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Synopsis
The desire to bring the perfect artificial woman to life is as old as Pygmalion, but new technologies are making its realization ever more likely. Limning the border between science fiction and fact, this provocative and eye-opening documentary journeys from the outer limits of fantasy—visiting classic scenes of fembots in film and television—to the state-of-the-art reality of artificial companions—from life-sized silicone love dolls to humanoid robots. At its heart are the stories of men—builders, animators, and lovers—who keep the dream of artificial companionship alive: Slade, the “Realdoll Doctor” who runs a “hospital” for broken love dolls; Chris, the robot builder, whose business plans include offering replacement spouses to bereft widowers; Michael, a self-described German mad scientist attempting to create the most advanced sexual android in the world; Sorayama, the well-known Japanese artist whose “sexy robot and gynoid” pin-ups have graced numerous walls and rock album covers; and others, both strange and strangely familiar. Narrated by screen icon and former television android Julie Newmar, THE MECHANICAL BRIDE is a deeply human look at the ‘cluster image of sex, technology, and death’ described by media scholar Marshall McLuhan over a half century ago in his book of the same name.
