Hacker Cinema
Immortal
Immortel (ad vitam)
2004 · Film · 103 min
Directed by Enki Bilal
In the distant future, Earth is occupied by ancient gods and genetically altered humans. When a god is sentenced to death he seeks a new human host and a woman to bear his child.
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2 comments on Hacker News
Movies for the large audience must always entertain, but you can entertain different ways. It's hard to describe what the 'Cinema' way is but it's easy to recognize when it's absent.
Here is a short list of things that make blockbuster movies not Cinema:
1. CGI and the visuals are technically pretty, but coming from the same standard tooling or pipeline. You can recognize that it's just more of the same. Examples of something creative: The Fifth Element (1997), Immortal (2004), Sin City (2005), Tron, ..
2. Action scenes are made from standardized sequences, postures and phrases. 5 minutes of action rarely matters for the plot and it's not fun to watch.
3. Dialogue and characters are extremely stereotypical. Power fantasy with some jokes and funny lines.
Some movies are just a part of a format. It requires talent to stick into format and not bore the target audience. Just provide what they want better. Changing director does not change the overall format. Directors are the to perfect the execution, not create something new.
It's even better in French:
Le Poison Le vin sait revêtir le plus sordide bouge D'un luxe miraculeux, Et fait surgir plus d'un portique fabuleux Dans l'or de sa vapeur rouge, Comme un soleil couchant dans un ciel nébuleux.
L'opium agrandit ce qui n'a pas de bornes, Allonge l'illimité, Approfondit le temps, creuse la volupté, Et de plaisirs noirs et mornes Remplit l'âme au delà de sa capacité. Tout cela ne vaut pas le poison qui découle
De tes yeux, de tes yeux verts, Lacs où mon âme tremble et se voit à l'envers... Mes songes viennent en foule Pour se désaltérer à ces gouffres amers.
Tout cela ne vaut pas le terrible prodige De ta salive qui mord, Qui plonge dans l'oubli mon âme sans remords, Et charriant le vertige, La roule défaillante aux rives de la mort!
In Immortal Ad Vitam (2004) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0314063/), they quote a mix of the original version in French and the English translation, combined with the song Beautiful Days by Venus, and it's really beautiful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spMm3A2T-CM