Film Review: Renaissance

"out now in the UK and September '06 in the US"

Renaissance (15)
Dir: Christian Volckman

Reviewed by Matt Adcock

“First I’m strip you naked, then I’m gonna tie you up. You know of course that I’m going to torture you until you lose control. Finally I’ll dispose you in some quiet Parisian sewer and nobody will ever know where you went or why…”
Crumbs… did I say that out loud? Sorry about that – think I might have just had a flashback from the subliminal programming I might have received whilst watching Renaissance – an uber dark, paranoia inducing, threatening and completely unique cinematic experience.

Welcome to a near future underworld (Paris, AD 2054) ripped from a comic which could sit alongside Sin City and not look out of place. Actually Renaissance is an original film – it started production before Sin City came along and trumped it last year… This in many ways is a tragedy for the Renaissance makers, because whilst their film is bold, striking and looks amazing, it just can't touch the storyline or characters of Frank Miller's classic.

He’s a snippet from a BBC interview with the director: “Two or three years into production we saw the first Sin City trailers and completely freaked out. We thought, ‘That’s it, someone’s doing this before us.’ But I think if we had come out first, people would say, ‘Oh, Sin City is like Renaissance…’ I was trying to achieve the same feeling that you have when you’re looking at a painting. Which is a cross between reality and something more graphic or dreamlike. So with black-and-white and Motion Capture I could have this realistic feeling of human movement on one side, and on the other side have this completely strange world.” Read more here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/collective/A13384226

Anyway, the 'movement capture' used here is pretty impressive stuff – the high contrast black and sheer white is retina burning - it needs to be seen to be believed. The story is your average bad corporation / abducted female scientist kind of thing. You know, a tough cop (voiced by new James Bond Daniel Craig no less) stumbles into a sinister secret project to find a way of living forever etc…

Graphic novel lovers are in for a visual treat and whilst it tends to drag a little and could have been tighter with some of the padding removed but it’s still a ‘must see’ movie!


Darkmatters rating system (out of 5):
Action ööö – some gun scenes, some chasing, you know the drill
Laughs ö – not a comedy in any shape or form
Horror ööö – slightly disturbing
Babes ööö – if you like your T&A animated, step right up…

Overall öööö (I love the genre but Sin City just did it better)

Darkmatters: H O M E