This study aims to analyze three films whose digital creative constructions intend to persuade and seduce, but actually only create virtual illusions. The corpus includes the films S1mOne, by Andrew Niccol (2002), Her, by Spike Jonze (2013) and The App by Elisa Fuksas (2019). Each one of the films has its particular way to persuade spectators and protagonists that virtuality can replace real people. In S1m0ne, the image of the actress created digitally really succeeds to impress spectators, although the protagonist knows it is a fraud that has to come to an end. In Her, the protagonist is taken by the illusion that he is talking to a real person, “Samantha”, and the spectators realize before him that he is living an illusion. In The App, both protagonist and spectators only come to understand when they are told by the virtual image what is happening. Digital technology is a powerful tool to create illusion, although Méliès, considered the pioneer of fiction films, with his magical effects, gave us one of the best illusions with his flight to the moon, which inspired the desire to discover what the moon really uncovers. What we have now is described by Peter Weibel (2006) as “post-media computer possibilities”, already described as “post-media aesthetics” by Lev Manovich (2001). Some examples of this new media can be seen in the films Life of Pi , by Ang Lee (2012) and Gravity, by Alfonso Cuarón (2013). However, the three films chosen to be the corpus of my study can illustrate illusions that are now part of our daily lives, emphasizing the role of digital media. Cinema, which has always taken the role of creating dreams as part of its fictional character, can now count with many possibilities to create verisimilitude to persuade spectators and make protagonists believe in its digital creations, once more using its seduction to offer us moments of enjoyment and pleasure, and, at the same time, to make us think about positive and negative effects of digital media.
Keywords: digital cinema; persuasion: seduction; illusion; digital technology.