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\u201c<\/span>I can feel when you\u2019re watching me, I\u00a0like it\u201d is the first line uttered by Kathryn (Cate Blanchett) in a\u00a0cool seductive tone to her loyal husband George (Michael Fassbender) in Stephen Soderbergh\u2019s spy thriller,\u00a0<\/span>Black Bag<\/i>. The couple are no strangers to surveillance as their vocation in MI5<\/span><\/span> requires it, but George\u2019s gaze is welcomed due to the innate desire and loyalty within. However, as the film progresses and George\u2019s investigation forces him to question whether his wife is the intelligence leak, his once intimate gaze begins to shift. With the help of Clarissa (Marisa Aribela), George uses satellite footage to watch Kathryn\u2019s covert mission, and so the dynamic changes. Although George insists that their marriage works because he watches her and assumes she watches him, the frisson is no longer between the couple, but instead in the satellite control room between Clarissa and George. While feline seductress Clarissa purrs her words, George takes no pleasure from this task; there is no longer any thrill in being the watcher or the watched.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n George and Kathryn\u2019s marriage is not the only bond that strains under the weight of espionage. Every other agent \u2013 Clarissa, Freddie (Tom Burke), James (Reg\u00e9-Jean Page) and even the agency-mandated therapist Zoe (Naomie Harris) \u2013 struggles to maintain healthy relationships. Soderbergh\u2019s latest concerns itself with distrustful spies, with the ability to lie about every encounter, but it could easily be a\u00a0portrait of the London dating scene. In a\u00a0densely-populated city where everyone has access to dating apps, the possibilities are presumably endless. No one has to choose, and yet according to\u00a0<\/span>Moya Lothian-McLean\u2019s detailed report<\/span><\/a>, no one is having a\u00a0good time.<\/span><\/p>\n The feeling of being watched even falls to those who don\u2019t partake in vocational voyeurism (like spy Caul or photographer Jeff). The students of Neo Sora\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>Happyend<\/i> are the subjects of surveillance rather than active participants, as their school has just installed a\u00a0new CCTV<\/span> system which identifies and automatically penalises students for breaking school rules. One poignant scene perfectly encapsulates the subconscious effects constant surveillance has on its students. After mopping the floor of the music room clean, Ming (Shina Peng) and Ata-Chan (Yuta Hayashi) find themselves stuck in the corner of the room, at least until the floor dries. They have washed away their past transgressions and are paralysed, afraid to leave footprints on the sanitised school floor, while another pair caught embracing in a\u00a0stairwell are immediately chided by the camera. Much like today\u2019s younger generations who have no memory of a\u00a0dial-up modem, the students of\u00a0<\/span>Happyend<\/i> are quickly learning to sacrifice sensual experiences for the value judgement of technology.<\/span><\/p>\n Last loves are just as susceptible to surveillance\u2019s lure as first crushes. In Cronenberg\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>The Shrouds<\/i>, no one is surprised that grief-stricken entrepreneur Karsh (Vincent Cassel) is striking out on dates since his wife Becca\u2019s (Diane Kruger) death. Especially when he takes Myrna (Jennifer Dale) to a\u00a0graveside restaurant and shows her his wife\u2019s decaying corpse through the app he invented on his phone. Karsh has become so accustomed to his new normal, regularly checking on Becca\u2019s decomposing body, that he can no longer comprehend other people\u2019s discomfort around death. His morbid obsession soon takes him to paranoid heights, uncovering a\u00a0betrayal in his last marriage and so Karsh, with all his tech and intelligence, is right back where Caul started: confirming his paranoias, even at the detriment of himself. Karsh does not end up alone, his money and status prevent that from happening, but even as he finds a\u00a0new grave partner, this eternally binding contract is ultimately soulless, leaving the viewer hollow.<\/span><\/p>\n Big tech\u2019s encroachment into every corner of our lives has made surveillance so ubiquitous that we take on its invasive roles even when we don\u2019t have to, inevitably leading to breakdowns of trust and intimacy in favour of widespread hypervigilance. These latest additions to surveillance cinema all share a\u00a0sleek, cold touch in their depictions of surveillance technologies, with observation and objective truth prioritised over the messy, chaotic, nuanced human experience of love. From first crushes to grave encounters, this is how disruptive tech has become in our romantic lives. Our active participation in a\u00a0culture which values information above all else makes us as detached as the algorithms that categorise us. Perhaps in order to find the love and connection many of us feel is missing from our lives, we need to recognise that all this information won\u2019t bring us any closer. Then, we might even be able to kill the CCTV<\/span> inside our\u00a0head.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n