Avalon
Catch this one at the cinema, and you'll be more happy to have some company to bounce ideas off. It isn’t the sort of film you can watch on your own, unless you’re a really confident reader of this sort of films (mind-bending manga). Or just arrogant.
The premise is that somewhere in the near future, there is an illegal VR battle game going on which, if skilled enough, players can actually earn a living from. Ash, the heroine, is one of these players, and spends a long time progressing through the levels, to improve her skills – but also to try and find the mysterious ‘Bishop’ who challenges her domination of the game. Without spoiling too much, there are these mysterious ‘higher levels’ to the game which she eventually reaches, at which point in the film it is quite possible to ‘lose the plot’, as reality itself becomes a questionable factor.
The film is set in a European city, and features a beautifully artistic style of direction that is totally unmatched in sci-fi to date. The cinematography is brilliantly inventive - some sort of film overexposure provides everything with a dark glow in Ash’s home and VR worlds, and the sets become more and more tense and haunting the longer we spend in them. The lead, Ash (Malgorzata Foremniak) plays the well-formed character perfectly, but unfortunately there is a lot of vague definition for the rest of the cast.
A stunningly slick-looking cyberpunk thriller with a few interesting twists, featuring thrilling action sequences as well as the long, drawn-out silences we’ve come to expect from decent European cinema. Which, wierdly enough, this shouldn't be, as its from a top-notch japanese animator. Regardless, its definitely worth a look.
p.s. a couple of random questions though – what was with the dog? And why were we treated to such a drawn out display of the thief eating?
7.7
MD 14:36 26/02/2003