IMMORTEL

(AD VITAM)

Directed by Enki Bilal
Written by Enki Bilal & Serge Lehman
Produced by Charles Gassot
Music by Goran Vejvoda
Cast: Linda Hardy, Thomas Kretschmann, Charlotte Rampling, Thomas M Pollard & Frédéric Pierrot

2004/102 mins/Color/DTS
1.85:1/English/France/PAL Region 5

Review from CP Digital DVD

New York 2095. A huge pyramid that inhabit Gods is flooting over the city. A young android woman with blue hair and blue tears called Jill, the gorgeous and former Miss France Linda Hardy, is searched by Horus, a bird-like God who's about to die and has only seven days to stay on Earth. He has been condemned by his peers, Anubis the God of the Dead and Bastet, and must find a human body to walk the Earth.

Comes Nikopol, a political prisoner cryogenically frozen for 30 years but now "accidently" free. Horus wisely arrange for Nikopol (Thomas Kretschmann who we've recently seen in BLADE II and as the killer in Dario Argento's THE STENDHAL SYNDROME) and Jill to meet and fall in love hoping to find the secret of immortality.

IMMORTEL is a visually amazing and stunning combination of live action and computer generated graphics. Director and writer Enki Bilal based the story of two of his famous NIKOPOL TRILOGY book from the 80's, "La Foire aux immortels" and "La Femme piège". The film has a stylish look remiscent of the HEAVY METAL comic books thanks to the fx by Durand who worked on LE PACTE DES LOUPS, LE FABULEUX DESTIN D'AMÉLIE POULIN and others.

More then just a simple sci-fi movie, IMMORTEL is filled with political, socialism, capitalism and human comments and reflections. Bilal is know for his very speculative, spiritual and political books and it reflects clearly in the film. This might just be one of the most important science fiction film of recent years.

This Russian DVD features both a DTS and 5.1 Dolby Digital track in Russian along the original 5.1 Dolby Digital English track. Even though the film was made in France, it was shot in English. We get removable Russian subtitles. The image looks amazing which rich, vibrants and nicely saturated colors. There's a little compression in the darker scenes but nothing alarming. All three audio tracks are clear and crisp making great use of your home theater capabilities. We get bios, in Russian, of the director and the lead actors. Trailers for other CP Digital release like VAN HELSING, THE CARD PLAYER, PASSION OF THE CHRIST and others. The film is separated in 20 chapters, comes in a transparent jewel case with no booklet or inlay card. The menus look ok and have animations and sounds.

This is the kind of movie that deserves loads of extras on a DVD release so you might be better with the French release which features a commentary track by Bilal, Making Of, interviews, storyboards, teaser, trailer... and that's just for the normal edition. There was also a two disc edition released in France with more extras and limited to 2095 copies!

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Review by Kim Dubuisson. All Right Reserved. 2004. ©

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