hat if computer science advanced to the point that it were possible to view historical events by processing the information in old photographs? Taking things to the next step, might it then be possible to glean enough genetic information about a historical figure to penetrate time itself and carry on two-way conversation with someone who died in the 19th century?
That's the intriguing premise of Lynn Hershman Leeson's film, "Conceiving Ada," a movie that is much better at throwing out ideas than at telling a story or at creating compelling characters.
In Ms. Leeson's cyber-fantasy, which opens Friday in Manhattan, Emmy Coer (Francesca Faridany), a contemporary computer whiz experimenting with artificial reality, is obsessed with the life of Ada Byron King (Tilda Swinton), the mathematically gifted daughter of Lord Byron.
Ada, who died of uterine cancer in 1852 at the age of 37, is widely credited with having developed the world's first computer program. A machine called the Analytic Engine, which she conceived with a collaborator, Charles Babbage (John O'Keefe), is today recognized as a direct forerunner of the modern computer.
"Conceiving Ada" parallels Emmy's life with Ada's. Both have nagging, meddlesome mothers (played by Karen Black) who try to suppress their daughters' creativity and re-direct their lives toward more conventional domestic goals.
Both have lovers who resent their work and interfere with it. Ada, like her father, has several lovers, as well as a spouse. Emmy has a boyfriend, Nicholas (J.D. Wolfe), who pressures her to have a baby.
Putting in a bizarre appearance is an alarmingly gaunt Timothy Leary (whose death in 1996 dates this movie by at least three years) as Emmy's mentor, Sims.
A director's statement in the film's production notes states that "Conceiving Ada" was "structured around the idea of a double helix." "Every scene," the notes say, "was structured and shot using a DNA image as a model for actors' placement and camera movement."
Amplifying the theme of artificial reality is the movie's use of virtual sets in the 19th-century settings that show, among other things, a fake-looking electronic fire flickering in the hearth of Ada's bedroom.
While such effects lend the look of the film a stylish technological gloss, they also contribute to its overall air of woodenness and shrill didacticism. Ada is painted as a feminist martyr whose work, just like Emmy's, is threatened with co-optation by an envious and less intelligent male collaborator.
It wouldn't be fair to give away the ending in which Ada and Emmy establish the ultimate connection. Suffice it to say, it's a much soberer and technologically sophisticated version of Julie Christie's fate in the 1977 film "Demon Seed."
PRODUCTION NOTES
'CONCEIVING ADA'
Directed by Lynn Hershman Leeson; written by Ms. Leeson and Eileen Jones, their conception of Ada's life based on the book "Ada, the Enchantress of Numbers, a Selection From the Letters of Lord Byron's Daughter and Her Description of the First Computer," by Betty A. Toole; director of photography, Hiro Narita; director of photography (virtual sets), Bill Zarchy; edited by Robert Dalva; music by the Residents; produced by Ms. Leeson and Henry S. Rosenthal; released by Fox Lorber. Running time: 85 minutes. This film is not rated.
WITH: Tilda Swinton (Ada Byron King), Timothy Leary (Sims), Karen Black (Lady Byron/Mother Coer), Francesca Faridany (Emmy Coer) J.D. Wolfe (Nicholas) and John O'Keefe (Charles Babbage).
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