renaissance Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Despite having some familiar elements, Christian Volckman's Renaissance is unlike anything I had seen before. Animated using motion capture technology, the film is a future noir set in Paris in the year 2054, and it's distinct for being in black and white with pretty much no shades of grey. Such stark contrast makes for some interesting and often beautiful images, though the film's style does seem to be motivated by its own novelty. It looks the way it does simply for the sake of looking the way it does, and unfortunately, the film's plot comes across as an obviously secondary concern.

The key to enjoying Renaissance, then, is to appreciate it for its blatant stylistic novelty and to give it some time. I nodded off after the first twenty minutes because the film is initially difficult to follow. It isn't that the story is too complicated, but it starts off with no helpful exposition, and that combined with the fresh but unfamiliar style makes it easy to feel lost. Once you get used to the visuals, though, it is easy to become engrossed in the convoluted kidnapping plot and fascinated by the filmmakers' creative, futurist intentions.

The kidnap victim is a young woman named Ilona (voiced in the English-language dub by Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights star Romola Garai), a researcher at a huge cosmetics corporation called Avalon. Assigned to find her is Barthelemy Karas (Casino Royale's 007, Daniel Craig), a police detective established as your basic hard-boiled action movie cop – in his first scene he ignores his superior, puts a hostage in danger, and, of course, still saves the day. While on the case of Ilona's disappearance, Karas falls for the woman's sister (28 Weeks Later's Catherine McCormack), he chases suspects through the city, becomes led on by red herrings, learns of a conspiracy within Avalon and in a peak plot point shows that he isn't always that infallible cop he's introduced as.

Now here's a weird Oscar rule that you probably never knew (I sure didn't): In order for there to be five Best Animated Feature nominees, there have to be at least sixteen eligible titles. The last time this happened was in 2002, when Miyazaki's Spirited Away proved to be the year's best ieffort n animation. (According the The Academy, anyway.)

Warner's Happy Feet, Weinstein's Arthur and the Invisibles and Sony's Paprika have yet to "officially" open, but once they do it means we'll get five nominees in one of Oscars' more colorful categories. (Last year we only had three, and that wasn't as much fun.) In addition to the three mentioned above, the other eligibles are The Ant Bully, Barnyard, Cars, Curious George, Everyone's Hero, Flushed Away, Ice Age: The Meltdown, Monster House, Open Season, Over the Hedge, Renaissance, A Scanner Darkly and The Wild. (What, no Ultraviolet?)

So if you had to pick only five of those flicks (aside from the three we haven't seen yet, of course), what would be your picks as "Oscar material?" If I'm predicting the field, my five picks would be Cars, Monster House, Over the Hedge, Renaissance and A Scanner Darkly. If I'm casting a vote for my favorite: Over the Hedge. Flick made me giggle.

Every year, the magazines arrive and (I'm assuming) the cheesy network TV entertainment shows start rolling out the mega-promo pieces for Upcoming Fall Movies. Inevitably, I read it all (and actually watch some of the cheesy TV) and get all hyped up on which movies will be good, and which will likely be mediocre. Then I tell everyone I know which movies will be awesome and mediocre, while they, in turn, listen to me, and I somehow neglect to see anything. More often than not, I wind up renting them a half year later when they pop up again in the queue. The three movies I am most likely (but not necessarily guaranteed) to watch in theaters this fall are:

Renaissance - Not only is this movie French (originally), but it takes place in Paris and one of the English-language voices is dubbed by (the incomparable) Daniel Craig! (To be fair, the English version is also voiced by Catherine McCormack, Jonathan Pryce, and Ian Holm, among others.) The plot sounds like a Paris version of 1984: a dark future where all human activity is monitored and recorded by shadowy corporate behemoths in order to sell a duped populace youth and beauty. The high quality of animation featured in the film has been discussed here before, but in case you missed it we're looking at some kind of hybrid between Sin City and Waking Life (or other Linklater movies involving animation and rotoscoping). I feel this could be a movie about absolutely nothing and the gorgeous imagery and composition alone would sustain me for however long.

