Customer Reviews

The Dreamlife of Angels

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Two French girls who are "not the chosen ones" (to recall Cyndi Laper) befriend one another after meeting at a sweat shop where they operate sewing machines. One of them, Marie (Natacha Regnier) is apartment-sitting for a mother and her daughter who are in the hospital, victims of an accident. The other, Isabelle (Elodie Bouchez) has been living day to day with her backpack on her back, sometimes selling handmade cards on street corners. Almost immediately there is an affinity, and they find joy and adventure in one another's company.

Part of the power of Erick Zonca's forceful and precise direction is to make us not only identify with his two heroines, but to force us see the world from their point of view. They are tossed about by strong emotions, powerfully projected by both actresses. Their lives and happiness are at the whim of forces beyond their control, the most powerful of which are their own feelings.

When I was a little boy and went to the movies I would see three films, bang, bang, bang, one after the other, and when I came out, five or six hours later, I was transformed. I had grown, and I could see the world in a different way. Of course I was a little boy and every little bit of experience was amazing and added to my knowledge of the world. Now, such transformations, like moments of Zen enlightenment, are rare and precious. The Dream Life of Angels is one of those rare and precious films that has the kind of power to make us see the world afresh as though for the very first time.

Bouchez and Regnier shared the Best Actress award at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival for their work in this movie. Indeed it is hard to choose between them. Both are wonderful. Bouchez's character, Isabelle, has a gentle, fun-loving, child-like nature, tomboyish and sentimental. Marie is cynical, uptight and wired. Her emotions swing wildly from deep pessimism to a tenuous hope for something better in this life. When she is seduced, rather forcefully, by the arrogant and predatory Chris (Gregoire Colin) who owns nightclubs and is accustomed to having his way with women, she is stunned to find that she wants him, needs him, loves him. But she knows (and is warned by Isabelle) that he is just using her and will dump her. She hates herself for loving him and therefore lashes out at Isabelle who is a witness to her humiliation.

As a counterpoint to the raw animal love that Marie finds in Chris, there is the tender, dreamlike love that Isabelle finds for the daughter of the woman who owns the apartment. The mother dies from her injuries, but the daughter, Sandrine, lives on in a coma. Isabelle finds Sandrine's diary and reads it, and is touched by the sentiments expressed by the girl, and falls in love with her. A nurse tells Isabelle: "You can talk to her. She's sleeping, but she can hear you." Whether she can or not, we don't know, but to show her love Isabelle visits the comatose girl in the hospital and reads from her diary to her.

In a sense we feel that the dream life of angels is the dream of Sandrine, who is dreaming the life of the young women who are living in her apartment. She is an angel and they are her dream, a troubled dream of raw emotion contrasted with her state of quiet somnolence.

The Dream Life of Angels is beautifully shot in tableaux of pastel interiors in which the characters are sometimes seen at offset as in portraits. In one scene we see one of the girls in the apartment while in the right upper corner is a window through which we see in clear focus a car pass in front of a picturesque building, so that the scene is seen in layers, so that we experience the inner life and the outside world at once. In another scene, Isabelle is reading Sandrine's diary, which we see over her shoulder. Just as she reads the words that excite her passion for the girl, there is just the slightest quickening of tempo as Isabelle flips the page to see what Sandrine writes next, and in that small gesture, we feel the emotions of the girls, the one who wrote the words and the one who reads them.

As a foil to the smooth, but bestial Chris, we are given Charlie (Patrick Mercado), fat motorcycle dude who is gentle and wise. This enlightened juxtaposition of character is part of director Erick Zonca's technique. We see it also in the contrasting characters of Marie and Isabelle.

Obviously this is a work of art, but it is also a triumph of film making in a directorial sense. Zonca's careful attention to detail and his total concentration throughout turn something that might have been merely original into a masterful work of art.

This is a movie about people. In particular, two young French girls who meet at a seamstress job in the drab, comatose city of Lille. They're both bruised by life and have bigger dreams than working day to day in sweatshops and restaurants. They quickly become close friends, meet two burly but sweet-natured bouncers at a concert--Charlie and Fredo, and occupy a flat together that belongs to a mother and daughter who have been in a car accident and lie unconscious in the hospital. Marie (Natacha Regnier) ends up sleeping with Charlie. "I didn't expect to end up with a fat guy," she says. "A fat guy, I don't think of myself as fat. It's just a question of vocabulary."

Then she ends up in bed with a rich, bratty bar-owner that uses her for sex. I think he finds her a little daffy and it turns him on. But that's okay because the security and stable life he represents turns her on so the relationship is equally empty on both sides. Meanwhile, Isa (Elodie Bochez) spends her days at the hospital by the bedside of the dying girl--her mother, we learn, has already passed away and the flat that the girls are house-sitting is going to be sold. Tempers flare and soon the friendship has more or less atrophied, they've grown apart for all these reasons and more.

Elodie and Natacha both give raw, vulnerable performances. There is a whole lot to be written on their relationship alone. I like the movie for its truthfullness--it shows these girls as happy, sad worn-out angels, wandering the streets either weary or glowing, depending on the day.

It's a film less about plot and more about its characters. Its meaning is left open for the viewer to interpret.

The last shot is a tracking shot that moves along a row of young to middle-age women, all dressed identically in white lab coats, all doing the exact same miniscule task. Observe their eyes. It becomes obvious that their minds are elsewhere, life has left its bootprints on their souls. It never struggles or pushes its point, it simply moves along as life does.

This film about the lives of two women and their friendship is poignant and riveting. The acting, by Elodie Bouchez and Natacha Regnier is extraordinary and at times one feels these are not characters but real people. This winner of many awards is filmed beautifully with patches of brilliant color and is a stunning debut by writer/director Erick Zonca. This is not only about friendship but about self-destruction vs. the will to survive. Isa (Bouchez) has such a gentle but strong soul, and Marie (Regnier), is the violent but weak one. You won't forget this moving story of their lives.

Trying not to bandy about the word "groundbreaking," I have to admit this is the first word that comes to mind when describing this exciting, touching, and unnerving film that has no specific genre. Sure, it's a drama about how the transient, though tenuous bonds of two hapless girlfriends can be torn apart by a sly, self-serving cad. Sure, it is indeed a foreign film in that the characters do speak French and that we can't expect to walk away from the credits feeling cleansed as ordained by most Hollywood feel-good output. But there really is no precedent for Zonca's direction which has elements of the cinema verity or documentary style while at the same time, captures the flawless performances of Elodie Boucher and Natacha Regnier who are both so natural that it seems they have no clue they're on camera. The plot is a love triangle with a twist. Defiant and bitter squatter girl takes in affable and trusting drifter girl and they both unite based on their otherness in the streets of Lille, France. This initial premise is perhaps one that would dissuade the average male viewer used to the shoot-'em-up Clint Eastwood fare, but the plot diverges when Regnier's character, Marie, hooks up with a devilish and unsympathetic club owner played by Gregoire Colin. Marie, who is still seething from a thousand violations of her dignity, feels she can finally win respect and love from this upwardly mobile, though terribly aloof, womanizer. The rift occurs, not because Boucher's character (Isa) falls for the same man, but because she despises him and what he has done to their friendship. Isa would like nothing better than to live a simple, hand to mouth existence with her new friend, doing odd jobs, and paying visits to their apartment owner's daughter in the hospital. It turns out Marie doesn't give a damn that the people who own the apartment where she is squatting have been in a car accident, the mother killed and the daughter comatose. Isa is disappointed to find that Marie not only doesn't give a damn about the girl, but only gets more distant and cold as the man she obsessively loves drifts away. In short, Regnier's performance is as chilling as Bouchez' is tender and heartrending. They are both so genuine in their portrayal of the tragedy of soured friendship that I can't recall it having been done that way before - at least not without the usual, predictable nonsense. It is entirely obvious why they both shared the Best Actress Award at Cannes and I can't wait for Zonka's next. If you believe truth and beauty have a place on your shelf, then buy it.

Erick Zonca's "The Dreamlife of Angels" is a demanding, uncompromising work of art. Isa (Elodie Bouchez) and Marie (Natacha Regnier) meet at work and quickly become soul mates. They are both basically street people living meager existencies but not on the street per se because Marie has lucked into a house sitting situation in a nicer section of Lille, France. Isa and Marie share a devil-may-care attitude but what slowly becomes apparent is that Isa and Marie are actually opposites: one a feisty survivor, the other a misanthropic loser. Like with all great films it is in the telling, the laying out of the story ,the details and the pacing that differentiate it from merely a good film. A great director also makes the right choices more often than he doesn't: actors, setting, clothing,props, etc. Elodie Bouchez and Natacha Regnier are masterful in their roles and Erick Zonka's script and direction are first rate.

