Corto Maltese: La cour secrète des Arcanes

Whoah.

This is a movie that promises a lot from the start: A collision of Russian, continental European and various Asian cultures, political intrigue, James Bond-style antics, religion, martial arts and romance. But in the end, it turns out as a story about... a train robbery. However, it's a wild ride that won't have you looking away from the screen for a second-unless you shy away at occasional violence and nudity...

It has to be one of the most visually interesting animated movies ever, not because of the quality and amount of work put in it, which is somewhat below the best Disney productions, but because of how it's used. From the stunning opening shots to the "fantastic-ized" outdoor enviroments, the varied and effectively (un)lit indoor scenes and the buildings, to the creatively directed character interactions, there's barely a few scenes at all that one could imagine being done with live actors at all!

This movie is true example of animation as an art form, not reducing itself to an imitation of the real life. No matter what you think about the character designs, which are somewhat stiff, all of them have significant, peculiar mannerisms that would be unthinkable to realize with actors. This attitude, both "retro" and reinventive, is exactly what is needed against the trend of "hyper-realistic" animation that has become prominent in recent years.

The other point of this movie is the MUSIC-an absolutely sparkling musical score that sets the perfect mood for each and every scene, except for a overly melodramatic build-up in the epilogue. It's one of the few movie soundtracks that i would try and find and listen to on it's own, because whenever it is heard it really stands out.

I recommend anyone interested in creative visuals as found in Japanese films (though certainly not Japanese animation!) to try and see this movie at least once, for the sake of the infinitely creative visual language. European animation is alive and well, certainly, just hope they find a better story for next one...

This is overall a nice proof that there is enough room in the movie/animation world for something different, concerning almost all factors of animated movie-making: direction, animation, dramaturgy, plot, message, visual narration and least but not last, the thing movies are best at, connecting different means of expression, like music, visual art, literature... etc. This feature animation based on (almost literally) Hugo Pratt's graphic novel Corto Maltese in Siberia encompasses all above-mentioned features beautifully, and I think meets some comic readers' secret expectations about how a cartoon on this subject should look like. Recommended is of course that you look up some historical facts and names appearing in the movie, of course the best you can do is to read the graphic novel. This may be the least effective side of the film, namely the plot and character positioning may be pretty confusing if you're not familiar with at least some of the facts manipulated in the film. The first thing that convinced me in the movie was beautiful transition from Pratt's black&white comics to this full color extravaganza. Even though colors are a totally different medium, here they speak in favor of Pratt's narration, whose main quality is a kind of storyboard organization of the plot. I've always wondered how his comics would look in full color. In contrast to the later editions of his comics in color, here the formula works excellently, whereas in the comics, merely colorized black&white drawings, the charm gets lost. The second thing I couldn't miss, but has no connection whatsoever with Pratts novels, was the music. This is the main addition to the general mysteriously melancholic air of his comics, that the film makers can be credited for. All in all a beautiful achievement, cinematically and literary, mainly for affectionados, but a little bit too short for the ones used to Pratts comics.

I think the director and animators did a tremendous job. I am a big fan of Pratt's art, and to be honest didn't expect much from the movie. The comic has a recognizable atmosphere, that I sincerely doubted can be successfully moved to the screen.

But luckily - I was wrong. I was delighted with the final result. The atmosphere was there, just the way it should be - I actually felt like reading the comic.

But beware - if you are not familiar with Pratt's work, or if you don't really love it - I doubt you can appreciate this piece. Also, this is a European movie, not American. It is very, very non-typical, and I fear that most of American public may find it confusing, probably even boring.

The scenes are long and slow, the director doesn't rush anywhere, takes the time to show each facial expression, to give a weight to every said word. Just as the comic does.

Also, in order to enjoy Pratt's art, you have to know a lot - you have to be interested in history, geography, legends, culture of various nations, mysticism, different religions and beliefs... And the same is true for this film. So - no, this is definitely not a movie for a typical American consumer.

In short - if you know and like Pratt's work, you will probably enjoy the movie. Otherwise - you probably won't like it at all.

Corto Maltese is one of the greatest graphical novel characters, or even literature characters for that matter, ever created. He's an adventurer, a pirate, a murderer and a lover, what ever suits his needs. Or then again he might spend entire story by just watching other people do all the adventuring. Then he just disappears just to turn out from somewhere else.

This particular story is from the more action end: Rasputin (Corto's insane Russian friend, who without any doubt is The Rasputin) and Corto are after Russian gold train, but then again so are lots of other people too. This gives a change to display some action scenes and conflicts between Corto and other parts of the story: Chinese, Russians, Mongols.

As for all Pratt's stories go, the story line is rather multi threaded, but it's hardly explained in any part, sometimes things just seem to happen and no one is explaining why. But then again there's no real need for that either, it's just the way these stories are told.

Animation is mostly well done, there are some parts which are little lacking, especially the human animation is little blocky in some places. All the special effects scenes are done with 3D animation, but they blend in with the painted backgrounds and characters rather seamlessly in most cases. Though there are some places where the difference is too visible.

This movie should be a treat for all Hugo Pratt fans, as I myself found it to have same mood that most of Pratt's comics have. I wouldn't mind having more of this.

I think this is the king of all animation films. Pratt's "economic" drawing and his particular use of time are fully followed here. The action scenes are outstanding. The choice of the voices was accurate –even if one could think that Corto's voice should have a mix of different accents instead of speaking perfect french. It is, indeed, difficult to get into Corto's world at the first try; but I think the film –slowly starting, as in the original comic, with some kind of remembrance or reverie, an outside-of-time dialog with Bouche Dorée– does a great work in that way. Anyway, if at the end Corto's personality remains a mystery it must be said that it is the same for those who have read the whole series: Corto is an enigma, and the films succeeds in respecting that –instead of turning him into a simple adventure hero. Thus, the question "what is he really looking for?" remains unanswered. From my point of view, the difficulty of the film is not to get into Corto's universe for the those which are not familiar with it, but that it requires a minimum of historical knowledge. Indeed, some notions about the Russian revolution and the political situation of China at the beginnings of XX century are really helpful for the fully understanding of the film. In fact, the comic book includes some pages outlining this historical context; also, a map is as useful here as in The Lord of the Rings. In a word, watching this Corto Maltese film is as delightful as reading the comic book –and that is saying enough.