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Time has finally come for me to share an opinion on a Polish film. I should probably explain that I don't often venture into the world of Polish cinema as most Polish films are simply rubbish as far as I care. The mainstream stuff in this country are comedies with the same actors over and over again, gangster movies and war movies. Very rarely does one see something that doesn't fit into one of those categories. Suffice it to say the movies are not anywhere near Hollywood level.
Avalon, however is not mainstream. I saw it for the first time years ago while I was watching late night TV. God knows Polish television would never show anything that's actually original and interesting during daytime, so at night they play some rare gems "for nerds".
Before I go on to explain why this is, in fact, a rare gem, I should first mention that it's not 100% Polish. Actually it's Japanese-Polish. It's quite a mix. Mamoru Oshii directed it, Kenji Kawai composed the soundtrack, and the Polish team provided the acting, most of the cinematography and locations.
The story is a fantasy of every Call of Duty fan. There's an illegal FPS game to which the player literally hooks up their brain and they feel like they are actually in there. It's very realistic and there is money to be earned if you are good at it, so naturally, it's quite addictive and also, apparently, very dangerous as some people, after having been shot in-game become brain-dead for the rest of their life. The game is called Avalon. The plot follows Ash, a young woman who aspires to be the best of the best at it.
As I had mentioned, the actors are Polish. Sadly, this isn't exactly a prime example of the Polish style of acting. The actors don't seem to care at all about anything other than their paychecks. As a result, the characters come off soulless. Also, there are some English words in the movie. Every single actor pronounced those differently, rarely correctly. They didn't even care enough to look into a bloody dictionary, which I will simply have to call incompetence.
As far as the cinematography goes, the typical Polish pretentiousness clearly found its way into this flick. Everything is overly styled, the colors are washed out and brown-ish. The image is blurry all the time. On top of that, the sets are nothing to shout about, and all of that is accompanied by long, silent, often pointless shots typical of the Polish movie-making style.
However, there are good things about Avalon. For instance, it features a great soundtrack. The movie took advantage of it properly by actually having a scene where the Polish National Philharmonic Orchestra performs a live concert of the main theme in a theater while the main character engages in her final fight. Points added for making something like this make sense. Also, despite the fact that the score was composed by Kenji Kawai, the chorus is in Polish, so another points added for making it sound more location-appropriate.
The story itself is actually quite good and makes for a decent movie-watching experience, if you are willing to see past the lifeless acting. The thing about it is that it would be even better in the form of anime. And that begs the question: why isn't it, then? Well, I have no idea. After all, Mamoru Oshii is an acclaimed anime director (known, among others, for Ghost in the Shell). If it was an anime, the special effects (which are decent but didn't age very well) could be replaced with great animation. That would also do away with the horrendous acting and the general Polish cheesiness.
For reasons I cannot fathom, however, it's a live-action picture, and with all its faults it has this strangely likable aura around it. The story takes place in an alternate universe, in Poland, which looks a bit like it's the 40's. Then again, there are shots in which you can see a tram with modern advertisements on it. The buildings are old and furnished with antique stuff, but then you have computers and machines which allow you to enter virtual reality. In-game, the characters are wearing WWII tank driver and pilot uniforms and yet there are futuristic military choppers with double rotors flying around. None of that stuff makes any sense what so ever. As if that wasn't enough, by the end, Ash enters the final "class" which takes her to... Warsaw, as it actually looked like in 2001. From that moment, the colors are natural and all the blur and filters are gone. The irony is, that all those weird environments were supposed to be reality, while the real reality is actually virtual reality. That's some interesting stuff right there.
That weirdness of the whole thing and the very fact that this movie exists at all and nobody I asked in Poland has even heard about it make Avalon a pretty rare species. It's a good Polish movie, but not really, also it's sci-fi, which is something the Polish almost never do, and it's faded into obscurity, while other, much worse Polish movies are watched by so many.
So would I recommend it? Yes. Not for the movie, not even for the story, but for the odd experience itself. Good luck trying to find a decent copy of it, though...
