...
Characters
Daniel Craig - Barthélémy Karas
Romola Garai - Ilona Tasuiev
Catherine McCormack - Bislane Tasuiev
Ian Holm - Jonas Muller
Jonathan Pryce - Paul Dellenbach
Directed by - Christian Volckman
Music - Nicholas Dodd
Performed by The Philharmonic Orchestra
Dvd ... Read review
Style trumps substance inRenaissance, a 2006 French film whose breathtaking visuals ... more
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 comb...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
Paris 2054. Live forever or die trying. In 2054 Paris is a labyrinth where all movement ... more
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 ...
Postage & Packaging: £0.00 Availability: 3-5 working days
Style trumps substance inRenaissance, a 2006 French film whose breathtaking visuals ... more
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 comb...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
In 2054, Paris is a labyrinth where all movement is monitored and recorded. Casting a ... more
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 be...
Pam performs a retrospective of her biggest hits live from Nashville Tennessee. The ... more
Renaissance Centre sets the stage for an intimate concert with Pam Tillis. Concert footage backstage antics behind the scenes studio footage and an in-depth personal interview are all included in this spectacular DVD. Enjoy a wonderful evening with one of the great ladies of country music. Tracklisting: 1. Mi Vida Loca (My Crazy Life) 2. Shake The Sugar Tree 3. Don't Tell Me What To Do 4. Do You Know Where Your Man Is / Blue Roses 5. Cleopatra 6. When You Walk In The Room 7. Spilled Perfume / Let That Pony Run / All The Good Ones Are Gone 8. Calico Plains 9. In Between Dances 10. Last Train To Clarksville 11. Mandolin Rain 12. Heartache 13. Long Drive To Dallas 14. Demolition Angel 15. I Said A Prayer For You 16. Maybe It Was Memphis 17. The River And The Highway 18. Go Your Own Way
Postage & Packaging:£0.00 Availability:3-5 working days
Production Year: 2000 - Drama - Director: Giuseppe Tornatore - Original Language: Italian - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Monica Bellucci, Giuseppe Sulfaro, Luciano Federico, Matilde Piana
Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
Advantages: Interesting to see the advance graphics Disadvantages: Storyline not that original
...Extra Features
Making of Renaissance - Going through the concept of how the idea was conceived, and how the Characterization, design and location were decided upon and put together.
Maaz - Short Film - I didn't quite understand this film but it seemed to be about a man running through a series of tunnels like a maze and is apparently a mixture of 3D and CG technologies, and was the film that inspired Renaissance.
more
This animated film is based in Paris 2054 and is a story surrounding the disappearance of Ilona Tasuiev a researcher at the Avalon Corporation. Avalon is a company that has managed to gain great power in society and their motto 'Avalon we're with you for life' can be seen and heard from the entire city.
Ilona is abducted, but this is not strange in this futuristic Paris, as kidnappings are at an all time high. However as we later learn, Ilona is a special case and the Avalon Corporation or namely the head of the corporation Paul Dellenbach wants her found without delay. The local law enforcement is called in and Captain Barthélémy Karas is placed as the head of the investigation team and seems to be quite good at finding and retrieving abductees. You get the impression of this from an earlier scene where he saves a young boy being threatened by would be kidnappers. So we know he is an expert in this area.
Ilona's sister Bislane also works at the Avalon Corporation, but in the Records Department. Unlike her sister Ilona, Bislane is not so taken in by Avalon's philosophies which causes a bit of friction between them. Karas questions Bislane about her sister but doesn't come up with much information and she manages to escape from the briefing room and start her own investigation which leads her to a book that Ilona was trying to buy on the black market about a particular piece of research.
Karas' own investigations lead him to Dr Jonas Muller who Ilona currently worked with. Dr Muller is able to give some information on the research that Ilona was looking into regarding Progeria, the nature of premature aging especially in children.
Bislane and Karas later decide to team up to try and find out the truth behind Ilona's kidnap. Their investigation will lead them to the top of the Avalon corporation and to the key to a secret research project, that if found, will change the whole world forever.
This film was created through a collaboration of the director Christian Volckman, Marc Miance and 2 writers Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patelliere. The storyline of the film I felt was adequate but wasn't that original. I found I was frequently distracted by the actual animation and how they did it then everything that was happening on screen and also felt that if this was a normal film I wouldn't have really been that interested in the plot.
Saying that the film does have it's moments such as the fight scenes with the invisible soldiers sent by Avalon to thwart Karas from learning too much and the scene when Bislane manages to infiltrate Avalon's archives and almost gets caught.
The characters were fine and realistic, but I felt they were very much stereotypical roles. So we have the tough moody cop Karas who defy's his superiors and always gets his man, and the female interest Bislane who can strike out on her own for a while but has to go back to Karas for the real help. There's also the greedy and powerful criminal Dellenbach flanked by his army suitably mean and shifty.
The characters were voiced for the British speaking market by some famous names. Daniel Craig voiced Karas, Catherine McCormack voiced Bislane, with Ian Holme as Muller and Jonathan Pryce as Dellenbach. They all carried out their parts well, but what I found a bit disconcerting at first was hearing the distinctive voice of Jonathan Pryce coming from a character that looked completely different. But this was just a personal observation and didn't detract from the film.
The film is shot in black and white without, as the director says, any grey. I'm not sure what this means technically but it gave the film a moody feel which worked well. It kept reminding me of the Blade Runner film especially the scenes of the city.
