The film changing how we see the internet - BBC Culture
When we think about how the internet shapes our lives, especially in art, we tend to imagine the worst. From TV shows like Black Mirror and feature documentaries like The Social Dilemma, to novels like The Circle, writers and filmmakers have portrayed the digital realm as one where we indulge self-destructive and narcissistic impulses, and where our privacy and security is breached. However, as the dystopian treatments of the internet mount up, one filmmaker has been on a different mission: to showcase the beauty of online connection. In the eyes of Japanese anime director Mamoru Hosoda, the web is an ever-evolving realm of exciting potential, an attitude embodied in his aesthetic approach to visualising this digital world.
Hosoda's optimism about our interactions with the digital world are most apparent in his latest feature Belle, which is released in the US this week. A remix of Beauty and the Beast for the digital age, it tells the story of Suzu, a teenage girl living in the Japanese countryside with her widowed father, from whom she is partly estranged because of his lingering grief, and his unspoken lack of understanding as to his child's state of mind.
A 21st Century update of Beauty and the Beast, Belle centres on Suzu, a teenager with a parallel online existence as digital popstar Bell (Credit: Alamy)
