative film, but the non-response to that term in the film bothered me.
posted by sammyo at 12:48 PM on November 20, 2013 [5 favorites]

I wondered if they'd do something like this as an extra on the bluray or whatever. Glad they have and glad it's so well done!
posted by sparkletone at 12:55 PM on November 20, 2013

No spoilers, but ruined by the last few seconds. We're not idiots. Come on.
posted by The Bellman at 1:18 PM on November 20, 2013 [1 favorite]

That's a pretty amazing full duplex radio he has there.
posted by flyingfox at 1:30 PM on November 20, 2013 [2 favorites]

No spoilers, but ruined by the last few seconds.

If you imagine Dayvan Cowboy playing in the background the ending is a lot more tolerable.
posted by KokuRyu at 1:30 PM on November 20, 2013 [4 favorites]

Wow, this is lovely.
posted by turbid dahlia at 2:02 PM on November 20, 2013

I think after the hyper realism of Children of Men, Gravity, with its conventional "(wo)man against nature" plotline (and the pre-release buildup touting "realistic" SFX) was kind of a letdown - the audience had to suspend disbelief a little too much.

On the other hand, if you manage to suspend disbelief, Gravity is a ripping yarn.
posted by KokuRyu at 2:03 PM on November 20, 2013

This is lovely. I like how Cuarón paralleled the stark emptiness of space with the stark emptiness of the Arctic.

I was surprised how much I liked Gravity, I was expecting to hate it. I think it's good in part because it's such a tidy, short little movie. Sometimes 90 minutes is enough to make your point, you know? Same with this short, just enough time and space to breathe a bit without being redundant.
posted by Nelson at 2:06 PM on November 20, 2013

Nelson: "This is lovely. I like how Cuarón paralleled the stark emptiness of space with the stark emptiness of the Arctic."

Yeah, this was interesting to me. When I watched the scene in Gravity I was picturing the person on the other end sitting in a nice, warm home. Seeing the opposite of that really put a new spin on it.
posted by brundlefly at 2:09 PM on November 20, 2013 [2 favorites]

Yeah, this was interesting to me. When I watched the scene in Gravity I was picturing the person on the other end sitting in a nice, warm home. Seeing the opposite of that really put a new spin on it.

That was what I'd imagined as well! It seemed such an obvious contrast to the beyond-frigid void that Bullock's character had been struggling to be safe against for the last however many minutes.
posted by sparkletone at 2:12 PM on November 20, 2013 [1 favorite]

Despite the frigid setting, the scene is very "warm" and homey, if a bit sad. It's that combination that works for me in a way that I can't properly articulate.
posted by brundlefly at 2:29 PM on November 20, 2013 [1 favorite]

Oh man, am I the only one disappointed by this? What I loved about that scene in GRAVITY was how the sound and words painted a picture in my head, how my point of view was restricted to Bullock's character's POV, how we were both trying to piece together what this bit of life was down there, this oasis from the tragedy. I feel like seeing it played out kills the original scene. The movie's strong POV is an essential, integral part of what makes it work so well. This is antithetical to that. I understand it's just an extra, it doesn't have to be watched, but hrmph.
posted by incessant at 3:37 PM on November 20, 2013 [3 favorites]

Brilliant! What a neat little idea. Especially that they had it in time to use the actual dialogue for both films.
posted by ReeMonster at 4:57 PM on November 20, 2013

You know that annoying thing where various space scientists go "Yeah, but..." about Gravity?

The radio stuff here. Yeah, but. (Doppler, modulation, frequencies,antennas, LEO acquisition windows, power, duplex, and there was even a squelch tail in there...)

Not that I've ever been in a snowy field trying to make contact with space hardware, although I have.

I'll get my anorak Or is it agnoraaq.
posted by Devonian at 4:59 PM on November 20, 2013 [1 favorite]

I felt more emotion when the dog was about to die then when George Clooney actually did die in the film. I mean both times Clooney died.
posted by Hoenikker at 5:22 PM on November 20, 2013 [1 favorite]

Oh come on! I loved this! I remember sitting in the dark theater, holding my husband's hand, crying. It's about the story, and you can analyze the mechanics all you want. I had my HAM license and yeah, maybe it was stretching it, but I used to get weird radio signals on my FM late at night sometimes. So not a stretch for a fiction story, cripes. Like she could have done all of that other stuff in real life anyway. Come on, it's a movie! It's a story! And filmed beautifully as well. What the hell do you want, caviar at your doorstep? Delivered by the director? I loved it. Give me more, Hollywood. For stuff like this, I'll pay to go to the theater. And I did.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 6:37 PM on November 20, 2013 [2 favorites]

the whole movie is a train wreck from a science and technology standpoint. too bad because they could have probably tried just a bit harder and gotten closer. aw who am i kidding, there would be no movie without all the ridiculous liberties they took with physics.

awful.
posted by joeblough at 8:38 PM on November 20, 2013

I'll get my anorak Or is it agnoraaq.

Well, anoraq, anyway: from what the OED calls "Greenland Eskimo", actually Greenlandic.
posted by gingerest at 9:51 PM on November 20, 2013

I felt more emotion when the dog was about to die then when George Clooney actually did die in the film. I mean both times Clooney died.


That dog isn't dead! It's living on a palatial estate on Lake Como!
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 11:03 PM on November 20, 2013

This isn't how I envisioned the scene in orbit. I thought she was in contact with the Chinese space station survivors who were just as doomed as she was. The howling just started spontaneously due to language difficulties and the pressure of the situation, there is nothing to do but howl. Then the baby crying was just her hallucinations. The whole scene is about her dissociation from human life, about dying, she has come to a dead stop and is drifting off to unreality. It kind of ruins it for me, to know that there was something real on the other end of the radio that wasn't in orbit, at risk just as she was.
posted by charlie don't surf at 11:20 PM on November 20, 2013 [1 favorite]

A real-life story about a space probe that stopped talking. [NASA’s Messenger, previously]
posted by LeLiLo at 11:36 PM on November 20, 2013 [1 favorite]

This sequence in both films is a reference to the "Lost Cosmonaut" recordings, which are likely hoaxes, but which appear to be the introductory vector for the Major Tom concept, in my reading.
posted by mwhybark at 11:40 PM on November 20, 2013 [2 favorites]

I thought she was in contact with the Chinese space station survivors who were just as doomed as she was. The howling just started spontaneously due to language difficulties and the pressure of the situation, there is nothing to do but howl.

She hears the real dogs in the background before they start human-howling.
posted by memebake at 7:05 AM on November 23, 2013

The Bellmnan: No spoilers, but ruined by the last few seconds. We're not idiots. Come on.

You mean the last few seconds of Aningaaq? The events depicted in Gravity would mean that what you see in the last few seconds of Aninqaaq would be happening all over the planet, for days and days.
posted by memebake at 7:07 AM on November 23, 2013

She hears the real dogs in the background before they start human-howling.

I thought it might be radio noise, some background noise from machinery or another person, or some other random sound that she interpreted as a dog. It seemed completely impossible that she was in contact with anyone on Earth, since that was one of the primary themes, her total isolation. Oh well, that's what makes film an art, what you thought you were conveying is not necessarily how the viewer interprets it.
posted by charlie don't surf at 8:17 AM on November 23, 2013