Running With Scissors - This movie is the one I'm most likely to watch because I read the book in one laugh-filled sitting last year (right before Frey-gate tore a gaping hole in recovery-biography, though, technically, this whole genre got its start in the picaresque novels of 16/17th Century Spain. Yes, I am that good with background). Furthermore, it's star, Joseph Cross has one of the most earnest and engaging faces of any newcomer I've seen since, maybe, Brad Renfro (before the drugs and vandalism charges in my hometown). As if that weren't enough, it has the spectacular, yet often overlooked Annette Bening (who is high up in my list of all time great actresses to emulate) in an Anne Sexton-type eccentric poetess role. I'm so excited about this movie coming out, I've actually tried to endure an episode of Ryan Murphy's Nip/Tuck, but just couldn't bring myself to do it. Nevertheless, I hold out high expectations, and not just because of the foregoing, but also because Lemon Jelly's "The Staunton Lick" is used to soundtrack the trailer.

Alright, I'm officially excited about the Toronto Film Festival now. The lineup for the Fest's new Vanguard sidebar -- a group of 11 "risky, more challenging" films -- was announced yesterday, and there's some great stuff included. Personally, I'm most looking forward to finally seeing John Cameron Mitchell's Shortbus, which James (and everyone else) loved at Cannes, as well as Johnnie To's award-winning Election and Election 2, both of which are are being featured in the Vanguard program. Also on the list are 2:37, an Australian, Elephant-style movie about a suicide (that almost drove James to off himself), Renaissance, the black and white French animated flick we've told you about a couple of times, and Macbeth, a modern, Melbourne-set adaptation of the play, which will be making its world premiere.

The TIFF runs September 7-16 this year, and we'll be driving you nuts with lots and lots of reviews from there.

Wanna see a black & white animated French sci-fi thriller starring Daniel Craig, Catherine McCormack and Ian Holm? Well, after watching this new trailer, I'm pretty sure I do!

Christian Volckman's Renaissance has been wowing audiences at international film festivals, which inspired someone at Miramax to pick the thing up for U.S. distribution. It's a slick-looking dystopian story in which all of 2054 Paris is governed by the evil Avalon company. You can probably fill in the blanks from there.

Miramax will release the nifty looking piece of noir-imation on September 22nd.

dys·func·tion also dis·func·tion  -- n. Abnormal or impaired functioning, especially of a bodily system or social group

When I think of the word 'dysfunctional,' part of me wonders why no one ever suggested taking my picture and placing it next to said word in the dictionary. And if such a picture was ever presented before me, what sort of face do I put on in front of the camera? Do dysfunctional people smile? Should I frown? What if I kind of half-smile and squint my eyes, alluding to the fact that there's something missing -- ya know, leave it up to the reader to make their own assumptions.

Then again, aren't we all a little dysfunctional sometimes? Aren't we abnormal? What is abnormal? Heck, what's normal? And, if there is a person out there who is completely normal, not a worry or problem in the world -- wouldn't that classify them as abnormal? Where am I going with this? Did I even have a point? Do I need one?

Needless to say, the following films all deal, in some way, shape or form with dysfunction. Seeing, feeling and wanting things that, to the average, functional person, may seem a bit bizarre. Be it ghosts, dreams, people out in the middle of the woods with mutilated hands or any film that stars Christian Bale -- this week we're delving into the world of the abnormal ... or normal, depending on which dictionary you subscribe to. Welcome to another edition of Trailer Park:

Todd at Twitch does a great job of tracking down new foreign animation that those of us in the US would rarely otherwise get a chance to see. A few months ago, he dug up an amazing trailer for a French film called Renaissance, a sci-fi feature from first-time director Christian Volckman. The film is in black and white, and is set in Paris in 2054; though I speak zero French and therefore have no earthly idea what's going on in the movie, that trailer - as well as a new one that just emerged - is hypnotically gorgeous.

The animation reminds me both of Sin City and the rotoscope technique that Richard Linklater used for A Scanner Darkly, but there's a lovely minimalism to it as well - it's definitely miles from any of the animation we're seeing in this country right now. The movie's due out in France on March 15, so tell all of your French friends to buy dozens and dozens of tickets. Otherwise, we've got no chance of ever seeing it over here.