![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustTo the Tyneside for a preview of Luc Besson's new film: easy on the eye and light on the story, and at a slender 88 minutes it doesn't outstay its welcome.
The central character, André (Jamel Debbouze), is in trouble: since he narrates the opening of the film, and he tells lies, it's not entirely clear what kind of trouble, or how he got into it, but it leads him to step over the barrier and prepare to jump off one of the many bridges of Paris (this might be the Pont Alexandre III, sometimes described as the most beautiful bridge in Paris, but don't quote me on that). Glancing to one side just before he jumps, he sees a young woman (Rie Rasmussen) about to do the same thing: and when I tell you that the film is called Angel-A, you'll guess much of what follows.
So far, so It's a Wonderful Life: but in fact, it's an anti-It's a Wonderful Life. In Capra's film, George Bailey is suicidal because he believes that he has spent his life doing the right thing, rather than following his dreams, and it has all been wasted, that he has failed. The angel, Clarence, shows him that his sacrifice has not been wasted, that his life has made a difference, and sends him back to more of the same. Luc Besson's André is suicidal because he has made a habit of doing the wrong thing, and his personal angel has been sent to free him from the consequences of this and allow him to start afresh. (The two films also play differently with the significance of the angel's wings, but that's a spoiler too far, even for me).
Angel-A shows every sign of being conscious of what it owes to earlier films about angelic interventions; it also nods to some of the great films about Paris. André gazes out over the lights of the city, weighing the value of each human life, like Arletty showing the lights of Ménilmontant to Jean-Louis Barrault, an underwater sequence recalls L'Atalante - and the camera lingers lovingly over the monuments and landmarks of the city, catching them in the clear light of dawn and translating them into a luminous monochrome which evokes a film about another city entirely: Woody Allen's Manhattan.
Well-trodden paths, then, but entertaining enough, if overly sentimental. Rie Rasmussen's Angela is endearing and Paris is classically beautiful.
The central character, André (Jamel Debbouze), is in trouble: since he narrates the opening of the film, and he tells lies, it's not entirely clear what kind of trouble, or how he got into it, but it leads him to step over the barrier and prepare to jump off one of the many bridges of Paris (this might be the Pont Alexandre III, sometimes described as the most beautiful bridge in Paris, but don't quote me on that). Glancing to one side just before he jumps, he sees a young woman (Rie Rasmussen) about to do the same thing: and when I tell you that the film is called Angel-A, you'll guess much of what follows.
So far, so It's a Wonderful Life: but in fact, it's an anti-It's a Wonderful Life. In Capra's film, George Bailey is suicidal because he believes that he has spent his life doing the right thing, rather than following his dreams, and it has all been wasted, that he has failed. The angel, Clarence, shows him that his sacrifice has not been wasted, that his life has made a difference, and sends him back to more of the same. Luc Besson's André is suicidal because he has made a habit of doing the wrong thing, and his personal angel has been sent to free him from the consequences of this and allow him to start afresh. (The two films also play differently with the significance of the angel's wings, but that's a spoiler too far, even for me).
Angel-A shows every sign of being conscious of what it owes to earlier films about angelic interventions; it also nods to some of the great films about Paris. André gazes out over the lights of the city, weighing the value of each human life, like Arletty showing the lights of Ménilmontant to Jean-Louis Barrault, an underwater sequence recalls L'Atalante - and the camera lingers lovingly over the monuments and landmarks of the city, catching them in the clear light of dawn and translating them into a luminous monochrome which evokes a film about another city entirely: Woody Allen's Manhattan.
Well-trodden paths, then, but entertaining enough, if overly sentimental. Rie Rasmussen's Angela is endearing and Paris is classically beautiful.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-18 10:36 pm (UTC)How do you feel about Der Himmuel über Berlin (Wings of Desire)?
no subject
Date: 2006-07-19 02:44 pm (UTC)In general - could you tell? - I'm ambivalent about angels...
no subject
Date: 2006-07-19 02:54 pm (UTC)For what it's worth, I really like Wings of Desire and I think its angels are untraditional. (Some of my thoughts on the film are here, although I cannot promise that they will be spoiler-free.) If nothing else, they cannot intervene. That takes out It's A Wonderful Life right there.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-19 08:39 pm (UTC)I hesitate to urge you to see it, but I'd be very happy if you did, because I would be interested in your reaction, both in general and on some specifics (like the music, over which some care has evidently been taken, but which I found incoherent).