In the distant future, Earth is occupied by ancient gods and genetically altered humans. When a god is sentenced to death he seeks a new human host and a woman to bear his child. Despite what some consider controversial content in the movie. Immortal [Ad Vitem] 2004 from the graphic novel by Enki Bilal remains one of my all time favorite science fiction adaptations.
A scene from Immortel (Ad Vitam). The film takes place in New York City in the year 2095 where genetically altered humans live side by side with unaltered men and women, and where Central Park has been mysteriously encased in an "intrusion zone" where people who attempt to enter are instantly killed. A strange pyramid has appeared over the city; inside, the gods of ancient Egyptian have judged Horus, one of their fellow gods, to cease his immortality.
In the city below, Jill, a young alien woman with blue hair is arrested.
Not completely human, her tissues appear to be no more than a few months old according to an examining physician, although her physical form is already that of an adult. She also possesses a number of secret powers, including one that enables her to procreate with gods, though she knows nothing of this. Horus is given a limited time to interact with the humans of New York and procreate. During his search for a host body, Horus encounters Nikopol, a rebel condemned to 30 years of hibernation who escapes his prison, due to a mechanical accident, one year early. Horus has been unsuccessful in attempting to take over the bodies of other humans but due to an incompatibility with the genetic alterations humans have undergone, the host bodies self-destruct while attempting to accommodate a god.
Nikopol's body is acceptable as it has
been frozen in prison/storage and not undergone the genetic changes causing the rejections. Horus takes partial control of Nikopol's body and starts looking for a woman he can mate with to provide him a son before his death sentence is carried out. When Horus/Nikopol discovers Jill, they become entangled in a web of murder and intrigue.The final scene is the only one in which we
hear actress Linda Hardy's voice as she recites in her native French the third stanza of Charles Baudelaire's poem Le Poison, which her character, Jill, has just been reading from the book she holds entitled Les Fleurs Du Mal or Flowers of Evil."Tout cela ne vaut pas le poison qui découle de tes yeux, de tes yeux verts, lacs où mon âme tremble et se voit à l'envers. Mes songes viennent en foule pour se désaltérer à ces gouffres amers."
[English translation: All that is not worth the poison that flows from your eyes, from your green eyes, lakes where my soul trembles and sees itself upside down. My dreams crowd in to slake their thirst in those bitter gulfs.]
Nikopol, who recites Baudelaire's turbulent poetry in other scenes of the movie, provides the final lines of dialogue by completing Jill's recitation in English. "But all that is not worth the prodigy of your saliva, Jill, that bites my soul, and dizzies it, and swirls it down, remorselessly, rolling it, fainting to the underworld."
Yeah I liked this movie, it was Avatar before Avatar, 300 before 300 and it starred Miss France and Miss Universe Contestant and winner [?] model/actree Linda Hardy.
