Paris Year 2054, as imagined by Christian Volckman, is both transparent and opaque. Visually, the rotoscopic black and white animated feature is all glass walls and holographic heroes, and there’s an ethereal quality that lends distinction but alienates. Conversely the noirish futurist tale of mad scientists, damsels under duress and an unflappable square-jawed hero can be somewhat impenetrable when it’s not busy putting its clichés in a time machine.
Were this a traditionally crafted animated film, that would probably be that. But it’s something else. Something unseen for the most part – especially outside geek-loved comic books and graphic novels. The animation can astound and makes quibbles about plot and clinical approach seem petty. An action adventure story in sci-fi coating, it features a cop trying to rescue a beautiful but misguided researcher who “knows too much” from the clutches of a now familiar futurist trope – the Orwellian corporation. Unfortunatly, in stripping away the outer layer of colorization, this chiaroscuro film seems drained of emotion too. Maybe if I had seen it with its French dialogue there would have been a better organic connection to the neo-Parisian setting. Or maybe it was always just going to be a good-looking sci-fi fan boy picture at heart.
Opens September 22
Were this a traditionally crafted animated film, that would probably be that. But it’s something else. Something unseen for the most part – especially outside geek-loved comic books and graphic novels. The animation can astound and makes quibbles about plot and clinical approach seem petty. An action adventure story in sci-fi coating, it features a cop trying to rescue a beautiful but misguided researcher who “knows too much” from the clutches of a now familiar futurist trope – the Orwellian corporation. Unfortunatly, in stripping away the outer layer of colorization, this chiaroscuro film seems drained of emotion too. Maybe if I had seen it with its French dialogue there would have been a better organic connection to the neo-Parisian setting. Or maybe it was always just going to be a good-looking sci-fi fan boy picture at heart.
Opens September 22
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