MOVIE REVIEW: Renaissance

I have a fondness for experimental animation techniques being paired with traditional storytelling genres. One example of this was the 2003 Korean train wreck Wonderful Days. a movie that combined 2d and 3d animation, with motion control camera photographed miniatures. While that movie was beautiful to look at, from a storytelling standpoint it was a mess. Renaissance on the other hand manages to not only break new ground visually, but also present a damn compelling movie.

Renaissance is a dark dystopian thriller in the vein of (wait for it) Blade Runner. I know everyone says that about every dark SF film but in this case it is true, but not in a way that is derivative. The film was produced as a Co production between France and the UK, and released in 2006. I never even heard of it until 2 days ago when I stumbled on it in Blockbuster's anime section.

Renaissance makes extensive use of motion capture, a technique I don't generally like in fully animated features, but the quality of the mo cap and camera work is so good that I have no choice but to see it as a positive. I believe part of the success of the mo cap in this movie has to do with what makes it experimental, the unique shading technique applied to the 3d models. Rather than being textured as in a typical Pixar, or Dreamworks animation, the models in this movie have a special shader applied that only allows absolute black and white to be displayed. This means the very shape of things is made up entirely of impressions created by light and shadow. It's a similar aesthetic to Frank Miller's art style in Sin City. This takes the idea of noir to it's most extreme. Thankfully they don't treat the Pure black and white rule as set in stone and very sparingly use other colors for special effects.

Set in Paris in the year 2054, the movie follows hard boiled detective Barthélémy Karas in an investigation to find a missing research scientist who works for the monolithic Avalon corporation. His job becomes complicated by conspiracies, and an affair with the missing woman's sister.

The visuals are striking. The pacing is tight and I never lost interest. As a movie with or without the visual gimmick Renaissance works very well.

The US DVD comes with both the french and English audio tracks (with subtitles for the former.) and both are very well acted. Normally I am a stickler for watching films in their original language, but being as this was an international production with very close release dates it's hard to say that one or the other is definitive. For my money the English language track is the more enjoyable of the 2 with an excellent principal cast, with Karas being played by 007 himself, Daniel Craig.

The Musical score is also of note. It was excellent and created a real sense of drama to match the often stunning visuals.

Renaissance is a movie that almost slipped completely under my radar. I rented it but now I am going to buy it. Even science fiction fans that don't normally watch animation should check this out. It does far more justice to the genre than anything Hollywood has created in years.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED