1. Lars and the Real Girl

This 2007 film had Ryan Gosling playing a socially awkward man who is incapable of forging close relationships. When he does, it is a non-sexual equation with an anatomically correct doll, aka a Real Doll, named Bianca. Armed with all the elements that could have easily pushed this film into creepy territory, Lars and the Real Girl shines for Gosling’s heartfelt performance, its tragicomic look at loneliness and a treatment that makes it both uniquely absurd and painfully real.

2. Her

We are in the rapidly growing world of AI, and filmmaker Spike Jonze recognised that more than a decade ago with this story of an introverted writer — Theodore, played by Joaquin Phoenix — who falls in love with the titular ‘Her’. ‘Her’ is not a woman but the female voice of his computer operating system. The fact that it is voiced by Scarlett Johansson makes Theodore’s obsession seem a wee bit plausible. The film stands out for its incisive look at modern relationships and the fine line that exists between humans and technology.

3. I Love You

This satire from director Marco Ferreri features Christopher Lambert as Michel, a miserable man who has failed at love and finds solace in a mechanical key holder, that looks like a bobblehead, and ‘talks’ to him. Ferreri is on familiar ground here, weaving in his trademark French dark humour, particularly in that scene where Michael gets jealous when his roommate activates the voice on the keychain holder or when it starts ‘reacting’ to the women on television. The film completed for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival that year.

4. Herb & I

This French short focuses on a young woman, who in the aftermath of a violent relationship, gets romantically attached to an electric fan. Things are hunky-dory until a friend insists on coming over to meet her ‘boyfriend’. Writer-director Sebastian Schnabel takes just 13 minutes to fashion a compelling tale which is quirky yet insightful.

5. Mannequin

Kim Cattrall — in her pre-Samantha Jones era — played an ancient Egyptian princess reincarnated as a department store mannequin, managing to capture the heart of a lonely man, played by Andrew McCarthy. The film remains in the memory of ’80s viewers as a lighthearted romantic romp with an oddball premise. It is silly in many parts but gets it right when it predicts that technology can well and truly create a chasm between two humans.

6. Electric Dreams

The 1980s did have some crazy stuff. Electric Dreams traces the bizarre love triangle that forms when an architect’s personal computer begins romancing the woman he loves. Mayhem, and a lot of laughs, follow.

7. Deerskin

A recent divorcee (played by Academy Award winner Jean Dujardin) becomes obsessed with a vintage fringed deerskin jacket that begins to exert an uncanny hold on him. Premiered at Cannes, Deerskin is a poignant yet uproariously funny portrait of a man driven insane by loneliness and wears its weirdness on its sleeve.

Priyanka Roy
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