The Wachowski brothers

(Andy Wachowski: December 26, 1967; Larry Wachowski: June 21, 1965)

Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, Andy and Larry Wachowski began creating comic books together at a young age. They dropped out of college to pursue careers in show business, and also at one time ran a carpentry business. They co-wrote the screenplay for the feature film Assassins(1995) starring Sylvester Stallone and Antonio Banderas, and then went on to co-write, co-direct and executive produce Bound (1996), which debuted at the Toronto Film Festival. The film won awards from several festivals, including the Grand Jury Award; a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Film, and an International Fantasy Film Award at Fantasporto.

It was their next film, however, that propelled them to the Hollywood A-list. Again, they co-wrote, co-directed and executive produced The Matrix(1999), starring Keanu Reeves. The film won four Academy Awards for Editing, Sound Effects Editing, Visual Effects and Sound. The Wachowski brothers shared a Saturn Award for Best Director from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films that same year.

The public was clamoring for Matrix sequels, and fortunately, the Wachowskis had always envisioned The Matrix saga as a trilogy. The brothers co-wrote two sequels – The Matrix Reloaded (2003) and The Matrix Revolutions – and shot them back to back in Australia. Despite these high profile projects, the brothers like to preserve their privacy and do not release much information about their lives. They refused offers to promote their Matrix sequels, saying that they want the films to speak for themselves. The Wachowskis were also heavily involved in the making ofThe Animatrix, a series of short films that expand upon their Matrix Universe. They likewise wrote and filmed over an hour of exclusive footage for the Enter The Matrix video game, which is directly connected to the storyline of The Matrix Reloaded.

The semiotic analysis of the film «The Matrix»

«The Matrix» is the cult science fiction film, the film was shot by brothers Andy and Larry Wachowski.

The film was first released in the U.S. March 31, 1999 and marked the beginning of a trilogy of films, and comic books, computer games and cartoons on the grounds.

The film describes the theory that the Matrix is an interactive computer program that simulates reality for millions of people forcibly connected to her rebellious machines, which thus receive the energy of the people they need for the continued existence. The idea of the Matrix largely reproduces the myth of Plato's cave. The film contains many references to the cyberpunk and hacker subculture, philosophical and religious ideas. «The Matrix» also makes extensive use of the idea of «Alice in Wonderland», Hong Kong action movies and Japanese animation.

Became a film composer Don Davis. He noticed that the reflection effect is often used in the film: the reflection of red and blue pills in glasses Morpheus, Trinity watches Neo agents planted in his car in the rearview mirror on a motorcycle; foldaway reflection in a spoon, a reflection of the helicopter in the windows of a skyscraper. Davis focused on the theme of reflection, when I started writing music, replacing the orchestral theme for the contrapuntal ideas.

For the soundtrack of «The Matrix» was also used music Linkin Park, POD, Rob Dugan, Rage Against the Machine, Propellerheads, Ministry, Deftones, The Prodigy, Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson.

«Matrix Code» is portrayed in the film running down green characters. However, these characters are nothing more than a set of mirror image of the Latin alphabet letters, numbers and characters of Japanese katakana alphabet. Also on the code of the Matrix is like rain, running down the car window (in the scene under the bridge). The color scheme in the world of the Matrix distinctly green in color, but in the real world, more emphasis is put on blue.

The effect, called Bullet time («Time bullets») became the «calling card» of «The Matrix». Matrix means «queen», «womb». Matrix is such electronic uterus, which creates a virtual reality, to take its users for real. In this sense, the main question to which the protagonist has to answer: «What is Matrix?», «What is the Matrix?» – Is reformulated as a question: «What is a mother? Who is my mother?», That is the question of Oedipus. In this sense, the figure soothsayer naturally associated with the character of the Oedipus story as the Sphinx.

«Bullet time» – almost a full stop at a certain point of time, while the camera continues to move.

To create this effect, used an old art photography technique known as «time-slice» (time-slice), which is as follows: object is set around a large number of cameras that simultaneously remove the object. In the manufacture of circuit gluing frames reduce follows: first take the first frame of the first chamber, then the first frame of the second, the third, and so on. As a result, the viewer sees on the screen to a fixed, while the camera is moving around.

The film constantly meet the numbers 1 and 3. It is believed that Neo is an anagram of the word «one» (one), and the concept of «Chosen One» in English – «The One», and the Trinity is «Trinity». In another film, the Wachowski brothers – «V – for Vendetta» – the number 5 appears.

The real hero's name – Thomas Anderson. At the beginning of the film, Thomas doubts the reality of the situation. When you consider that Thomas – Thomas is the English style, his lack of confidence gets deeper philosophical sense (lack of faith of the Apostle Thomas (Thomas) is mentioned in the Gospel of John).

Neo means «new». Anderson surname means «son of man» (cf. «Son of Man» in the Gospel). Thus, his sight becomes Neo Thomas Anderson – «new son of man», or, if you will, «the new Son of Man», that is the new savior.

Many of the names of the film not only are without historical foundation, but also symbolically consistent in their story combinations. For example, Morpheus – In Greek mythology, the god of dreams, son of Hypnos, the god of sleep. (It should be noted that sends Hypnos sleep, and Morpheus already brings dreams). In «The Matrix» – Morpheus' ship is called «Nebuchadnezzar», the name of the king of Babylon. According to legend, an important role in the life of the king played a dream.

The names of the main characters in tune with computer terms:

Epoch (Epoch) – The term of the computer world, indicating a reference point from 1 January 1970. From that moment read the time in seconds on Unix, called format unixstamp

Fakie (Switch) – operator implements in some programming languages, multiple choice, as a device that allows you to build multiple-branched computer networks.

Mouse (Mouse) – Computer Mouse, is mainly used in systems with a graphical user interface.

The Oracle, Oracle (Oracle) – a common database management system (DBMS) using the query language SQL.

Captain Mifune – in tune with the name of the function «myfun», programmers sometimes use the same Hello World.

Link (Link) – the name of the computer connection.