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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

IMMORTEL

Mister Six, whom all the girls

18:32 / 25.10.04

http://www.immortel-lefilm.com/immortel_flash-640.html

PLOT: A floating pyramid shows up over Manhattan in 2095, a place where humans and aliens live side-by-side. Horus must find and get a blue haired (and blue lipped girl) pregnant within 7 days to regain his immortality. He takes over a human body, of a man who has spent 30 years in cyrogenic sleep, to use as a host.

Sorry if the search missed any other posts about this, but I couldn't find anything on the old Lith regarding this film based on Enki Bilal's Heavy Metal story. I saw a portion of it at a con and it looked either horrible or mind-blowing.

Anyone seen it?

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

19:43 / 25.10.04

WHOAH!!! Is this Bilal's Nikopol stories? AS A FUCKING MOVIE???

If they fuck THIS up, I actually WILL kill them.

Mister Six, whom all the girls

19:45 / 25.10.04

Well... he DID direct it.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

19:50 / 25.10.04

I'll post something more constructive when my old wood-burning connection has managed to stay together long enough to watch the trailer...

I don't remember the "7 days to get her pregnant" thing from Gods In Chaos (or The Carnival, I thing it was also called)...

Forgive my cynicism... I just WANT this to be fucking brilliant, and not to be horribly disappointed.

I always thought they'd make great movies- "The Woman Trap" especially.

20:08 / 25.10.04

I couldn't find anything on the old Lith regarding this film based on Enki Bilal's Heavy Metal story

ahem.

It’s entirely my own fault for hiding it away, of course. Besides which, I haven’t actually seen the film. Tell us more about the previews, Mister Six. And, again, has anyone here seen any of Bilal's films yet?

Mister Six, whom all the girls

20:40 / 25.10.04

I knew it was only a matter of time before someone bypassed my apology for not finding anything on Immortel with the search feature and posted a link to a thread on the movie.

Anyway, what I saw at the con consisted of beautifully CGi-rendered citiscapes, flying cars, etc and a bloody detective (cgi) wandering into a bar. The bartender talked about his Japanese manufactured lungs and the bloody detective seemed unmoved.

A later glimpse consisted of more flying cars and a not-so-impressive cgi Horus talking to a live action dude.

I was at a con listening to it as I flipped through bins and turned my head to see the odd snatch or visuals, but I was sold. I've actually not heard of Enki beyond seeing his name on tons of Humanoids books. Cheap DVDs are on ebay right now for 10 bucks but the official French DVD comes out 10/27, no word on domestic or UK release.

23:11 / 25.10.04

The reviews I've heard/read have mostly been mixed to poor, of the "nice ideas, shame about the execution" variety. I'm still interested to see it, though.

Incidentally, for those people in or near Toronto, The Beguiling, Toronto's best comic shop, is having Enki Bilal in-store to do a signing appearance this Thursday October 28th. Click link for details...

Math is for suckers!

04:04 / 26.10.04

I had no idea that this movie was related to Heavy Metal, but thinking back on it I can definitely see the influence. I saw it a couple months ago and have to admit I was a little disappointed. The ideas were pretty neat and the special effects were (usually, but not always) very pretty. The costume and set designs were excellent, and gave the movie a slightly comic booky feel. That being said, the story was a little convoluted, with a lot of unexplained plot detours left unexplained when the movie ended. The odd mixture of live actors and sets and cg actors and sets was a little iffy in my opinion too. If I remember correctly(which I probably don't)there were only 4 human actors playing main characters and major supporting roles. The rest were all cg. The sets were also a mixture of cg and real, and it seemed a little arbitrary at times. I think the movie would have felt a little more cohesive had they decided to stick to one or the other, but not both. However, despite these problems I still found it to be pretty enjoyable. Just don't watch it expecting to see an amazing films, expect to see a fun film that looks pretty. Like Sky Captain..., but without all the fun.

No star here laces

06:58 / 27.10.04

Got the dvd, not got around to watching it yet. I expect that the post above has nailed it....

11:20 / 27.10.04

There were posters for this all over Paris in advance of the movie opening in April, and I'm kicking myself for not getting a pair (half-face of man and woman) of them when I had a chance. I still haven't gotten to see it, because my French is crap so there was no point in seeing it in Paris, and it hasn't yet come to Amsterdam, where I can at least read the Dutch subtitles.

Mysterious Transfer Student

18:17 / 25.06.06

Well now, this is out on DVD in the UK and I just rented it. I think the comments upthread are reasonable - some truly remarkable visuals but the whole affair is seriously hampered by a plot that's evidently been ruthlessly cut down from something much larger and more involved. Not being a Bilal afficionado myself, can anyone tell me that there really was a lot more worth fleshing out, such as the backstory of the mutilated detective, or the Invisible Man-looking dude who seemed to be some kind of patron to the blue-haired heroine?

Comparisons with the likes of The Fifth Element might seem lazy, but are justified - both have that addictive Euro-70s-hippie-prog-rock feel that anyone post-2000AD should normally run screaming from, but which is so secretly delightful in its dippiness. Immortal, however, seems lacking in the kind of humour and sex appeal that elevated TFE into pop-culture grooviness.

Has anybody else seen this movie of late? Bilal fans (if we have any), please pile on...

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

21:48 / 25.06.06

Comparisons with the likes of The Fifth Element might seem lazy, but are justified - both have that addictive Euro-70s-hippie-prog-rock feel that anyone post-2000AD should normally run screaming from, but which is so secretly delightful in its dippiness.

Still not seen the movie yet, but the comics predate Fifth Element by many years (I read them probably sometime in the mid-80s, and I have no idea how old they were then), and they were what the things I liked about that film reminded me of.

From reviews I've read, the plot is vastly different, though...

...and I can't find my copy of the Nikopol Trilogy (a lovely outsized hardback, that a worrying voice at the back of my head is telling me I haven't seen around since last time I moved house) to reread... but I want to before (or at the very least, straight after) I see the film.

Ah, fuck it. Might buy it this week. Then it'll be the kick up the ass I need to track down a replacement of the comics.

Mister Six, whom all the girls

15:20 / 26.06.06

Rented it last month and while the visuals are stunning the story lost me early on.

My disinterest in the plot might be a failing in me as a viewer so don't let it deter you from seeing it. Part of the problem for me was that several different plots all sleepily played out away from each other. I'm sure it was all bound to collide but as home viewing I got more interested in cleaning up.

The documentary on the disc was very interesting, though. I still cannot get over the level of involvement that the film gave the creator.

18:41 / 26.06.06

There were a lot of things I really wanted expanded. I suspect it would have made a great mini series instead of a somewhat disappointing movie.

Though it was worth it to see Bast and Anubis playing monopoly....

I'd be likely to play it in the background of a party/club as it does have a lot of lovely images.

23:29 / 26.06.06

I spent an evening really, really wanting to like Immortel but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. It was almost beautiful enough to forgive the way it was edited. The set designs were almost good enough to distract from the low-quality CG characters. The really fantastic elements of the plot were almost enough to let the dropped plot points lie. Now I'm hoping that there'll be a three-hour director's cut which will make the movie more cohesive.