Fear(s) of the Dark (Peur(s) du noir 2007)

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What is it with the French and graphic novel movies? Well, the only other one that springs to mind is Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi's "Persepolis," but it's a biggie. For the French production "Fear(s) of the Dark, " six of the world's leading graphic artists - Blutch, Charles Burns, Marie Caillou, Pierre di Sciullo, Lorenzo Mattotti and Richard McGuire - got together to animate a collection of shorts designed to creep you out.

The result is more lyrical than frightening - and there are some misses mixed in with the hits - but it's well worth checking out.

The best vignette is one of the first, done by American artist Burns using computer animation. It's the story of a loner science nerd who goes to college and meets a lovely girl named Laura at the library. Unfortunately, one of his specimens has escaped and taken up residence in his bed. Saying more would give it away. Burns' iconic, smooth ink drawings look fantastic on the big screen and the narration, voiced by the late Guillaume Depardieu, whispers with the proper mix of resignation and horror.

The finale is also fantastic. Done by McGuire and produced without dialogue, it's a haunted house story long on shadows. Like Burns, McGuire works in high-contrast black-and-white images. McGuire makes excellent use of the dark: He loves eyes peeping, the general confusion a black screen causes while he slowly lets the light in to illuminate the action.

While the narrated sequence of a woman (voice by Nicole Garcia) speaking on her more contemporary fears (being a conservative, being "irredeemably bourgeois") fails to move, the interstitial sequence, done in sketched-out shades of gray, of snarling dogs being unleashed, one by one, on the citizens of what looks to be a 19th century town, is beautifully drawn and fairly horrific if not actually scary. Samurai ghosts and innocent schoolgirls come together in another short, although the results are largely forgettable. All in all, "Fear(s) of the Dark" is a feast for the eyes, even if it doesn't always get the pulse racing.

External Reviews on IMDB.com:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0792986/externalreviews

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Fear(s) of the Dark
• (Peur(s) du Noir
• trailer
• animation
• cinema

[PloufsPuppet]

It's hard to get this Film... Also its just in french language and you have to use subs. Too bad, there aren't even german subs.. .

Whatever: I HAVE TO SEE THAT!