FROM MICROSCOPE
TO MULTIPLEX
There’s more to science at the movies than Lex Luthor’s attempts to synthesize kryptonite. In the
first of two features on film, John Whitfield looks at how a cinematographic technique can provide
insights into the perception of reality. In the second, Alison Abbott meets Ben Heisenberg, a
director whose first film is a taut moral fable of laboratory life.
Easily deluded
The mental state that arises when we interact
with unreality is complex. We get involved to
the extent that, say, we cry when Bambi’s
Life like: a filming technique in which normal footage is transformed into cartoons is being mother dies, but not so involved that we walk
exploited by neuroscientists to assess how the brain responds to more or less realistic scenes. out of the cinema and strike up a conversation
with the nearest rabbit. Whatever the explana-
mundane video; it’s certainly the case that film and animation mould the brain, says tion is, says psychologist Richard Gerrig of the
watching the rotoscoped dreamscapes is a Frith. “The brain responds to cultural effects, State University of New York, Stony Brook, it
peculiarly rich experience. and the conventions of realism are constantly isn’t the much-touted suspension of disbelief,
“It’s an elegant but challenging study,” says changing,” he says. What because disbelief is not the default.
Saxe. “It’s hard to imagine a more minimal con- counts as real, according to “People believe everything, and
trast that more effectively manipulates this these conventions, depends “People one must expend effort to disbe-
dimension. But the findings are mysterious.” on technologies of repre- believe lieve,” says Gerrig.
The mystery is what the patterns of brain activ- sentation; as technology has The brain, it seems, has a default
ity in the two treatments mean. It may be that changed, so has our percep- everything, setting of credulity, and a keen
the lower activity in the TPJ stimulated by the tion of the hallmarks of and one appetite for consuming and pro-
cartoons reflects the fact that the animations are reality. People once believed must expend ducing stories. Narrative is a cru-
easier to process into ideas about intention than newsreels only if they were cial tool in our efforts to
the ‘real life’ footage. Mar, however, plumps for in black and white. Cur- effort to understand the world and some
an alternative, although not necessarily contra- rently, the mark of authen- disbelieve.” brain areas seem specialized for
dictory explanation — that the more detailed ticity — exploited, for — Richard processing it3. Information pre-
video footage contains more cues of intention, example, in Paul Green- sented in narrative form lowers
ticking more of the brain’s boxes. His next plan grass’s Bloody Sunday and Gerrig our critical faculties, and experi-
is to show subjects both a real, live hand poking United 93 — is wobbly ments show that the more deeply
into the scanner and a video of the same event, handheld footage. The coarseness of video people become immersed in a story, the easier
and see how their brains respond. stock, as used in The Blair Witch Project, is a it is to sway their attitudes towards those advo-
“It suggests a template-matching mecha- similar signifier of reality. cated in that story4. This resonates with A
nism,” adds neuroscientist Kevin Pelphrey of Our understanding of the social brain is still Scanner Darkly, when an undercover cop
Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. rudimentary, Frith adds. “We know quite a lot becomes so engrossed in his ‘fictional’ identity
“It may be that the more realistic stimuli portray about which regions are involved, but almost as a drug dealer that his police persona begins
more intentionality, which these brain regions nothing about what they’re actually doing, and to pursue his criminal one. Resisting our
prefer.” But more realistic doesn’t necessarily
© WARNER BROS. PICTURES 2006
susceptibility to stories is a useful skill in a ity to lose yourself in a fictional world might John Whitfield is a freelance writer based in
media- and advertising-saturated world, says reflect your ability to navigate the genuine London.
Gerrig. “We need to get kids and adults to con- social world. Mar and his colleagues have
struct disbelief. Because people don’t know found that the more time a person spends read- 1. Mar, R. A., Kelley, W. M., Heatherton, T. F. & Macrae, C. N.
about this tendency, it puts them at risk.” ing fiction the greater his or her empathy and (in the press).
2. Gallagher, H. L., Jack, A. I., Roepstorff, A & Frith, C. D.
“It’s not important whether you label some- social skills; for readers of expository non-fic- NeuroImage 16, 814–821 (2002).
thing as fiction or non-fiction,” Mar agrees. tion (such as, to pick an example at random, 3. Mar, R. A. Neuropsychologia 42, 1414–1434 (2004).
“The true distinction is between narrative and science journalism) the correlation is negative5. 4. Gerrig, R. J. & Rapp, D. N. Poetics Today 25, 265–281
(2004).
non-narrative expository forms that don’t draw I thought it would be best to keep back that par- 5. Mar, R. A., Oatley, K., Hirsh, J., dela Paz, J. & Peterson, J. B.
you into their world.” It also looks as if the abil- ticular piece of reality until the end. ■ J. Res. Pers. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2005.08.002 (2005).
OLAF UNIV./COOP99/ JUICY FILM
In Benjamin Heisenberg’s first feature film, a molecular biologist (left) informs on his
colleague (centre, left) to a woman from the secret service, with chilling consequences.
craft, not art,” he says, recalling the scepticism and I was sure that one incorrect detail would
some teachers had of his earlier short films. not disturb the realism of the lab scenes.”
