Her (2013)
Film screening and panel discussion
What happens when a machine gets to know us better than our friends and partners? Can we get hooked on a relationship that never disagrees with us? Fritt Ord and Vega Scene invite you to a screening of Spike Jonze’s Her from 2013, followed by a panel discussion.
After the film, documentary filmmaker Tonje Hessen Schei, who made films including Praying for Armageddon, iHuman and Drone, will talk with psychologist and author Sissel Gran, who has written extensively about becoming hooked on romantic relationships, and Petter Bae Brandtzæg, a professor at the University of Oslo and one of the leading researchers on relationships between people and chatbots. The discussion will be moderated by Tellef Raabe, project manager at Fritt Ord.
About the film:
Theodore makes a living writing heartfelt letters on behalf of people who cannot write them themselves. Then he falls in love with his operating system. When director Spike Jonze’s modern classic Her came out in 2013, the idea was science fiction. Today, millions of people have daily conversations with AI assistants that remember what they have told them, respond in warm voices and always have time.
Her, starring Joaquin Phoenix with Scarlett Johansson as the voice of Samantha, won the Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Original Screenplay. The film remains perhaps the most precise depiction of what happens when technology moves into the most private parts of our lives. And reality is imitating fiction: When OpenAI launched its voice assistant in 2024, CEO Sam Altman posted one word on X: «her». The voice sounded like Johansson’s.
What does it do to us when a machine gets to know us better than our friends and partners? Can we get hooked on a relationship that never disagrees with us? And how does a chatbot affect the way we see the world?
After the film, documentary filmmaker Tonje Hessen Schei, who made films including Praying for Armageddon, iHuman and Drone, will talk with psychologist and author Sissel Gran, who has written extensively about becoming hooked on romantic relationships, and Petter Bae Brandtzæg, a professor at the University of Oslo and one of the leading researchers on relationships between people and chatbots. The discussion will be moderated by Tellef Raabe, project manager at Fritt Ord.
Vega Scene, Hausmanns gate 28, 0182 Oslo
