Film Reviews

Renaissance

• Rating:
• Director: Christian Volckman
• Starring: Catherine McCormack
• Details: France/UK 105mins (15A).

In a bleak and dystopian Paris of 2054, a brilliant young researcher, Ilona Tassueiv is kidnapped and her employer Avalon - a giant multinational company run by Paul Dellenbach (Pryce) - wants her back at any cost. In steps violent and controversial hostage retrieval expert Bartholomew Karas (Craig), who enlists the help of Ilona's sister Bislane (McCormack) in the search; but what they find is that Ilona has a secret that the world cannot find out. If Frank Miller and H.R Giger teamed up to remake Bladerunner, the result would be Renaissance and - just like Ridley Scott's movie - it's a victory of style over substance. This neo-noir or tech-noir anime (or whatever the style is called this month) is the next step in animation's evolution; and doesn't it look fantastic? The stark black-and-white photography feels like you're watching a film negative and adds to the minimalist future these characters are living in. But since all the concentration went on the look and style of the film, little thought was given to the over-long and ultimately boring storyline. Slow and convoluted, the plot takes an age to reach its destination and although first timer Volckman displays his talents in a visual sense, when it comes to pacing he has a few things to learn. Constantly fading to black to connect two scenes takes the speed of the narrative down a gear when it should be moving up. The lack of action scenes frustrate too, because when they do pop up they are dealt with such panache and flair that you're left feeling cheated there aren't more. The dubbing-over of English voices was also a dreadful mistake as Craig and McCormack's upper middle class twang doesn't sit right with the characters or the world they're in - like watching Akira played out with Kenneth Branagh and Stephen Fry. Renaissance animators have shown the way forward, it's up to the writers now to catch up.

Review by Gavin Burke