In the DVD's accompanying featurette, the filmmakers explain that they were trying to create the noir feel of "Blade Runner" and James Ellroy crime novels in their 2006, black-and-white, animated sci-fi thriller, "Renaissance." Judging by everything that I saw, they succeeded, if only superficially, in recreating the feel of either, mostly duplicating the look but not quite the substance.
The French filmmakers released their movie to various festivals all over the world and then to limited release in a few countries, but it didn't get much play. It is essentially making its world debut on DVD. One can understand audiences not exactly going wild for the film. While it looks terrific, it is rather muddled in its plot and fairly mundane in its characterizations.
Christian Volckman directed the movie, but his only previous directorial effort was an eight-minute short called "Maaz." No recognition, eh? None here, either. Nor had I ever heard of "Renaissance" before. Yet the film had a good-sized budget for an animated feature. I wonder who green-lights these risky projects, or do the governments of some European countries subsidize these things?
In any case, the plot is typical of many sci-fi adventures, with a handsome hero investigating crime in a future totalitarian society. It's set somewhere in the mid twenty-first century, and the government of France controls everything that anybody does, and spies on everyone everywhere. More important, big business pretty much controls the government; in this case, it's a cosmetics conglomerate called Avalon, whose motto is "Health, beauty, longevity. We're on your side for life." They sell youth and beauty to the populace, at any price.
When one of Avalon's top researchers in the field of anti-aging goes missing, they demand the government find her. In turn, the government assigns a crack team of investigators to do the job, a team lead by Captain Barthelemy Karas (voiced in the English dub by actor Daniel Craig). The story has Karas going here and there in a rather complex way, looking into the possible kidnapping and, of course, meeting an assortment of bizarre, shady, quirky characters along the way.
Most of it is quite ordinary, and at no point does any of it catch fire or produce much excitement, tension, or suspense. The characters, for all their oddities, are flat and dull, and the plot is clichéd. Worse, there is never the faintest glimmer of humor in the proceedings, making it a long haul for 105 minutes.
Still, what it does have, besides the fine animation discussed below, is a good cast of voices. In addition to Craig (007), there is Romola Garai ("Scoop") as Ilona Tasuiev, the young woman gone missing; Catherine McCormack ("Spy Game") as Bislane, Ilona's older sister; Jonathan Pryce ("Brazil") as Paul Dellenbach, the head man at Avalon; Ian Holm ("LOTR") as Dr. Jonas Muller, Ilona's research supervisor; and Kevork Malikyan ("Flight of the Phoenix") as Farfella, a big-time crime boss who takes great baths.
Although these characters are well voiced, they are one-dimensional personalities. We don't even get to know Karas, the main character very well, except to learn that he grew up the hard way in the Casbah. How can we feel any sympathy for people about whom we know nothing?
I suppose when you think about it, the plot of any old noir thriller is muddled, so maybe that is what these filmmakers were after, something the audience would have a hard time following. If that was, indeed, their intent, they succeeded beyond their wildest expectations. If I hadn't been taking notes, I would have given up on the plot about a third of the way into the movie. To liven things up, the film carries an R rating, mostly for language, nudity, and sex. Well, this is a French film after all, cartoon or no.
The French filmmakers released their movie to various festivals all over the world and then to limited release in a few countries, but it didn't get much play. It is essentially making its world debut on DVD. One can understand audiences not exactly going wild for the film. While it looks terrific, it is rather muddled in its plot and fairly mundane in its characterizations.
Christian Volckman directed the movie, but his only previous directorial effort was an eight-minute short called "Maaz." No recognition, eh? None here, either. Nor had I ever heard of "Renaissance" before. Yet the film had a good-sized budget for an animated feature. I wonder who green-lights these risky projects, or do the governments of some European countries subsidize these things?
In any case, the plot is typical of many sci-fi adventures, with a handsome hero investigating crime in a future totalitarian society. It's set somewhere in the mid twenty-first century, and the government of France controls everything that anybody does, and spies on everyone everywhere. More important, big business pretty much controls the government; in this case, it's a cosmetics conglomerate called Avalon, whose motto is "Health, beauty, longevity. We're on your side for life." They sell youth and beauty to the populace, at any price.
