Renaissance by Christian Volkman (2006)
7 August 2007A computer generated French science fiction film, and a top notch one at that (you can tell by the voice talent, I mean Daniel Craig, Jonathan Pryce and Ian Holm, damn!). This is really a must see for all those who like the utopian/dark futuristic visions. And the artwork is beyond belief. The whole film is done in high contrast black and white, which must have been so hard to pull off and get the visuals looking as comic book like as they did, and not only that, to sell a film like this in only black and white, these people must have worked hard. A great film, and well worth checking out, actually more of a must see (even if it is strange hearing Daniel Craig’s voice coming from an obvious frenchman, ha maybe I would have like the original dialogue better). This is very much in the blade runner vein, and I really do think any science fiction fan will enjoy it very much.
Paris, 2054, where the city is basically run by a huge corporation named Avalon, that basically attempts to bring youth and beauty to the world. A beautiful reasearch scientist for Avalon named Ilona (Romana Garai/Virginie Mery) is searching for something that she had a bartender steal, and runs into her sister Bislane (Catherine McCormack/Laura Blanc) who Ilona had recently gotten a job in records at Avalon. After she sees Bislane, Ilona goes missing, and a hard boiled cop named Barthélémy Karas (Daniel Craig/Patrick Floersheim) is brought on and is determined to solve the case, no matter what.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…
Karas first has a run in with Paul Dellenbach who runs Avalon, and certainly has something at stake, from his super high tech security guards with invisibility shields to the way he handles things. And then with Bislane, who he eventually enlists to help him, and develops a relationship with. Karas realizes that something is going on with Jonas Muller (Ian Holm/Marc Cassot) a scientist who used to work for Avalon, but when his younger brother died, he quit and started working in a facility helping children, and Ilona was on her way to work with him when she disappeared.
Karas realizes that Muller must be involved and goes to get him ,but has a run in with Dellenbach’s invisible security guards, and finds that Ilona was certainly on to something that Muller had discovered just before quitting. Karas gets in trouble with the police for not following procedure, and must go underground, and ends up finding Muller’s old assistant, who tells him they were working on immortality, and Karas realizes this is what Ilona was working on when she disappeared, and he finds that Dellenbach is right on his tail, as he has the old research assistant killed as well.
Karas promises Bislane that he will save her sister no matter what, so he goes after Muller, and eventually finds him, trying to get Ilona, and finally gets the truth. It turns out that Muller in fact did find the secret of immortality, and saved his little brother, though the other children test subjects were killed, and they hid people, by using people’s identities who died at his clinic. He hid the secret because he didn’t want Avalon to get it, and kidnapped Ilona to stop her from giving it to Avalon, and stopping them from becoming all powerful. Mulller is killed by cops, and Karas is blamed.
Karas eventually tracks down Muller’s younger brother, who is still alive, but is an ancient small child, and who is holding Ilona. Karas lets her free, but Dellenbach’s men are going after them. Karas tries to stop Ilona from giving the secret to Avalon, but she is determined, so he shoots her in the head, to save the world from Avalon, and tells Bislane that her sister went into hiding for the good of mankind, even though she wants to find her, and he stays with her.
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An amazing computer animated film, really enjoyable, with incredible animation style. Well worth checking out, in fact a must see.
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