Angel-A [Blu-ray] [Region B]

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.

I firstly have to agree with the last customer review of Angel-a. You will come away from the experience, and it's an experience that goes beyond just a good movie let's get that straight from the git go! a little altered in your perspective of both yourself and your life. If you don't then, frankly, I don't know what you were watching but it wasn't Angel-a. I have to admit to being a fan of French director Luc Besson before I review this latest DVD offering from a man often in my opinion accurately described as a cinematic visionary. Besson is certainly that. If you're not familiar with his previous works I sugesst you buy a couple along with Angel-a. I promise you'll be pleased you did. I recommend Nikita and The Fifth Element, Subway and The Big Blue. But to this title. I won't bore you with too much detail on the plot, as spolier's would no doubt ensue. Suffice it to say the more astute among you will get the twist of this movie from a quick glance at the way the title's spelled. Jamel Debouze is, like Danish beauty Rie Rasmussen, perfectly cast as the hapless businessman Andre - up to his ass and down on his luck in a Paris shot entirely in crisp black and white in the deserted early hours. This has been done to cut down on an extras cast of the Parisienne public, but has the welcome effect of making Paris the third character in what is primarily a character piece driven by Andre's 'chance' meeting and subsequent relationship with the enchanting and mysterious Angela. This blonde leggy beauty in a sexy black dress comes to Andre's aid and wrestles him out of his debts with two separately portrayed gangster types. In the following process of heated dialogue exchanges and antagonism an unlikely friendship develops and then blossoms into love as Andre gradually discovers Angela's true nature. . . The framing is perfection, the script - also by Besson - is sharp and insightful with more than a dash of introspection and heavily cut with melancholy in the final act. The humour is black, quickfire and keeps the viewer on their toes as much as the rapid subtitles. But it's the peerless quality of the performances from both Debouze and Rasmussen (whom I'm unashamed to say I fell in love with in this movie) who achingly portray a developing love and mutual need that had my heart skipping beats along with the haunting, and by turns hip and atmospheric, score that make this a film you'll treasure and want to watch all over again. I can't recommend this film enough. Do yourself a favour. Put it in you basket now. When it arrives, open a bottle of red wine, pour yourself a glass, turn the lounge lights off and your home cinema system up, sit back, relax and enjoy. . . Angel-a will stay with you long after the credits roll.

Despite being a fan of Besson's earlier work, I had a lot of apprehension about purchasing this title given some of the producing credits besson has gathered in last decade. However I am glad that I did, as Angel-A displays all of the inventiveness and enjoyability of his late 80's/90's output, with a new found humour and cinematic zeal. I won't say too much about the plot of film, other than to mention that I found it to be an enjoyable and modern alternative to fare such as it's a wonderful life, with excellent performances from the lead actors in particular. Whilst the scripting of the film is arguably somewhat predictable, the film should appeal to due to its knowing dark humour, and its pacey brevity. In relation to the Blu Ray, I believe optimum have put this out on a single sided BD25 disc. The Monochrome photography is displayed well, with crisp blacks and no apparent artefact issues, however the image did not have much 'pop' for a recent release, and I think it could have flourished with the extra storage of a double sided disc despite it's short running length (as always besson has a very dynamic camera, and there are some stand out shots of some very well known Paris locales). The extras on the disc add little to the overall package, but do shed some light on the production process; although given the gap since Besson's previous films it would have been nice to have something more director specific. Overall this is an enjoyable film, presented well on Blu Ray disc

An EXQUISITE and deeply moving film and an absolute master class in black and white cinematography, all thanks to genius director Luc Besson and his right arm, cinematographer Thierry Arbogast. Toss in two delicately nuanced, courageous, sometimes funny and always heartbreaking performances by Jamel Debboule and Rie Rasmussen and you're left with something very, very distinctive. The storyline of a statuesque, wise-cracking, slightly sluttish blonde angel with the longest legs and shortest dress on earth (or elsewhere) coming down to rescue a grimy, vaguely criminal street slug doesn't sound all that appealing I'll admit... worthy of a thousand cliches... but if one has ever felt lost as the world comes down on their shoulders, it works and it strikes deep. What a great script. What an intoxicating feast for the eyes and the soul. Besson has an amazing gift for creating totally believable, riveting emotional impact in implausible scenarios, as witnessed by the scene in his masterpiece Leon (The Professional) when the young girl says goodbye to her mentor while escaping down a trash shute. In Angel A, the final scene on the bridge and below is even more raw and naked and lump-in-the-throat, but I won't spoil it for the reader. I'll just say that if you've ever choked up at saying goodbye to someone this scene will get under your skin. And what a lusciously beautiful film to look at, almost every frame able to stand on its own as a piece of art. If there was ever a film that deserved the black and white treatment and burst forth with a rainbow of emotions as a result, this is it. Don't miss it.

Great film, beautifully shot, lots of character. In my opinion, the ending was a little dramatic based on the overall flow of the storyline.

A nice blu-ray version (UK, region B) of Luc Besson's Angel-A. Holds up pretty well when upscaled on a 4K screen.

El DVD que he recibido ws una edición de coleccionista maravillosa que no se corresponde con lo publicitado. Viene con un CD de la banda sonora.. Un libro con entrevistas y el DVD de la película. La única pega es que audio está en francés y NO hay subtítulos . En la imagen aparece un DVD con la opción de subtítulos en castellano.

Non so come abbia potuto sfuggirmi questo capolavoro. Divertente, profondo, in una Parigi bellissima. Lui straordinario lei bravissima (più brutta di quel che si vuol fare apparire) dialoghi e trovate inarrivabili.