Immortel (ad vitam)

[Chevalier Bayard]

I should have named this topic "Countdown to Immortel" as yet we have still more than 2 weeks to wait for its release in France and it's getting VERY long !!

As the topic on RRRrrrr!!! seems to have interrested some of you, I thought I'd take some time to tell you more about Immortel(ad vitam) and Enki Bilal

As usual there are many links in this topic so drag your cursor around


Right click on the poster and select "save as" to download the trailer...

Enki Bilal is a very well known artist here.



Born in Belgrade (ex-Yugoslavia) in 1951 (on October 7th), he moves to Paris in 1960.

In 1970 he sends some draws to Pilote a very famous comics magazine where have started famous people like Goscinny, Gotlib, Franquin...



Bilal doesn't not catch their attention with his draws but he'll be back in 1971 after having won a price. He is then been hired and draws the political figures of the time for Pilote. Working there, he meets Pierre Christin who is the writer of a famous SF comic : Valérian. They start to work together and meet success with several albums including La croisièes des oubliés(1975), Le vaisseau de Pierre(1976), Les Phalanges de l'Ordre Noir(1979), ...




In 1980 is released La Foire Aux Immortels, first album of a SF trilogy, La Trilogie Nikopol (La Foire Aux Immortels, La Femme Piège and Froid +quateur). . Immortel(ad vitam) is based on its 2 first albums.



There are many great albums in Bilal's work I invite you to see if you ever manage to. I know he is translated in some countries but don't know each one of them ...

His last book, released in 2003, is Trente-Deux Décembre, second part of a new trilogy started with Le Sommeil Du Monstre. I think I remember Yomghee had talked about it somewhere around here ...



Bilal's comic books are nearly all around stories mixing geopolitics and science-fiction. I must admit that if I like the stories, which makes me really a hudge fan of Bilal are his draws. I hope you'll have checked the different links up there and seen the quality of his work... I found each page IS a piece of art.



Bilal has already had some experiences with cinema as designer, for example on The Name Of The Rose and he has already directed Bunker Palace Hotel (1989) and Tycho Moon (1996)



With Tekila, with have both liked a lot Tycho Moon even if we cannot deny the movie is cheap, the "Bilal spirit" is in here as in its esthetic and in the characters complexity.



I must say I can't wait to see Immortel(ad vitam) if, with the help of cgfx Bilal has managed to put on screen HIS draws.

And looking the trailer (available by clicking on the poster at the begining of the post) and the pics ... it seems he has managed to do so ...



So I can't wait to come back here and post my vote and critic

I hope that, for those who have discovered Bilal here, you've been interrested by the subject



Bilal deserves to meet international success for the work he has done already ... I hope this movie will bring him more fans! 8)

Chevvie, fingers crossed

[Albatross]

It looks good, will have to check it out when it arrives over here

[Lady Fantasim]

All I can say Chevvie is wow... It looks really (for lack of a better word) interesting and pretty damn amazing.

[Chevalier Bayard]

I'm gonna try tomorrow morning to have tickets for a premiere friday or monday

[Wappendorf]

With some luck, i'll go to see it tomorrow on thursday 18...
I already failed to get a ticket for it last saturday...
I'll tell you...

[Chevalier Bayard]

I have my ticket for monday and Bilal will be there

I haven't managed to get a ticket for friday ...

[Wappendorf]

Sorry, forgot to reply here... I already replied in french in cinemad...

In short : i really enjoyed the new story of bilal, as always, he hasn't made something he had already made so be prepared to a completely new different story. Characters are indeed the same as in his famous "Trilogie Nikopol" though at the same time not completely the same, in fact they are only graphically the same and psychologically slightly different (as their respective background is very different it's quite normal though...)

I'd say if you like Bilal's work you should be pleased by his new film. If on the contrary you don't like him, then don't go because though I think there's a nice evolution in his work it's still very "his style" of work.

So, voilÓ, as I like very much his work, i gave this film 5/6.

[Albatross]

I've not previously seen the comics or heard any of the back-story of this series, so i'm having to review this film entirely on it's own merits

Since the all the text on the DVD was in french, I was actually quite fortunate to find the 'play' feature ( ) but was unable to disable the french subtitles throughout the film. And unfortunately, all the conversations between the 'gods' was subtitled in french too, so i had to guess a lot of it

Even through all of these linguistic problems, the film itself is pretty much superb (fortunately made in english, at least from my point of view ) and the world created actually looks like it's been pulled straight from the pages of a comic book.

There is an unusual mix of live actors and CG characters on screen together, and while most are clearly artificial it manages not to detract too much from the movie, instead I felt it added to the overall 'surreality' of it.

The story itself is imaginative and original, and for someone like myself (who enjoys films that are a bit unusual and weird) it was like a breath of fresh air - You wouldn't see too many films like this coming from the Jerry Bruckheimer label, i guarantee that

I'm going to have to watch this film again pretty soon - Partly so i can pick up some of the information i missed first time around, and partly because this film is more than deserving of being watched again and again

5/6

[Chevalier Bayard]

I'm glad you liked it enough to grant it a 5

Indeed you've missed a part which helps to ... how can we say ... situate the "distance" between men and gods minds

In the audio commentary, which sadely is not subtitled , Enki Bilal explains that the result of the mix between CG and real character has disapointed him. He says that the budget used for the hairs in Final Fantasy equals the budget of all the movie Immortel

The first time I've seen the movie I was wondering if the doctor was CG or real. In fact he is both : a CG face but digitalized from a real one and pasted on a real actor.

I was looking forward impatiently to read your reaction as you hadn't read anything about you but only seen a few draws from him. I hope you'll have the opportunity to see it on a real cinema's screen with no annoying subtitled except for the gods conversations

Bilal really deserves to be known worlwide. In each movie, he has managed to make a hudge jump making us come closer to his world. I hope he will be able to do even better in the next one and that might be the case if Hollywood producers finally learn about him and give him a white card to do whatever he wants. I don't think he'll accept anyway to do a "commercial first try" like Mathieu Kassovitz with Gothika or Jean-Pierre Jeunet with Alien Resurection. But these movies have allowed Jeunet to direct A Very Long Engagement and I'm awaiting a lot from Kassovitz's Babylon Babies, maybe Bilal should think twice

[Chevalier Bayard]

One more draw, just for pleasure


Topic repaired but we have lost a few posts in it, including the frenchies cirtics when they got out the cinema