Product description

Renaissance

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Average customer rating: 3.5

Binding : DVD
EAN : 5060002835081
Label : 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Manufacturer : 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Publisher : 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Release date : 2006-11-27
Title : Renaissance
Audience rating : Suitable for 15 years and over
Format : Array
Languages : Array
Number of items : 1
Region code : 2
Running time : 105
Studio : 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

Editorial reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
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 Graham

Customer reviews

review by: date: 2008-11-15 rating:

The Designer's Film
I watched this film not knowing it's associations. The fact that it featured a superb cast of actors was unknown to me. I had no idea of the plot or the background to it's creation.

The first thing that hits the viewer is the extraordinarily fine design. In fact this film is 'designed' to within an inch of it's life. The sheer amount of work in every shot is deeply impressive.

It's also an example of it's time in which late sixties image styles are hyper-accentuated with the inclusion of 'futuristic' lines that, although reminiscent of 90's graphic design, actually hark back to the 70's work of artists such as Ron Cobb.

It becomes apparent right from the start that this almost entirely monochrome film is dominated by black. Faces and figures swim around in black. Light often struggles to illuminate forms that artfully emerge from black. Even those masterful sequences which occur in daylight are bordered, confined and occasionally opressed by black.

This almost put me off. I did initially wonder whether I could be bothered, despite the high quality, to watch a film so bloody stark. But despite this, Renaissance constantly surprised me with moments of exraordinary beauty. However grim this film seemed I just couldn't look away or turn it off.

Other reviewers have expressed a certain amount of confusion as to what the hell is going on in this film but that's not the point. Seemingly opaque storylines exist in plenty of other films which simply encourage the viewer to watch them more than once.

Nothing wrong with that. But would anyone want to dive into this rather opressive and claustrophobic world again? Well that's the question you'll have to consider before buying this superb slice of animation.

So is it all style and no substance? Well no it's not. There are other movies that certainly drown in style but this isn't one of them.

But it's preferred audience is probably the one that understands and appreciates the insanely high design standards it puts forth.

Love graphic art? Buy it. Love image design principles? Buy it. Like to be told a fascinating story? Buy it. Want an enjoyable animated romp? Buy The Lion King instead.

review by: stuarthoratiobentley date: 2008-05-27 rating:

The future of films?
The stark black and white rotoscope style animation of this film is striking. I like it very much as unlike in films with CGI it makes the environments appear seamless with the protagonists. Because this is a science fiction film this is very useful as it allows the presentation of Paris some fifty years hence to be more acceptable.

The story is a winding sort of affair, starting with the disappearance of a young researcher after an argument with her sister and a maverick cop's rescuing of a kid from a hostage situation. A big corporation called Avalon that claims it is on your side for life is involved. There's a mysterious scientist involved too and men who dress in suits that make them invisible. As a piece of film noir it works rather well. Yes, some, if not most of the story elements are not original and the plot element on which the story is hinged isn't really dealt with in any detail, but it still holds the attention. Aside from the big corporation and a scene where it rains, I'm not sure I see the comparison with Blade Runner, though. The ending is swish.

The voice work is good. Jonathan Pryce is good value for money, as is Ian Holm and Daniel Craig. The animation is pretty fab. It's worth a viewing or two.

review by: He's the strongest, he's the quickest, he's the best! date: 2008-02-19 rating:

Eye candy - it won't fill you up.
I wanted to love this film.

I was wearing socks when I started watching this film - and I wanted it to blow them off.

The visuals take a few minutes to get used to - the stark contrasting black and white animation is very flash, and some scenes - especially the cityscapes were dazzlingly stylish. The way shadows were used was very impressive.

Some have knocked the story for being unoriginal - but I thought it was okay. A good dystopian plot - which became quite predictable at one point, but had an ending I didn't expect.

I think the main weakness of this film lies with the characters. There was never any real depth to them. Daniel Craig delivers Karas' lines with perfect clarity, but whether it's the voice acting or the script - the character remains uncharismatic. Infact, the character is dull, so you end up watching the film in order to experience the visuals rather than to enjoy the actual story.

This DVD release has committed the high crime of excluding the original soundtrack. I don't understand why these have been removed, for subtitle fans like me who would rather enjoy the original performances; this feels disrespectful - especially when the film was six years in production.

So in a nutshell: Stylish animation, nice and smooth owing to the motion capture method used makes for a genuinely unique looking film. Bland characterisations spoil this film - but the dubbed soundtrack maybe largely responsible for this. I'd love a chance to watch and review the original feature.

review by: mad_mushroom date: 2007-06-20 rating:

Detection in black and white. As is my verdict.
Renaissance is a very slick black and white animation. The cityscapes of this Paris of the future are especially impressive - be it the topside, the glass covered roadways, or the sections below and in the sewers. The wide panorama shots of the city are just stunning. When it comes to the people, however, I feel this form of animation lends itself rather less well. Some of the characters animations get lost in the cut-over between black and white. Also, because the animation isn't modelled on the actual actors (contrasting with, say, `A Scanner Darkly') the characters don't seem very lifelike. The choice of actors is pretty poor too. Daniel Craig's Captain Karas is a monosyllabic, clichéd hard guy type cop, without much passion. He's been much better in other films (e.g. Layer Cake). Jonathan Pryce as a senior figure in the sinister pharmaceutical giant Avalon seemed plain wrong. Both main female parts were irritating (and also had that fake, heart-shaped face, perfect teeth kind of look to the character models) while the brief relationship between Karas and the darker sister was like a couple of pieces clay getting together. Hard to like or get involved.

I can't comment on whether the film comes across better in French - though why did they change the illuminated billboards to English language? Can't we handle a little bit of foreign lingua?

The story too is confused, with jumps in logic that I couldn't fathom. You know, how did they get from one lead to another. Intuitive detective work doesn't help the viewer if no explanation is given!

So, two stars for presentation. None for storyline or `acting' or anything else. Life is harsh, eh? But if you're renting, at £2 a shot it's worth a look for the glorious city skyline alone. Paris certainly seems wet in the future (and God help us all when it's up to our necks).

review by: date: 2007-05-12 rating:

Motion captured black and white graphic masterpiece.
This film noir filmed in black and white (absolutely no grey scales) and shot in motion captured CGI is something of a graphic masterpiece. An original story it has all the qualities of a well loved black and white graphic novel brought to life, far surpassing anything else I have ever seen.

Set in Paris in 2054 the artists have created an extraordinary future cityscape incorporating well known features of the city, the three dimensional complexity of these architectural creations has to be seen to be believed.

The stark black and white motion captured images of the characters seem to draw one into the story, where a cop Barthelemy Karas (Daniel Craig) is trying to trace missing Ilona Tasuiev (Romola Garai) a brilliant scientist working for the sinister Avalon Corporation, with intermittent help from her neurotic sister Bislane Tasuiev (Laura Blanc).

I found it difficult to follow the plot until I became accustomed to the pure black and white graphics, in fact a second viewing is mandatory.

In the first class "making of feature" we learn this film will be a one off, a great pity as it is a refreshing new experience.

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