Francine Was a Machine
2019
Francine Was a Machine tells the story of René Descartes’ mechanical daughter, a fable about a man of rationality and science creating a human-looking machine in the place of his dead daughter Francine. During a travel through a storm at sea, the crew on the ship discovers the doll in Descartes’ cabin and throw it into the ocean with great awe and horror.
The film intertwines this story with images from a workshop producing sex dolls with artificial intelligence. Body parts and electronics, flesh colored silicon and casting molds are inhabiting this place. The film then turns to underwater images of cephalopods, speculating on where Descartes’ doll ended her mechanical life and what became of her when she escaped the rational dualist world view of her creator.
The film intertwines this story with images from a workshop producing sex dolls with artificial intelligence. Body parts and electronics, flesh colored silicon and casting molds are inhabiting this place. The film then turns to underwater images of cephalopods, speculating on where Descartes’ doll ended her mechanical life and what became of her when she escaped the rational dualist world view of her creator.
