A `RENAISSANCE' IN ANNOYING VISUALS.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

Watching ``Renaissance,'' you get very excited whenever a little shade of gray appears.

Sounds kind of pathetic, doesn't it?

This French animated thriller is presented in high-contrast, digitized black and white that is quite striking, actually, packed with richly delineated details and amazing lighting schemes. But artistic as it undeniably is, the two-tone effect grows tedious fast. And since it's coupled with a mystery story that's humdrum from the start, boredom multiplies.

That's why, when a little bit of textured monochrome hits the screen, it's not really a thrill, but it's, well, at least different. Director Christian Volckman was out to make a future noir here; ``Blade Runner''-ish computer-generated cityscapes illuminated in 1950s-style chiaroscuro. But even the depressive crime stories of that earlier era didn't look this stark -- and for good reason.

Of course, they couldn't look this way back then, either, but now they can. Motion-capture technology and new software enabled Volckman's team to turn real actors into pen-line-

and-ink-block cartoons of remarkable realism and expressiveness. But that doesn't mean they should have stopped there. How about some visual shadings to match the emotional ones?

butt up against the Eiffel Tower and Sacre Coeur, multiple levels of transportation paths gird the city like steel pythons, and see-through is the latest style for many walls, floors and ceilings.

Despite that last architectural affectation, business is hardly conducted in a transparent manner. The city's big cosmetics/genetics/stuff-like-that conglomerate, Avalon, has talking billboards promising extended youth all over the place. But one of its most promising young scientists, Ilona Tasuiev (voiced for us, like all the characters, by an English actor, Romola Garai), has gone missing, along with her research that many are willing to kill for.

Troubled-but-dedicated cop Barthelemy Karas (Daniel Craig) tries to find her and along the way falls for Ilona's club-monkey sister Bislane (Catherine McCormick). Murky corporate shenanigans and ancient (i.e., early-21st-century) cover-ups get sort of exposed in the process. The big question that eventually, slowly shakes loose is whether mankind is better off with or without Ilona and her talents, but by then most of us will be asleep.

Besides ``Blade Runner,'' ``Renaissance'' borrows freely from the rest of Philip K. Dick's paranoid, identity-muddling reading list. Whatever you won't recognize from ``Minority Report'' (including the future cops' investigation department) you may recall from ``A Scanner Darkly.''

At least there's more action here than in that rotoscoped misfire. But ``Renaissance's'' big-chunks-o'-black-and-white format affects that adversely, too, making everything from car chases to conversations appear to move at an offbeat, distancing rhythm. It's not the herky-jerk effect seen in Japanese anime, but it's similarly distracting. And this movie doesn't need anything else to keep it from connecting with viewers.

Bob Strauss, [phone]

bob.strauss(at)dailynews.com

RENAISSANCE - Two stars

(R: violence, sex, nudity, language, children in jeopardy)

Starring: Voices of Daniel Craig, Romola Garai, Ian Holm, Catherine McCormack, Jonathan Pryce.

Director: Christian Volckman.

Running time: 1 hr. 45 min.

Playing: Landmark's Nuart, West Los Angeles.

In a nutshell: Rotoscoped, black-and-white, future French noir cartoon. If all that floats your boat, you may like this derivative, slow-moving and convoluted Etch-a-Sketch of a film. Dubbed in English.

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

``Renaissance'' utilizes high-contrast, digitized black and white images and motion-capture technology to create a futuristic French noir-style cartoon.