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Film Review > Renaissance
In 2054, Paris is a labyrinth where all movement is monitored and recorded. Casting a shadow over everything is the city’s largest company, Avalon, which insinuates itself into every aspect of contemporary life to sell its primary export — youth and beauty. In this world of stark contrasts and rigid laws the populace is kept in line and accounted for.
Interesting facts from Wikipedia:
Renaissance is an animated cyberpunk/science fiction detective film by French director Christian Volckman. It was co-produced in France, United Kingdom and Luxembourg.
The film cost 14 million € to make over six years. It was funded by Disney with 3 million USD provided from Miramax.
Motion capture with 40 actors and computer-generated imagery were used to create the film’s distinctive black and white animated visual style. The actors wore black suits with markers dotted along the surface which recorded movement from their limbs, faces and eyes. All acting was performed against a bluescreen in a digital backlot. Once a scene was recorded, computer software was used to build 3D animated models around the motion captured data. The bluescreen was used to create a virtual setting around the models. The black and white effect was added later using lighting.
For sure it was a failure at the box office (the film grossed a total of $1,831,348 worldwide and costed at least 10 times that amount), but I don’t know why the film received so mixed reviews. Everything was mostly amazing for me, from the storyline, the actor plays and specially the art direction with its very impressive black and white render without an once of grey.
My Rating: 4/5
