Heavy Metal: Yes, I saw then in the theater when it was first released. Since I had not been indulging in min-altering substances at the time, I can only guess that my fond memories of the film were based on my date (a lovely young woman), an appreciation for comics, and the animated naked women with large breasts (speaking of my date). Unfortunately, the movie doesn't hold up terribly well. The Superbit DVD edition looks grainy and the animation is choppy as hell, almost Scooby-Doo quality in places. Yes, I know it was made back in 1981, but I don't see those problems on other animated feature films from earlier years. The stories (and naked chicks) are still okay, though, and it's interesting to see how the visual styles of the comic artists who created the stories (Moebius, Richard Corben, Angus McKie, etc.) translated to the big screen. Still, the Harry Canyon sequence made me laugh, even after all these years.

Immortel (Ad Vitam): This odd little science-fiction film has been shown in the SciFi Channel, I hear, so you may have seen it. There's certainly little chance that you saw it in the theaters, where it apparently played for about fifteen minutes in 2004. A French-made English-language film directed by Luc Besson, it is loosely based on a trilogy of graphic novels by Belgian artist Enki Bilal. As mentioned in my entry about The Fifth Element, I admit to a certain fascination with French science-fiction's tropes: American cars, Egyptian gods, female assassins (and Nixon, although he doesn't appear in this film), so a DVD cover with a pyramid floating over some megalopolis and Bilal's name was enough for me. (The price being $6.99 didn't hurt any, either.) It isn't bad, although it's heavy on atmosphere and visuals and skimpy on plot. I admire the production's willingness to take a chance on mixing CGI and live action, and for the most part it works. Similar to Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, the film was shot entirely against blue screens, with all the sets and many of the characters added digitally. Again, for the most part it works, and the New York City of the future looks as dystopian as you'd expect. However, an unfortunate reliance on deus ex WFT? left me a bit cold. While this is clearly more a film of style rather than ideas, I had hoped for more.

It does bring up an interesting point, though, and one which has been the subject of some debate on-line. A woman in the film is raped by a man possessed by a god. Afterward the woman — who is not entirely human herself, having perhaps been created for the purpose of carrying a god's progeny — becomes somewhat nonchalant about the ordeal, and even falls in love with the man who's body was the conduit for the assault. So do the facts that the non-human woman doesn't care and that the possessed person doesn't get punished (though the god does) mean that the film is anti-woman and pro-rape? Immortel has been criticized by some viewers for just that, which makes little sense to me,mainly because the film just isn't that deep.