A friend of mine came up to me at the day job and asked if I had yet seen the trailer for Renaissance. Surprisingly, I hadn't even heard of the film, much less seen the trailer. He insisted that I write the title down and promise to look it up. So, I did, and my first reaction is Wow!
Renaissance is an animated feature film from first time feature director, Christian Volckman. The film looks like it employs animation similar to that of Richard Linklater's Philip K. Dick adaptation A Scanner Darkly. This style utilizes the filming of live action and then converting it via computers or hand tracing it into an animated form. I first saw this in Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings film from the 1970s. I am sure it existed before that, and I have probably seen other examples of it, but that is what comes to mind right now.
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This film has a stunning stark and angular black and white style to it. It is a tale set in the future, 2054 Paris to be exact. In this future, all movement through the city is monitored, Big Brother at work. Big Brother, in this case, is a ubiquitous corporation called Avalon.
The images look very similar to Sin City. Don't fear, this is no rip off of that excellent film, no. This is an original story that was actually in production prior to the Robert Rodriguez/Frank Miller picture.
The trailer is up at Apple, and I urge you to take trip over and take a peek. The film is slated to open on September 22,2006. I can't wait.
Article comments
1 - Fence
It has already been released here, and while it looks great there is very little substance to the plot/characters. Which is a pity as visually it is very eye-catching.