Watching “Renaissance,” you get very excited whenever a little shade of gray appears.
Sounds kind of pathetic, doesn’t it?
This French animated thriller is presented in high-contrast, digitized black and white that is quite striking, packed with richly delineated details and amazing lighting schemes. But despite its artistry, the two-tone effect grows tedious fast. And since it’s coupled with a mystery story that’s humdrum from the start, boredom multiplies.
So when a bit of textured monochrome hits the screen, it’s not really a thrill, but it is different. Director Christian Volckman was out to make a future noir here; “Blade Runner”- ish computer-generated cityscapes illuminated in ’50s-style chiaroscuro. But even the depressive crime stories of that earlier era didn’t look this stark – and for good reason.
Motion-capture technology and new software enabled
Volckman’s team to turn real actors into pen-and-ink cartoons of remarkable realism and expressiveness. But they should not have stopped there. How about some visual shadings to match the emotional ones?
Paris, circa 2054, looks interesting, but only for a while. Scary modern structures butt up against the Eiffel Tower and Sacre Coeur; multilevel transit paths gird the city like steel pythons; and see-through is the latest style for many walls, floors and ceilings.
Despite that last architectural affectation, business isn’t conducted in a transparent manner. The city’s big cosmetics/genetics conglomerate, Avalon, has talking billboards promising extended youth all over the place. But one of its most promising young scientists, Ilona Tasuiev (voiced for us, like all the characters, by an English actor, Romola Garai), has gone missing, along with her research that many are willing to kill for.
Troubled-but-dedicated cop Barthelemy Karas (Daniel Craig) tries to find her and along the way falls for Ilona’s club-monkey sister Bislane (Catherine McCormick).
Murky corporate shenanigans and ancient (i.e., early-21st-century) cover-ups get sort of exposed in the process. The big question that slowly shakes loose is whether mankind is better off with or without Ilona and her talents, but by then most of us will be asleep.
Besides “Blade Runner,” “Renaissance” borrows freely from the rest of Philip K. Dick’s paranoid, identity-muddling reading list. Whatever you won’t recognize from “Minority Report” (including the future cops’ investigation department) you may recall from “A Scanner Darkly.”
At least there’s more action here than in that rotoscoped misfire. But “Renaissance’s” chunks-o’-black-and-white format affects that adversely too. Car chases and conversations alike seem to move at an offbeat, distancing rhythm. While not the herky-jerk effect seen in Japanese anime, it’s similarly distracting.
“Renaissance” | ** RATING
R for violence, sex, nudity, language, children in jeopardy|1 hour, 45 minutes|NOIR CARTOON|Directed by Christian Volckman; voiced by Daniel Craig, Romola Garai, Ian Holm, Catherine McCormack, Jonathan Pryce. Dubbed in English.|Opens today at Landmark’s Esquire.