When one of Avalon's top researchers in the field of anti-aging goes missing, they demand the government find her. In turn, the government assigns a crack team of investigators to do the job, a team lead by Captain Barthelemy Karas (voiced in the English dub by actor Daniel Craig). The story has Karas going here and there in a rather complex way, looking into the possible kidnapping and, of course, meeting an assortment of bizarre, shady, quirky characters along the way.
Most of it is quite ordinary, and at no point does any of it catch fire or produce much excitement, tension, or suspense. The characters, for all their oddities, are flat and dull, and the plot is clichéd. Worse, there is never the faintest glimmer of humor in the proceedings, making it a long haul for 105 minutes.
Still, what it does have, besides the fine animation discussed below, is a good cast of voices. In addition to Craig (007), there is Romola Garai ("Scoop") as Ilona Tasuiev, the young woman gone missing; Catherine McCormack ("Spy Game") as Bislane, Ilona's older sister; Jonathan Pryce ("Brazil") as Paul Dellenbach, the head man at Avalon; Ian Holm ("LOTR") as Dr. Jonas Muller, Ilona's research supervisor; and Kevork Malikyan ("Flight of the Phoenix") as Farfella, a big-time crime boss who takes great baths.
Although these characters are well voiced, they are one-dimensional personalities. We don't even get to know Karas, the main character very well, except to learn that he grew up the hard way in the Casbah. How can we feel any sympathy for people about whom we know nothing?
I suppose when you think about it, the plot of any old noir thriller is muddled, so maybe that is what these filmmakers were after, something the audience would have a hard time following. If that was, indeed, their intent, they succeeded beyond their wildest expectations. If I hadn't been taking notes, I would have given up on the plot about a third of the way into the movie. To liven things up, the film carries an R rating, mostly for language, nudity, and sex. Well, this is a French film after all, cartoon or no.
In the DVD's accompanying featurette, the filmmakers explain that they were trying to create the noir feel of "Blade Runner" and James Ellroy crime novels in their 2006, black-and-white, animated sci-fi thriller, "Renaissance." Judging by everything that I saw, they succeeded, if only superficially, in recreating the feel of either, mostly duplicating the look but not quite the substance.
The French filmmakers released their movie to various festivals all over the world and then to limited release in a few countries, but it didn't get much play. It is essentially making its world debut on DVD. One can understand audiences not exactly going wild for the film. While it looks terrific, it is rather muddled in its plot and fairly mundane in its characterizations.
Christian Volckman directed the movie, but his only previous directorial effort was an eight-minute short called "Maaz." No recognition, eh? None here, either. Nor had I ever heard of "Renaissance" before. Yet the film had a good-sized budget for an animated feature. I wonder who green-lights these risky projects, or do the governments of some European countries subsidize these things?
In any case, the plot is typical of many sci-fi adventures, with a handsome hero investigating crime in a future totalitarian society. It's set somewhere in the mid twenty-first century, and the government of France controls everything that anybody does, and spies on everyone everywhere. More important, big business pretty much controls the government; in this case, it's a cosmetics conglomerate called Avalon, whose motto is "Health, beauty, longevity. We're on your side for life." They sell youth and beauty to the populace, at any price.
When one of Avalon's top researchers in the field of anti-aging goes missing, they demand the government find her. In turn, the government assigns a crack team of investigators to do the job, a team lead by Captain Barthelemy Karas (voiced in the English dub by actor Daniel Craig). The story has Karas going here and there in a rather complex way, looking into the possible kidnapping and, of course, meeting an assortment of bizarre, shady, quirky characters along the way.
Most of it is quite ordinary, and at no point does any of it catch fire or produce much excitement, tension, or suspense. The characters, for all their oddities, are flat and dull, and the plot is clichéd. Worse, there is never the faintest glimmer of humor in the proceedings, making it a long haul for 105 minutes.
