Don’t be fooled by the title: Robin Wright is not actually going to Congress. The Congress is the title of the latest film by Ari Folman (Waltz with Bashir), based on The Futuristic Congress by sci-fi author Stanislaw Lem. It stars Wright as a fictional version of herself who agrees to undergo a procedure that will copy her form and thoughts for future use by movie studios. The process has some unintended consequences, however, and Wright finds herself in a futuristic cartoon world that features some pretty spectacular animation.
The latest US poster for The Congress does not seem to do justice to the subject matter, which is delineated far better in the fascinating trailer for the film. The poster mostly just features a process of digitalizing Wright, but it’s obvious from the trailer that there’s a bit more to the story than that.
The film premiered at Cannes back in 2013, but it has not yet had its US release. More is the pity, because the film looks like a fascinating and multi-facetted work, mixing live action with animation and an existential story that brings in elements of Wright’s real life (like appearing in The Princess Bride) to meld with the fictional world. It also contains a surprisingly stellar secondary cast, including Paul Giamatti, Harvey Keitel, and Danny Huston. Finally, the animation that we see in the trailer is beautiful, and not at all what I expected when I read the initial plot synopsis.
The Congress will be hitting theatres on August 29 of this year, so we have that to look forward to. Until then, you can check out the new US poster and the trailer below to get a taste of what’s in store. I hope you put this one on your “to-see” list, because I am certainly going to.
