| Immortal | |
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| Directed by | Enki Bilal |
| Produced by | Charles Gassot |
| Written by | Enki Bilal (comic books, scenario & adaptation and dialogue) Serge Lehman (script) |
| Starring | Linda Hardy Thomas Kretschmann Charlotte Rampling |
| Music by | Sigur Rós Goran Vejvoda |
| Cinematography | Pascal Gennesseaux |
| Editing by | Véronique Parnet |
| Release date(s) | 2004 |
| Running time | 102 min. |
| Country | France |
| Language | English |
| Budget | €22,100,000 (estimated) |
Immortal (French: Immortel (ad vitam)) is a 2004 English language, but French-produced science fiction film, directed by artist Enki Bilal and based upon his graphic novel La Foire aux immortels (The Carnival of Immortals). The film combines live action footage with computer animation, and received mixed reviews. It is notable as being one of the first major films (along with Able Edwards, Casshern and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow) to be shot entirely on a "digital backlot", blending live actors with computer generated surroundings. Immortel goes one step further than those films, however, in also having live actors interacting with semi photo-realistic CGI "humans" (as opposed to films such as Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace and The Lord of the Rings film trilogy which featured fantasy creatures).
The film takes place in New York City in the year 2095 where genetically altered humans live side by side with unaltered men and women, and where Central Park has been mysteriously encased in an "intrusion zone" where people who attempt to enter are instantly killed. A strange pyramid has appeared over the city; inside, the gods of ancient Egypt are judging Horus, one of their fellow gods, who has a man's body but the head of a falcon. In the city below, Jill, a young woman with blue hair is arrested. Not completely human, her tissues appear to be no more than a few months old according to an examining physician, although her physical form is already that of an adult. She also possesses a number of secret powers, including one that enables her to procreate with gods, though she knows nothing of this. Horus is given a limited time to interact with the humans of New York and procreate. During his search for a host body, Horus encounters Nikopol, a rebel condemned to 30 years of hibernation who escapes his prison, due to a mechanical accident, one year early. Horus has been unsuccessful in attempting to take over the bodies of other humans; due to an incompatibility with the genetic alterations humans have undergone, the host bodies self-destruct while attempting to accommodate a "god". Nikopol's body is acceptable as it has been frozen in prison/storage and not undergone the genetic changes causing the rejections. Horus takes partial control of Nikopol's body and starts looking for a woman he can mate with to provide him a son before his death sentence is carried out. When Horus/Nikopol discovers Jill, they become entangled in a web of murder and intrigue.
The film, although produced in France, uses English-speaking actors, and all dialogue is in English, except for several scenes in (a modern approximation of) Ancient Egyptian, and one scene performed in French (the Region 1 DVD release translates the Egyptian scenes, but not the French dialogue). Except for British actress Charlotte Rampling, however, most of the actors, including star Linda Hardy, had their original performances overdubbed by others.
The final scene is the only one in which we hear actress Linda Hardy's voice as she recites in her native French the third stanza of Charles Baudelaire's poem Le Poison, which her character, Jill, has just been reading from the book she holds entitled Les Fleurs Du Mal or Flowers of Evil.
"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."
[English translation: All that is not worth the poison that flows from your eyes, from your green eyes, lakes where my soul trembles and sees itself upside down. My dreams crowd in to slake their thirst in those bitter gulfs.]
Nikopol, who recites Baudelaire's turbulent poetry in other scenes of the movie, provides the final lines of dialogue by completing Jill's recitation in English. "But all that is not worth the prodigy of your saliva, Jill, that bites my soul, and dizzies it, and swirls it down, remorselessly, rolling it, fainting to the underworld."
Also starring: Olivier Achard, Corinne Jaber, Barbara Scaff, Joe Sheridan, Jacquelyn Toman, Jean-Louis Trintignant.
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