Avalon (2001)
Time has finally come for me to share an opinion on a Polish film. I should probably explain that I don't often venture into the world of Polish cinema as most Polish films are simply rubbish as far as I care. The mainstream stuff in this country are comedies with the same actors over and over again, gangster movies and war movies. Very rarely does one see something that doesn't fit into one of those categories. Suffice it to say the movies are not anywhere near Hollywood level.
Avalon, however is not mainstream. I saw it for the first time years ago while I was watching late night TV. God knows Polish television would never show anything that's actually original and interesting during daytime, so at night they play some rare gems "for nerds".
Before I go on to explain why this is, in fact, a rare gem, I should first mention that it's not 100% Polish. Actually it's Japanese-Polish. It's quite a mix. Mamoru Oshii directed it, Kenji Kawai composed the soundtrack, and the Polish team provided the acting, most of the cinematography and locations.
The story is a fantasy of every Call of Duty fan. There's an illegal FPS game to which the player literally hooks up their brain and they feel like they are actually in there. It's very realistic and there is money to be earned if you are good at it, so naturally, it's quite addictive and also, apparently, very dangerous as some people, after having been shot in-game become brain-dead for the rest of their life. The game is called Avalon. The plot follows Ash, a young woman who aspires to be the best of the best at it.
As I had mentioned, the actors are Polish. Sadly, this isn't exactly a prime example of the Polish style of acting. The actors don't seem to care at all about anything other than their paychecks. As a result, the characters come off soulless. Also, there are some English words in the movie. Every single actor pronounced those differently, rarely correctly. They didn't even care enough to look into a bloody dictionary, which I will simply have to call incompetence.
As far as the cinematography goes, the typical Polish pretentiousness clearly found its way into this flick. Everything is overly styled, the colors are washed out and brown-ish. The image is blurry all the time. On top of that, the sets are nothing to shout about, and all of that is accompanied by long, silent, often pointless shots typical of the Polish movie-making style.
However, there are good things about Avalon. For instance, it features a great soundtrack. The movie took advantage of it properly by actually having a scene where the Polish National Philharmonic Orchestra performs a live concert of the main theme in a theater while the main character engages in her final fight. Points added for making something like this make sense. Also, despite the fact that the score was composed by Kenji Kawai, the chorus is in Polish, so another points added for making it sound more location-appropriate.
The story itself is actually quite good and makes for a decent movie-watching experience, if you are willing to see past the lifeless acting. The thing about it is that it would be even better in the form of anime. And that begs the question: why isn't it, then? Well, I have no idea. After all, Mamoru Oshii is an acclaimed anime director (known, among others, for Ghost in the Shell). If it was an anime, the special effects (which are decent but didn't age very well) could be replaced with great animation. That would also do away with the horrendous acting and the general Polish cheesiness.
For reasons I cannot fathom, however, it's a live-action picture, and with all its faults it has this strangely likable aura around it. The story takes place in an alternate universe, in Poland, which looks a bit like it's the 40's. Then again, there are shots in which you can see a tram with modern advertisements on it. The buildings are old and furnished with antique stuff, but then you have computers and machines which allow you to enter virtual reality. In-game, the characters are wearing WWII tank driver and pilot uniforms and yet there are futuristic military choppers with double rotors flying around. None of that stuff makes any sense what so ever. As if that wasn't enough, by the end, Ash enters the final "class" which takes her to... Warsaw, as it actually looked like in 2001. From that moment, the colors are natural and all the blur and filters are gone. The irony is, that all those weird environments were supposed to be reality, while the real reality is actually virtual reality. That's some interesting stuff right there.
That weirdness of the whole thing and the very fact that this movie exists at all and nobody I asked in Poland has even heard about it make Avalon a pretty rare species. It's a good Polish movie, but not really, also it's sci-fi, which is something the Polish almost never do, and it's faded into obscurity, while other, much worse Polish movies are watched by so many.
So would I recommend it? Yes. Not for the movie, not even for the story, but for the odd experience itself. Good luck trying to find a decent copy of it, though...