What a great experience this was. The two actresses completely engaged me in an unaffected way that few "stars" can manage. They could both be madeup and filmed as standard "stunning" beauties, but the unpretentious makeup and costuming here make their characters much more compelling. The lack of soft focus in the background of shots also makes the spaces they move through seem more immediate and real. The anti-elitist message is also handled wonderfully. I didn't find the script at all predictable, and I thought both the climax and the denoument were very moving. If you see it, watch for how characters often end up being the opposite of what they first seemed to be. Like most great art, this film shows us how careless we can be when we let our prejudices do our thinking for us.

This is the sort of film people like me wait for. Its absolutely compelling, gripping stuff, and only France could make something this touching. Starring Elodie Bouchez in perhaps her most well-etched role yet (I found her turn in 'Wild Reeds' beautiful, but not as complex as the character here), this film will dazzle you and leave you feeling empty inside.

The story revolves around Elodie and her new-found friend played by Natacha Regnier. The two are camping out at a house that Natacha is keeping for its only remaining owner - a girl who is in coma after an accident. The character study in this movie is bloody brilliant. First theres Elodie, the mousy, sweet-hearted girl who will do any odd job to get through life. Then theres Natacha, an empty, unloved woman who is so insecure in her body that she finds it hard to hold on to her self.

The story follows Natacha's involvement with a handsome French-Algerian club owner (played by Gregoire Colin) and how this love affair propels her into madness. The relationship the two friends share as they hurl towards the film's unforgattable climax forms the crux of the movie, and it is not one that you will soon forget. I don't want to give too much away, but I left this film feeling that life was ultimately pointless, and it seems that the film-makers are driving home this point. The chilling end with Elodie at another mind-numbing workplace gave me a sense that cinema has now come to fully embrace the bleak, stark quality of real life. This is not escapist cinema, but celluloid's brutal look at real life and its traps and snares. Not a pretty picture at all, but I loved how the film made a statement without being clear in its' intent.

Elodie and Natacha both won Best Actress trophies at the Cannes Film Festival in 1998 for their roles in this film. Gregoire Colin soon gained fame and supermodel status in France and Germany after the release of this movie and its a pity hes not doing more with his talent. Elodie Bouchez will remind you of Audrey Tatou who played Amelie Poulain in the recent 'Amelie'. However, she is less saccharine and more down to earth than that heroine. I found her performance rivetting - its also very interesting in the way she finds time to bond with the girl in a coma, yet unwittingly neglects to help her living friend who is hurtling toward her own demise. This is a movie chockful of interpretations and little nuances and observations, and if you're a true lover of art house cinema as I am, 'Le Vie Revee des Anges' is a cause for real celebration. One of the best French films I've seen in recent times.

Highly recommended. If you like this, check out 'Les parapluies de Cherbourg', 'Wild Reeds', 'Ma Saison Preferee' and 'Va Savoir'. Thanks for reading!

This French subtitled movie is very talky. So if you are expecting Armaggeddon, forget about it. It is also facinating and deserved the accolades that it received at Cannes.

It is about Isa who comes to an Industrial French Town, looking for her friend, who has skipped off to Amsterdam. With no money, she gets a job at a sewing plant, but is immediately fired for being pretty much incompetent. She meets Marie, who has a flat that she is squatting in (the owners: Mother and Daughter were in a car accident and in the hospital), allows Isa to join her.

Isa is shown as flighty, an airhead with no values and Marie as the tough, no nonsense woman. By the end of the movie, when you go through 3 weeks with the roommates, you realize that Isa is actually a sensitive soul and Marie is a insecure woman who needs a man to provide her with definition of identity.

The movie is based on their relationship and relationships in general. They do not have a long, steady friendship, but a heated friendship that is doomed from the beginning. Many of us have this type of transitionary close friendships, whether it is with a roommate in college, friends at camp or with teammates on the football team. During that moment, you are closer than family, but as time goes on, you go on your way and become separated...sometimes never to talk again.

The Dreamlife of Angels takes that to more extreme consequences but they deal with apart of human nature that is facinating and affects many of us. It is a beautiful movie (despite their drab surroundings) and Lodie Bouchez (who plays Isa) is truly an angel....Rating: B+

A beautiful piece of art. Psychologically detailed, beautifully shot and acted. Highly recommended for viewers interested in the complexity of humanity.

If you like characted driven films you will love Bouchez and Regnier in this little masterpiece. You don't have to speak French to be puled in and captivated by the story, the acting and the remarkable first time directing of Erick Zonca.