Angel-a [2005] [Blu-ray]

Beautiful, magical modern fable, a cross between “Wings of Desire” and “It’s a Wonderful Life”. But, sorry to say, some of the story will now be revealed in this review.Angela is a fallen angel, or one fallen to Earth. She’s distraught, despairing, her wet mascara running down her cheek. She’s beautiful but pitiful. Tall, leggy, lean and blonde, her gorgeous body and face are those of a fashion model. Yet all is threatened by desperation, by the temptation of suicide.She’s not the only sad one. André is miserable and desperate too. He’s broke, homeless, unkempt, unshaven. He’s threatened by creditors as well. He’s bad with money and owes a lot all over town — town in this case Paris, beautifully shot in stark black and white, but a beauty wholly unnoticed by André, as poverty can make everything look ugly, even beautiful Paris.André’s face is also swollen from several beatings he has lately taken. His creditors are street thugs, unkind, ungentle folk. If he doesn’t pay up soon he’ll be beaten to a pulp and left for dead. Well, that’s one way out of his torment and dilemma, death freeing him from all worries. Even so, if life isn’t always sweet, it’s the only game in town, the only thing to live for and in. So André clings to life, now a kind of life raft for him.The allusion to water isn’t idle. If it comes to it, if he has to make his final escape, he’ll do it from a bridge. Which one? A very beautiful one — Pont Alexandre III, a gift from the Russian tsar to France. He’ll jump from such beauty into the Seine and drown because he has never learned to swim. He will die and no one will miss him, apart from his creditors, who won’t exactly miss him but what he had of theirs that can’t be returned. Imagine that: only being missed by others for that, for money.Angela is on assignment. Her superiors in heaven selected André for her. She had no choice. She does what her job calls for. This won’t be easy. So much angry male energy in André. So much angst and worry. Where does the anger come from? From self-loathing, from feeling himself a failure, from lacking confidence, from thinking himself ugly, worthless, unattractive, from caring too much about what others think of him, from constantly living on the outside of himself instead of valuing what’s within. Competition, aggression, eyes on the external prizes: money, reputation, fine clothes and cars, beautiful women. Things to possess, to call your own. Except they never are, as they have an independent life of their own to keep.Angela is here to change him, to open his eyes, to open his heart too. She wants him to see and feel beauty — the beauty of Paris, of life, of André. Beautiful André? Is she crazy? He looks in the mirror and what does he see? A short man, swarthy and stocky. Stubble of three or four days on his face. Scruffy, dirty clothes. Unkempt hair. Sad eyes. What’s to admire? What’s to like?But he’s not looking. He’s blinded by appearances. Angela’s job is to teach him to look, to really see, to understand, love and appreciate. This will be his journey. And hers. It’s a tale of personal evolution, insight, understanding and redemption. It’s a fairy tale, modern and beautiful in a beautiful place. But it’s also clever in showing the way in which mirrors are clever. A mirror reverses the image given it and gives it back to you. You see your other self, the self you never see when you think of yourself without a mirror. You are right-handed and know it. You see your right hand move when you touch the pen or fork. But in a mirror right is left, and left is right. Angela, too, is a sort of mirror. She mirrors back the gaze André gives her. She shows him aspects of himself he could not see without her. He says she is beautiful (because she is). She says in return that she is him, his own reflection. He laughs. He thinks she’s crazy. What on earth is she talking about now? But she is right. She is a mirror. She is him, his alter ego, some aspect of himself.To truly see beauty means having a beautiful feeling within. It isn’t the object that’s beautiful. It’s how you feel about it that is. This is what Angela is here to teach him. Beauty will set him free, or a genuine appreciation of it will. To understand and love he needs to properly look and see.Although she is an angel, Angela has problems of her own. She has no past, or none she can remember. She invents many alternative histories for herself, fanciful tales that make her feel heroic as a survivor. But she knows they are false, just palliatives to assuage the hurt of having no former selves to reflect on in her life. No childhood, parents, friends. No first date, dance, kiss. She feels empty because of this. She’s as thin as air, the air she’s able to fly in but not replace with substance. Who is she? She will never know. Angels as dead persons can’t remember.She tells André not to fret. She sees the future and André in it. He will succeed in business, marry, have three children. She even knows their names. But André no longer wants any of that. What does he want? The truth of himself, not all the images and appearances of a self. He wants to be himself, not what others want or expect him to be. And he wants something just as important as personal authenticity. He wants love. He wants to truly love someone. He loves Angela, loved her from the first moment, couldn’t help loving her, can’t live without loving her.But how can he love an angel, a being with no past, identity, substance? In the same way she has taught him to love himself — by opening up, by accepting, by saying yes. He tells her he loves her. He does it because he can, because he finally knows what love is. But angels can’t be loved, she says. Oh yes they can. He loves one, so he knows it to be true.The mirror reflects two ways. So does redemption, apparently. André does something heavenly, something angelic. He rescues an angel from despair through love.That’s the fable, the modern fairytale. The tale is beautiful and so is Paris. Angela and André too. Beauty is everywhere, found within, the feeling that makes life beautiful, its beauty reflected back to it by the beauty of the world.