The music was mainly incidental to match the mood of the scenes, apart from the early night club scene when there was some dance music. But this was for a very short duration and for the most part the music score was pretty unmemorable.
This would be an interesting movie for anyone interested in films based entirely on animation, and is really just a bit of light entertainment so I wouldn't recommend this to buy until you've seen it first just in case it really isn't up your street.
Characters Daniel Craig - Barthélémy Karas Romola Garai - Ilona Tasuiev Catherine McCormack - Bislane Tasuiev Ian Holm - Jonas Muller Jonathan Pryce - Paul Dellenbach
Directed by - Christian Volckman Music - Nicholas Dodd Performed by The Philharmonic Orchestra
Dvd Information Set Up Scene Selection
Extra Features Making of Renaissance - Going through the concept of how the idea was conceived, and how the Characterization, design and location were decided upon and put together.
Maaz - Short Film - I didn't quite understand this film but it seemed to be about a man running through a series of tunnels like a maze and is apparently a mixture of 3D and CG technologies, and was the film that inspired Renaissance.
Photogalleries - Props , Characters, Enviroments
Other releases - Movies that were due to be released around the same time as this film
Advantages: The animation is superb, as is the vocal casting Disadvantages: The story just doesn't quite click
complex and by concentrating on that you miss the quality of the animated backgrounds, but if you revel in the excellence of the animation you cant concentrate on the story enough!
Renaissance is a valiant effort that just falls short of being recommended viewing, though it could be said that seeing this on DVD might make this much more watchable, at least then you have the time to watch both the animation and the story, unlike watching it in the cinema like I did.
Info bits: Renaissance is a French film and was first released with French actors doing the voices in France (obviously!). The English language version has the aforementioned Daniel Craig, Catherine McCormack (Spy Game), Romola Garai (I Capture The Castle), Ian Holm and Jonathan Pryce in the voice cast. ...
Advantages: Realistic feel - language, scenery, clothes and music are all spot on, excellent acting Disadvantages: Strong language may put some people off, definitely no happy ending in sight
Franc Roddam's tale of teenage disaffection in the 1960s has recently enjoyed something of a renaissance, earning the critical acclaim it was unfairly denied upon release in 1979. It was re-released on DVD with a new subtitle, ‘A Way of Life’ in 1997, handily timed to coincide with an upsurge in interest in British cinema – I had heard of the film a few years ago, but never really knew what it was about. However, a quick look at the cast list reveals many stalwarts of British film and music from the past couple of decades: Ray Winstone, Phil Daniels, Toyah, Leslie Ash, Sting, Michael Elphick, and Mark Wingett (DC Carver from ‘The Bill’, you’ll recognise him as soon as you see him!).
That alone was enough to recommend it, and I have to say that ‘Quadrophenia’ does not disappoint. It is ...
Advantages: Beautiful, varied examples of animation. Action. Great storylines. Excellent music Disadvantages: Some don't like animation or may find it all to complex or far-fetched
thought out storylines and fantastic action this DVD is as much for fans of anime as it is fans of the Matrix franchise.
Storylines
The nine stories are as follows:
Final Flight of the Osiris
Written by Andy and Larry Wachowski
Directed by Andy Jones
Computer Animation Design and Production by Square USA inc.
Produced by the same team that made the final fantasy film, the CG animation in this film is exceptional. This film immediately precedes the second Matrix film and follows the crew of the Osiris as they battle with the machines. Fantastic, almost lifelike action and good to see before the second film.
The Second Renaissance parts one and two
Written by Andy and Larry Wachowski
Directed by Mahiro Maeda
Animation and production design by studio 4oC, Tokyo
Actually a film in two parts, this animation follows ...
Set in mid 21st century Paris, RENAISSANCE sees the brilliant young researcher Ilona Tassueiv kidnapped. Her employers at the gargantuan multinational company Avalon call for hostage retrieval specialist Officer Bartholomew Karas to take charge of the case.
Release details
DVD Region
DVD
Studio(s)
PATHE DISTRIBUTION; 20TH CENTURY FOX HOME ENTERTAINMENT
Release date
27/11/2006
No of Discs
1
Catalogue No
P 920401000
Barcode
5060002835081
Voice
Daniel Craig, Romola Garai, Ian Holm, Kevork Malikyan, Catherine McCormack, Jonathan Pryce
Languages
Main Language
English
Subtitle Language
English
Technical information
Special Features
MAAZ - Short film directed by Christian Volckman , Making Of featurette ,
Aspect Ratio
2.35 Wide Screen
Sound
Dolby Digital 5.1
Animated
Animated
Professional reviews
Review
Remarkable... Compares favourably with Sin City (The Guardian, 30/10/2006)
Take 'Metropolis' 'Blade Runner' and 'Sin City'... and you'll have a semblance of 'Renaissance'. Shines a new light on film noir (Variety, 30/10/2006)
DVD Description
Set in mid 21st century Paris, RENAISSANCE sees the brilliant young researcher Ilona Tassueiv kidnapped. Her employers at the gargantuan multinational company Avalon call for hostage retrieval specialist Officer Bartholomew Karas to take charge of the case. Karas digs deep into the Parisian underbelly to find information about the kidnapping. However, things are not as they seem and Karas is forced to question the motives of everyone. The animated film noir has a distinctive and highly impressive visual style. The live action footage has been digitally rendered, leading to an exceptional level of realism. With a similar look to SIN CITY, RENAISSANCE succeeds in making the Paris of 2054 look a dark and menacing place--perfectly suiting the film noir style of the production--and creating an animated film that looks a lot like a live action film.
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