Still, what it does have, besides the fine animation discussed below, is a good cast of voices. In addition to Craig (007), there is Romola Garai ("Scoop") as Ilona Tasuiev, the young woman gone missing; Catherine McCormack ("Spy Game") as Bislane, Ilona's older sister; Jonathan Pryce ("Brazil") as Paul Dellenbach, the head man at Avalon; Ian Holm ("LOTR") as Dr. Jonas Muller, Ilona's research supervisor; and Kevork Malikyan ("Flight of the Phoenix") as Farfella, a big-time crime boss who takes great baths.
Although these characters are well voiced, they are one-dimensional personalities. We don't even get to know Karas, the main character very well, except to learn that he grew up the hard way in the Casbah. How can we feel any sympathy for people about whom we know nothing?
I suppose when you think about it, the plot of any old noir thriller is muddled, so maybe that is what these filmmakers were after, something the audience would have a hard time following. If that was, indeed, their intent, they succeeded beyond their wildest expectations. If I hadn't been taking notes, I would have given up on the plot about a third of the way into the movie. To liven things up, the film carries an R rating, mostly for language, nudity, and sex. Well, this is a French film after all, cartoon or no.
The French filmmakers released their movie to various festivals all over the world and then to limited release in a few countries, but it didn't get much play. It is essentially making its world debut on DVD. One can understand audiences not exactly going wild for the film. While it looks terrific, it is rather muddled in its plot and fairly mundane in its characterizations.
Christian Volckman directed the movie, but his only previous directorial effort was an eight-minute short called "Maaz." No recognition, eh? None here, either. Nor had I ever heard of "Renaissance" before. Yet the film had a good-sized budget for an animated feature. I wonder who green-lights these risky projects, or do the governments of some European countries subsidize these things?
In any case, the plot is typical of many sci-fi adventures, with a handsome hero investigating crime in a future totalitarian society. It's set somewhere in the mid twenty-first century, and the government of France controls everything that anybody does, and spies on everyone everywhere. More important, big business pretty much controls the government; in this case, it's a cosmetics conglomerate called Avalon, whose motto is "Health, beauty, longevity. We're on your side for life." They sell youth and beauty to the populace, at any price.
When one of Avalon's top researchers in the field of anti-aging goes missing, they demand the government find her. In turn, the government assigns a crack team of investigators to do the job, a team lead by Captain Barthelemy Karas (voiced in the English dub by actor Daniel Craig). The story has Karas going here and there in a rather complex way, looking into the possible kidnapping and, of course, meeting an assortment of bizarre, shady, quirky characters along the way.
Most of it is quite ordinary, and at no point does any of it catch fire or produce much excitement, tension, or suspense. The characters, for all their oddities, are flat and dull, and the plot is clichéd. Worse, there is never the faintest glimmer of humor in the proceedings, making it a long haul for 105 minutes.
Still, what it does have, besides the fine animation discussed below, is a good cast of voices. In addition to Craig (007), there is Romola Garai ("Scoop") as Ilona Tasuiev, the young woman gone missing; Catherine McCormack ("Spy Game") as Bislane, Ilona's older sister; Jonathan Pryce ("Brazil") as Paul Dellenbach, the head man at Avalon; Ian Holm ("LOTR") as Dr. Jonas Muller, Ilona's research supervisor; and Kevork Malikyan ("Flight of the Phoenix") as Farfella, a big-time crime boss who takes great baths.
Although these characters are well voiced, they are one-dimensional personalities. We don't even get to know Karas, the main character very well, except to learn that he grew up the hard way in the Casbah. How can we feel any sympathy for people about whom we know nothing?
I suppose when you think about it, the plot of any old noir thriller is muddled, so maybe that is what these filmmakers were after, something the audience would have a hard time following. If that was, indeed, their intent, they succeeded beyond their wildest expectations. If I hadn't been taking notes, I would have given up on the plot about a third of the way into the movie. To liven things up, the film carries an R rating, mostly for language, nudity, and sex. Well, this is a French film after all, cartoon or no.
No comments:
Post a Comment