“Their film history started with Terminator II His father suspects he was the source of
and they told me ‘oh no, don’t do art, no one Benjamin’s view of the importance of a Nature
will watch it; it’s just a mindfuck’.” He laughs at paper, something he finds a little embarrass-
his own audacity and earnestness. ing: “I always tell my students that these things
The idea for Schläfer came to Heisenberg shouldn’t matter so much.” And Benjamin says
shortly after 11 September 2001. “I saw that he himself has only experienced labs with
domestic security was being tightened and very positive atmospheres. “My portrayal of
that no one was objecting,” he says. “There a pushy lab, whose competitive atmosphere
would have been mass demos if politicians had became poisonous, comes from what other
tried to pass even a part of the new security scientists tell me exists.”
laws ten years ago.” Fear, he noted, was chang- In Schläfer, this poisonous atmosphere leads
ing people’s politics. It led him to wonder: how Johannes to betray Farid, a decision we con-
do fear and politics affect personal lives and demn but understand. His betrayal is fore-
relationships? How much does it take to shadowed by a scene in which Johannes kills a
weaken someone’s moral convictions? lab mouse. “We see a parallel in Johannes’ abil-
Growing up among scientists, Benjamin ity to coldly kill an animal, even though we
knew that the scientific environment had the know from other scenes that he is a caring and
dramatic potential for examining these ques- sensitive person,” says Benjamin. “Killing an
tions. Scientists are dedicated, driven and Benjamin Heisenberg’s film Sleeper asks what it animal for the greater good of science requires
sometimes ruthlessly competitive. Scientific takes to weaken a person’s moral convictions. a decision to cross an ethical border — and
conflicts could illustrate how much pressure then you just do it without thinking about the
— or how little — it takes to break a person’s We are never told the details of the research ethics every day.” Benjamin imagines some-
ethical spine. The international nature of sci- project. “People would stop listening — they thing similar must happen when someone
ence was also important to the plot, because an only need to know enough to understand why decides to spy for the secret service.
Arabic researcher would not be so unusual. a conflict has developed, and Would the German secret
Benjamin created a potentially explosive, but glimpse its complexity,” says service really recruit scientists
plausible, mix of characters: a ruthlessly ambi- Benjamin. But any milieu has to “My portrayal in a public research lab? It’s not
tious principal investigator; and two equally be convincing to make viewers of a pushy lab out of the question, says Martin
ambitious, inexperienced young researchers believe in the film. This is why comes from Heisenberg, who witnessed an
who collaborate, yet compete with each other. Benjamin took pains to ensure east German spy in his former
Two events test their friendship and colle- the science throughout was as what other lab at the institute for virology
giality. First, they fall in love with the same girl, real as possible. scientists tell at the University of Tübingen
Beate. When she chooses Farid, Johannes Enter Katarina zu Eulen- me exists.” before German reunification.
makes contact with the secret service agent he burg, Benjamin’s cousin, and “He regularly went through
had previously spurned. But when Farid turns an immunology PhD student — Benjamin notebooks and transmitted
moody on Beate — he has learnt that he is at Berlin’s Humboldt Univer- Heisenberg information.”
being watched, but doesn’t know by whom — sity. She read the script and Alexander Kekulé, a micro-
she takes temporary comfort with Johannes. hosted the actors in her lab, teaching them biologist at the University of Halle, Germany,
Uplifted by his romantic triumph, Johannes how to pipette liquids and handle animals. says that spying on a suspected terrorist in a
tells the secret service he will no longer speak She was on set, ensuring that in each lab scene German lab today is entirely conceivable.
with them. the actors and extras were working appropri- “There have been recent scandals in Germany
Then a lab drama sets things on their final, ately. She even provided her gloved hands for about the BND [secret service] getting jour-
fateful course. One day Farid barges excitedly close-ups of detailed procedures. “It was such nalists to spy on their colleagues — there
into Johannes’ lab: “Nature has said ‘yes’!” Sup- fun — and I realized how similar the proce- would be even fewer scruples in spying in
pressing his annoyance that he didn’t know a dures of film-making are to doing a research other professions, including science.”
paper had been submitted, Johannes is thrilled. project,” she says. “It is hard and disciplined With Schläfer, Benjamin says he has got the
He had, after all, helped Farid’s project by work which you really have to believe in, big moral issues out of his system, at least tem-
reanalysing his sequence because it takes such a long porarily. His next film is about a bank robber
OLAF UNIV./COOP99 /JUICY FILM
data and identifying two time to get the idea, write the in Vienna.
overlooked genes that script, find the financing and But he knows he will come back to science
were key to solving their then make the film.” in the future. “Mostly science in films is char-
biological puzzle. They Her and Benjamin’s efforts acterized by the classical mad professor, or
celebrate. But then he were rewarded when Schläfer someone running around saying ‘Oh my God!
learns that the manipu- won the 2005 Midas Prize for The organ emulator is running at 400%!’ —
lative Behringer has the best European drama with no one having a clue what that could
excluded him from the featuring science. But after mean.” But film-makers are becoming much
author list. His rage is seeing the film, Martin more aware of the dramatic possibilities of
ignited, with chilling con- Heisenberg told his son that science, he says: “The time of science in films
sequences for Farid. After no one — not even a scientist is coming.” ■
Farid is arrested for sus- as ruthless as Behringer — Alison Abbott is Nature’s senior European
pected involvement in a can swap names on a paper correspondent.
failed Munich bombing, already accepted by Nature.
Behringer replaces Farid’s But Benjamin didn’t reshoot. The DVD of Schläfer with English subtitles is
name with Johannes’ on When Johannes decides to spy on his “The dramatic moment was available from September. It can be bought
the Nature paper. colleague, he crosses an ethical line. too important to the plot, from www.filmgalerie451.de.
925
©2006 Nature Publishing Group