Avalon achieves quite a rare thing by being wholly and completely one of
its kind. A blend of Ghost in Shell with La Double Vie – this Oshii meets
Kieslowski makes for an interesting watch if only for its oddity – a Polish
speaking anime with real life photography (heavily digitalized of course). The
main battle fought here by Oshii – directing animation vs. directing
photography - is not successfully fought out: what goes for somber or urban in
the static animated characters in conventional Anime passes on as pure bad
acting, or rather undirected acting, in real life photography. As can be seen
in the special features included in the original DVD Oshii is constantly using
the “will work on it digitally” phrase. The photography for Oshii remains just
another Gizmo.
On the brighter side, seeing the eastern European scenery as a possible
place for sci-fi is very rewarding: the modus vivendi created by the dominance
of the American film industry makes our (mine) visions of the future very much
American. Thus to remember that Poland too will be part of our future, not
forgetting Stanislaw Lemm, of course, nor Tarkovsky’s amazing Sollaris and Stalker,
makes for a breath of fresh – sepia toned – air.
While the film presents some tantalizing moments the extra features
included in the original DVD, despite being overly long, are a true joy. A
documentary showing Oshii trying to cope with the Polish crew and the crew's
uncomfortable experiences presents some extraordinary sequences. The
embarrassment at the endless singing in Oshii’s birthday is probably one of the
most rewarding sequences in all of the DVD, film itself included.
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