Coming from Writer/Director LUC BESSON who gave the world the Sci-Fi/Indiana Jones extravaganzas "The Fifth Element" and "The Extraordinary Adventures Of Adele Blanc-Sec" and tense/ballsy thrillers like "Taken", "Nikita" and "Leon" - the pared-back almost serene "Angel-A" is not what you'd expect from this amazingly gifted Frenchman. Yet it so works.Large part of the credit has to go to the casting one of his favourite lead actors JAMEL DEBBOUZE. Squat, cute, compelling - his lined crumpled features and stubbly chin are akin to a French Humphrey Bogart - the kind of actor whose face and watery eyes can express so much and have you routing for his character with an investment that feels personal. And like most Male Directors of a certain age - our Luc likes his leading ladies too (the prettier the better). Enter the extraordinary-looking RIE RASMUSSEN.Jamel plays Andre Massau - an Algerian pint-sized low-life living in Paris who steals croissants from restaurant tables and owes money to Frank the Frenchman and Pedro the Spaniard. But unless Andre pays up more than 50,000 Euro by midnight Saturday - his body will be `everywhere' on Sunday morning. Failing to find solace in the American Embassy (a green card he won in a Lottery), even the French Police won't put him in Jail so he can be safe for a few days. Andre finally goes to the bridge overlooking the Seine and toys with the idea of ending it all. But annoyingly he's not alone. A six-foot high stick-insect blond in a tight black party dress with a pearl necklace sporting legs that stretch six miles into the ground is also on the wrong side of the ornate railings about to do the same. With her tear-stained makeup - she jumps - Andre follows - pulls her to the embankment - and for saving her from the clutches of despair - she 'gives' herself and her services to him for the whole of Sunday. But first she needs a cigarette...The similarity between "Angel-A" and "It's A Wonderful Life" with its message of intervention to show us the errors of our ways will not escape many - Besson has just updated the story to modern day living. His principal character Andre is a self-loathing loser who still has some good left inside him somewhere. He just desperately needs to learn to "breathe" and "live in the moment" - and who better to teach him than a 300-year old chain-smoking angel falling from the sky that looks like a high-class hooker. But as Andre watches Angela pimp herself out in a nightclub for 1000 Euro per sweaty leering client - he begins to see the consequences of his greed - and worse - how he is his own worst enemy (sharks he repays with her ill-gotten gains tap into his gullible nature again by flattery because they know it works).Cleverly resisting flashy celestial scenes - special effects are kept to a minimum allowing story and character to be all. But as Andre's eventful Sunday progresses - slowly Angela wakes him up (dialogue above) and after an ashtray reveal in a café - money worries don't matter anymore because love is also in the air.First up is the look of "Angel-A". Shot in black and white in old-world Paris - the locations and city pulse are beautifully rendered on BLU RAY. Defaulted to 2.35:1 aspect - there are bars on the top and bottom - but even stretched to full screen - the picture is never anything less than cinematically fab (note: if you do extend the aspect - the English subtitles will go off-screen).There's an entertaining "Making Of" featurette that has interviews with Director, Producer JEROME LATEUR and the Cast, a "Making Of The Music For Angel-A" featuring composer ANJA GARBAREK and her musicians and a Theatrical Trailer. English is the Subtitle for this French-language film."Angel-A" isn't your typical box-office fare - but it is masterfully done - and will get to you more than you think. Flap your credit card's wings for this one...