The Matrix

1999, Wachowski and Wachowski, USA, 136 min.

Introduced by computer scientist Ken Perlin

Keanu Reeves plays Neo, a computer hacker who discovers that none of what’s happening around him is real. Like most of the people around him, Neo is trapped within the Matrix, a huge artificial intelligence system that creates the illusion of a real world while using human bodies and brains for energy. Guided by his mentor Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), Neo discovers that he is “The One,” the only person who can break open the Matrix and create a liberated experience of reality.

“In a film that’s as likely to transfix fans of computer gamesmanship as to baffle anyone with quaintly humanistic notions of life on earth, the Wachowskis have synthesized a savvy visual vocabulary”¦, a wild hodgepodge of classical references “¦ and a situation that calls for a lot of explaining.”

—Janet Maslin

About Cabaret Cinema: Perception

Can the truth truly be trusted? Is it objective or rather tinted by our experience and memories? Perhaps there is no better medium with which to explore these questions than the illusory cinema. In that pursuit we have invited scientists to introduce films that potently demonstrate that much of our perception is clouded by the distorted lens of our assumptions and desires.

About the Introducer

Ken Perlin is a professor in the department of computer science at New York University, directs the Media Research Lab, and is a participating faculty member at NYU MAGNET. His research interests include future reality, graphics and animation, user interfaces, and education. Previously he was general chair of the UIST2010 conference, directed the NYU Center for Advanced Technology and Games for Learning Institute, and was a featured artist at the Whitney Museum of American Art. He received his PhD in computer science from NYU and a BA in theoretical mathematics from Harvard.