On the realist aesthetics of digital de-aging in contemporary Hollywood cinema

authored by: Kathleen Loock
Abstract: This essay examines digital de-aging—a process of making actors appear younger on-screen than they actually are that has taken a firm hold in contemporary Hollywood cinema—as a controversial filmmaking tool that raises fundamental questions about cinematic realism in the digital age. Since Hollywood’s visual effects are similar to the image manipulation that can be achieved with deepfake software, digital de-aging is framed as a complex creative process that supports the actors’ craft in order to distinguish it from the image manipulation and misinformation that has come to characterize the post-truth era. I will discuss the affordances and limitations of Hollywood’s “youthification” technology in terms of the shifting ontologies that characterize the transition from the photographic to the digital image, situate digital de-aging within larger debates about synthespians and the realistic portrayal of digitally created human beings, and argue that de-aging in films such as Gemini Man (Ang Lee, 2019) and The Irishman (Martin Scorsese, 2019) reconfigures linear temporalities and ultimately reshapes the concepts of time and memory by which we structure our life trajectories.
Organisation(s): English Department
Type: Article
Journal: Orbis Litterarum
Volume: 76
Pages: 214-225
No. of pages: 12
ISSN: 0105-7510
Publication date: 12.09.2021
Publication status: Published
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: Literature and Literary Theory
Electronic version(s): https://doi.org/10.1111/oli.12302 (Access: Open)

BibTeX

@article{e31826c6c72847028209049e4c491a94,
title = "On the realist aesthetics of digital de-aging in contemporary Hollywood cinema",
abstract = "This essay examines digital de-aging—a process of making actors appear younger on-screen than they actually are that has taken a firm hold in contemporary Hollywood cinema—as a controversial filmmaking tool that raises fundamental questions about cinematic realism in the digital age. Since Hollywood{\textquoteright}s visual effects are similar to the image manipulation that can be achieved with deepfake software, digital de-aging is framed as a complex creative process that supports the actors{\textquoteright} craft in order to distinguish it from the image manipulation and misinformation that has come to characterize the post-truth era. I will discuss the affordances and limitations of Hollywood{\textquoteright}s “youthification” technology in terms of the shifting ontologies that characterize the transition from the photographic to the digital image, situate digital de-aging within larger debates about synthespians and the realistic portrayal of digitally created human beings, and argue that de-aging in films such as Gemini Man (Ang Lee, 2019) and The Irishman (Martin Scorsese, 2019) reconfigures linear temporalities and ultimately reshapes the concepts of time and memory by which we structure our life trajectories.",
keywords = "digital de-aging, Hollywood cinema, memory, realism, visual effects",
author = "Kathleen Loock",
year = "2021",
month = sep,
day = "12",
doi = "10.1111/oli.12302",
language = "English",
volume = "76",
pages = "214--225",
journal = "Orbis Litterarum",
issn = "0105-7510",
publisher = "Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd",
number = "4",
}