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 Renaissance (DVD)
Description: Genre: Science Fiction & Fantasy - Science Fiction / Director: Christian Volckman / DVD released 27 November, 2006 at ... more  Renaissance (DVD) ... 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Features of the DVD: PAL, Widescreen / Style trumps substance in Renaissance, a 2006 French film whose breathtaking visuals largely overcome its shortcomings in the areas of story and character development. Detailed in a lengthy and absorbing "making of" featurette, the film's look is a combination of CG animation, motion capture, and a palette consisting solely of black & white (there are a few splashes of color late in the proceedings, but no gray whatsoever). And while it has a few obvious antecedents (the filmmakers readily acknowledge the influence of Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, not to mention the much earlier, Expressionist work of Fritz Lang and Orson Welles), Renaissance, with its commingling of heavily processed live action and graphic novel sensibilities, looks very little like anything you've ever seen before. The setting is Paris in the year 2054, and it is here that director Christian Volckman and his crew do their best work. The French capital is certainly recognisable (the Eiffel Tower and Montmartre's Sacre Coeur are two familiar landmarks), but its classic architecture is glazed with all manner of futuristic touches, from vast glass penthouses to layers of transparent walkways outside Notre Dame Cathedral; and with the preponderance of the action taking place at night, frequently in the rain, the City of Light more often suggests a very literal representation of film noir. As for the story, it's nothing special. Hard-nosed police Captain Barthélémy Karas (voiced in this English version by Daniel Craig) is searching for a female scientist who works for Avalon, one of those sinister mega-corporations that seem to run everything in movies like this; seems the woman, who has been kidnapped, possesses what's referred to as "the protocol for immortality," and Avalon, which promises good health, beauty, and long life for all, desperately wants her back. The characters are a bit stiff (physically and otherwise), the dialogue is occasionally stilted, and the film is sometimes so dark that it's hard to tell what's going on. But most of Renaissance looks so amazing that such deficiencies can easily be ignored, at least the first time through. --Sam GrahamNewest Review: ... world is a dangerous place and when a young but brilliant student is kidnapped, it is up to maverick cop Karas to uncover ... more ... were she is. With the help of the student’s sister Bislane, Karas uncovers a world of danger were the highest powers will do anything to get their hands on a formula that will make people pretty for longer. Can Karas and Bislane survive long enough to unravel the mystery behind Iiona’s disappearance and if they succeed is it actually the best thing?
The most prominent aspect of this feature is the style that the producers have decided to take. It is a combination of film noir and the black and white carton strips that...more |
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Renaissance (DVD): It doesn't matter is your black or white (895 words)
by samueltyler - written on 18.12.06 (Very useful, 110 readings)
Rating:
The word renaissance conjures up many different scenes in my head. I think of an Italy full of the greatest artists, scholars, mathematicians and philosophers all working together to enrich society. Or on a smaller note you can imagine the great come backs of our time. Take That! Where did they disappear to only to return slightly crumpled but still as good? Now the word conjures up a new image, one of noir cartoons, hard science fiction and impenetrable plotlines. ‘Renaissance’ is a CGI cartoon with a few major differences from the usual fare. For one, it’s French. Also the fact that there are no talking animals on show, it’s all shot in a black and ...
Film noir in black and white (792 words)
by Ailran - written on 05.12.06 (Very useful, 372 readings)
Rating:
Renaissance is an animated film in the style of Sin City. it is all black and white, nourish and crime based. The difference being that where Sin City consisted of actors being put into a cartoon like world Renaissance takes it one step further by animating the moves of the actors. They film the scenes and then animate over the top of the actors to create a more realistic look to the animation, much akin to Richard Linklater’s two movies ‘Waking Life’ and the recent ‘A Scanner Darkly’. I’m not entirely sure that this worked as in my eyes a lot of the movements looked very odd, whether this is because it didn’t come across as well as they hoped or because I’m not used to ...
