Computer Chess: Through the Eyes of the Machine and All of It's Limitations

Computer Chess takes the period piece to a new level by filming with the period's own media. Director Andrew Bujalski creates a spot-on early 1980s mise en scene, but also adds the perspective of an early 1980s camera. Bujalski (Mutual Appreciation (2005) and Funny Ha Ha (2002)) filmed with analog black and white video cameras (save for a brief scene possibly filmed with color 8mm). The quality of the cinematography is what you would expect from a low budget documentary made in the early 1980s; a simple documentation of a low-profile hotel-hosted event. It's quivering, there's ghosting, it's in 3:4 aspect ratio, and nothing is ever quite in focus. At the start of the film we understand that this is footage from an early 1980s computer programing competition. It is hosted by a pompous, elderly champion chess player who will play the winning computer; the one best programmed to play chess.

The mockumentary status of the film only last for the first few minutes, until we are shown omniscient scenes and angles that could only exists if there were many many nosy, easy to ignore camera men. The camera man who films the actual documentation of the competition is often filmed himself, but by who? That's when it's clear this will be more than a mocukmentary, and the reality of the film is seen through the eyes of the machine and all of it's limitations.

One of the main characters is Wiley Wiggins who is no stranger to mind bending movies thanks to Richard Linklater

A film from 2012 called No used a similar technique by filming it's 1988 Chilean period piece with ¾ inch Sony U-matic magnetic tape. This artistic decision is a bold one, since there is a risk that viewers could just not get it and become frustrated with the quality, or on the reverse, be so distracted and enchanted by it's novelty that they would over-look how possibly awful it is on other levels. (I was going to use Casa de Mi Padre as an example, but no one was fooled by that one).

Bujalski uses this film style not only to be super realistic but as a metaphorical tool. Computer Chess is about exactly what it sounds like. The chess board is black and white, so is the film. The video camera is as much a part of technology as the chess playing computers, and by today's standards they are both laughable in their capabilities. Despite the decades of advancement, I can never claim to come close to the level of programing the characters in this film were executing. That said, it is a unique experience to see these characters working hard to find the answers behind a curtain of primitive cinematography, where they are portrayed as complicated and intelligent people and not the butt of a joke about how "simple" computers used to be. The point is that they have never been too simple.

While A.I. sounds like a Steven Spielberg movie from 2001, the characters in Computer Chess discuss the concept of Artificial Intelligence even while they work on computers that can't display video, don't have Internet, and need to be 50 lbs to play a game of chess - and only chess.

Of course the theme that begs to come along with Artificial Intelligence is the differences between computers and humans. Computers are numbers, boxes, logic, metal, wires; they can become stuck in a loop where logic fails. Humans are souls, emotional, social, sexual; they make mistakes but they have the ability to move forward despite this. The foil of the computer chess competition is a couples' retreat held by an African guru. Every day their sessions immediately precede the computer chess competition in the same function hall. The groups are fundamental opposites of each other. The group of computer programmers are in a competition, they are socially awkward and tense. The group of couples on their retreat are always huddled in a circle shouting out strange noises and having re-birthing ceremonies. They seem genuinely interested in the computer people, and want to interact with them despite the lack of reciprocation or outright hostility. The contrast is striking and important. As said by one of these couples, "We don't believe in coincidences."

Computer Chess is not what it seems. I will leave you with some key words and themes to remember: A.I., birth, loops, nature v.s computers, sex vs. nerds, the infinite, cats.