Product Description

RENAISSANCE is a breakthrough sci-fi thriller for a new millennium. Dare to enter a bold vision of the future in the tradition of BLADE RUNNER and SIN CITY - drenched with state-of-the art animation and a gripping story. It's 2054 Paris and the city lives in the shadow of corporate giant, Avalon, which sells the irresistible promise of "ageless beauty." The sudden kidnapping of a gifted young scientist draws a tough-as-nails cop into a twisted underworld of corporate espionage, genetic research and organized crime. Featuring the stellar voice talents of Daniel Craig (CASINO ROYALE), Jonathan Pryce (PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN Trilogy) and Ian Holm (THE LORD OF THE RINGS Trilogy).

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13698 in DVD
• Brand: Buena Vista Home Video
• Released on: 2007-07-24
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Dubbed in: French
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 105 minutes

Amazon.com
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 recognizable (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 occasion! ally 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

Love child of many illustrious predecessors
This has got to be one of the best animated films I've seen recently, along with Persepolis. The black and white (no gray) visuals are extremely intriguing. You also get an engaging, if not entirely original, storyline.

The animation style is in the Western mold, rather than Japanese anime. The style is a mix of A Scanner Darkly for the movements and Sin City, for the reliance on black and white only. Also similar to Persepolis, palette-wise. But it really has a style all its own. Its closest relatives are inkpen line drawings you see in architecture projects and some artists, but those are static media.

The rendition of Paris' architecture in 2050 is amazing, especially if you know the city. I do think that they are better when they focus on existing Paris landscapes, rather than creating huge futuristic buildings.

Subway stations are especially well rendered in loving details. You can tell the director aimed to make the most of the visual compositions possible with this particular animation technology: combat scenes, chameleon suits, snow and rain, frames within frames, whiteout vs. blackout. This is a movie with much visual re-watch value.

The bleak, paranoid world it depicts reminds one of Blade Runner and Equilibrium (a seriously underrated movie). But the prize is the animation, rather than the storyline.

Love & Animation
I purchased this as a gift for a for a woman I love who loves animation, because I thought the style and technique were brilliant and she would enjoy it. Maybe one day they'll release it on Blu-ray.

Renaissance
Renaissance is another of those French imports in the mode of the "Triplets Of Belleville;" both of the artsy-fartsy school of animation; equally pretentious; equally putrid. It too is totally in black and white; absolutely no grays. It is actually difficult to watch, physically. So it is not only poor in content, it's annoying too. But the critics liked it, generally, so I watched for a while. Finally, I gave up. As I remember, the critics liked the "Triplets," too. I should have known better. Aag!