Enki Bilal's Blue Hair: Give us a reason to care

Over the last year the film industry has begun to explore the integration of live actors into environments both fully realized and largely populated by the machinations of a computer. Films like Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow herald the advent of a new production model, a new breed of film that relies on the "digital backlot" to have its impact (a trend Tron anticipated back in the '80s). Whether actors are leaping between blue-painted blocks in a bluescreen studio or delivering dialogue to tennis ball stand-ins, the motive is the same-more bang, less buck.

Immortal is perhaps a better test of audiences' willingness to abide this direction in cinema than Sky Captain, its Hollywood counterpart. Immortal isn't hedging its bets with A-list personas like Jude, Gwyneth, Angelina and Giovanni... nor does it deliver its fantastical material with the apologist retro-camp of Sky Captain's matinee-at-the-Bijou aesthetics. For better or worse, Immortal is a genuine article, sincere, ambitious, convoluted and humourless.

The story follows the tangled interaction between a spooky girl with blue hair (Linda Hardy), the Egyptian god Horus (animated) and Nikopol (Thomas Kretschmann), the martyred figurehead of a nascent cultural revolution that Horus resurrects as an avatar for copping off. Horus wants to make Blue Hair his baby mama, Blue Hair wants to know who she is, Nikopol wants to avoid getting executed again and we just want a reason to care. You guess who's most disappointed. Of the three non-animated characters (Charlotte Rampling does a creaky portrayal of Blue Hair's doctor), only Kretschmann manages to show any actual charm-and his loneliness in this is palpable.

Bilal's own Nikopol Trilogy (his most famous graphic novelization) provides the story for Immortal, one that fared better under the extended exposition of the printed version. This treatment is superficial and trite, with leaden dialogue that puts too much weight on the complexities of relationships that the film doesn't have time to explore satisfactorily.

Bilal's filmic style, as with his bandes dessinées, is elaborately architectural, textural and atmospherically grave. He paints a world lodged in the throbbing gristle of tomorrow's metropolises, populated by astronauts, aliens and ancient Egyptian gods, and characterized by rotting political systems, violence and the entropic conflicts between the ancient and the future-now. It's beautiful to look at but hardly memorable in any way other than as a signpost along some cinematic backroad.

IMMORTAL
DIRECTED BY ENKI BILAL
FEBRUARY 16 - 19
BYTOWNE CINEMA
 
 

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Wow - what a great experience     I found this a very surprising and brilliant film that I knew absolutely nothing about until I picked it up in the video shop, as a tryout. I am always on the lookout for Sci-Fi films as I have been a fan of the genre for the last 50 years. The images in the film are breathtaking and the plot while convoluted comes together somewhat at the end. I have been a fan of manga for some time, through my son exposing me to it, and I feel that this film is taking it right up to manga like 'Ghost in the Machine'. I particularly like the fact that it is not 100% clear what is happening on the first viewing. I find the use of live actors and computer genrated characters and backgrounds, as has been said, to be the furture of films. I love the way the Egyptian Gods were rolled into the storyline and the way they were depicted. Hollywood and their 8 year old (mentally) target audience films need to watch out. All these indie films need is to beat the marketing stranglehold of Hollywood to burst out and beat them at their own game.
James Gillen	{7 votes}	July 3rd, 2006
Film Review 101/Immortal     I'm sorry but unless you've been a longtime fan of Enki Bilal's graphic series then you really aren't in any position to judge this project properly. This movie was never going to be a mainstream hit but then again anyone with any familiarity with most European graphic properties could have told you that anyways. Some material translates seamlessly into film and other material just doesn't. For this movie to have been what some would like for it to have been it would have had to sell a large part of its soul away. As it is Enki Bilal's IMMORTEL (AD VITAM) crunches down a lot of the nuance and content from his books to fit the film format and some purists aren't very happy about that. Bilal had a choice to make here: make a commercial hit or the best adaptation he could that respected the material and the fans of the series. He made his choice, it's somewhat compromised choice but it was his choice to make. You've got to forgive and accept a lot of CGI to human interaction here and not in that seamless George Lucas way. The focus here is the story, not the effects. It's not a perfect marriage but I'll take this over Jar Jar Binks any day. This movie is not a classic but it's as faithful an adaptation as could be had and that my friends is something rarer than hot albino chicks with genuine blue hair. Feel free to judge the movie as you will but I sincerely hope that you'll all take a look at the series of books that inspired this movie because that's where the Bilal's genius really shines.
Pedro Eggers	{22 votes}	February 19th, 2005
To the future of the film industry!     Immortal is one of those films that will probably become a cult hit simply because it is visually stunning to watch ! The computer effects with the live actors combine well and as the story line goes interesting enough to follow but could of been taken much further given the time and money but none the less its pure entertainment !! Well Hollywood rolls out blockbuster after blockbuster these filmmakers produce on the edge films that are well worth the while to see but hope that they continue to delve into the experimental side of the film making industry. Mass produced commercial hits make money but aren,t we beening manipulated enough in real life to see that the independant films push us into really thinking about human reactions and interactions in our daily lives but still entertain.
Richard Roberts		August 20th, 2005
Enki Bilal is a Trailblazer for the film industry's benefit........     Enki Bilal is on his cinematic journey that will lead to a certain degree of success but has not reached the $$ point yet. He took certain risks coming to North America and continued to take risks releasing movies like Bunker Palace and Tykho Man. So what if Bilal hasn't achieved the top of the Fortune 500 Success Pyramid~~~~~ Does it really matter? He is a trailblazer and through him, other less risky directors learn what new innovations look like onscreen (without having to spend a red cent of their own money). Directors like Enki Bilal are important because they are willing to take chances and look back on their film evolutions and decide what else they would like to conquer. Hollywood fame and glamour is all relative. If Michael Moore did documentaries on investigating laminate flooring, would people really care? Bilal will eventually hit on something more mainstream (if Immortal is not the crowninh jewel career-wise) but doesn't appear to be in a hurry as he continues to explore new territory. And that is fine with me...
Steve Landry	{9 votes}	February 13th, 2005
I think I'll pass...     I'm a huge fan of movies and will see pretty much any type. But I don't know, this one just seems too crappy. The question is... is there an actual story line? Is there any real love in it. Or just some animated Egyptian god with a name similar to that of Horse, chasing some "spooky girl with blue hair." Looking at that picture in this article, who would want to chase that? Dye your hair, grow it out. I won't be seeing this movie, probably wouldn't even see if it I was paid to.
Jonathon Dean	{6 votes}	February 10th, 2005

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