Angel - A life like a dream

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Movie
German title Angel - A life like a dream
Original title fishing rod
Country of production United Kingdom , France , Belgium
original language English
Publishing year 2007
length 134 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director François Ozon
script Martin Crimp ,
François Ozon
production Olivier Delbosc ,
Marc Missonnier
music Philippe Rombi
camera Denis Lenoir
cut Muriel Breton
occupation

Angel - A life like in a dream (Original title: Angel ) is a movie by the director François Ozon from 2007 . The screenplay was written by Martin Crimp and Ozon themselves based on the novel of the same name by Elizabeth Taylor (1957), which in turn was based on the biography of Marie Corelli . Ozon stated that he used elements from the melodramas Douglas Sirks and Gigi and designed the main character after Gone with the Wind .

action

Seventeen-year-old Angel, the daughter of a greengrocer, lives in modest circumstances in a small English town. She dreams of a career as a writer. She is therefore only laughed at by her entire environment. She sent her first, slightly pompous and overloaded novel to various publishers. It is actually accepted, published and a huge success that makes her a rich woman.

She leaves the place and becomes a successful writer in London. She buys a castle ("Paradise House") and lives there in an overloaded style, as she imagines the life of an aristocrat, together with her mother and her admirer and confidante Nora. At a book presentation of her novel, she met her brother, the expressionist painter Esmé, and fell in love with him. After the wedding, different views of life and art emerge in the couple's relationship, the embellished illusory world and kitschy art Angels on the one hand and true art and real life at Esmé on the other.

When the First World War begins in 1914 , there is a heated argument between Angel and Esmé, as Angel refuses to accept the reality of the war and wants to continue to live in its illusory world, while Esmé volunteers for the front. Her novels, which are now pacifistically motivated, are no longer popular with the war-loving audience. Angel lives in isolation in her castle until Esmé returns from the war as an invalid. During several vacations from the front, which Angel did not reveal, he had an affair with the daughter of the former owner of the castle, who later had a child from him. As a result of the disability, Esmé becomes depressed and commits suicide. In an interview she twists and denies reality and reinterprets it like in one of her kitsch novels. By chance she finds the suicide note from Esmé's lover. When confronted by Angel, Nora confirms Esmé's relationship with the other woman. During a visit to her, she is confronted with a vital, modern woman, while Angel herself still lives in her fantasy world of a Belle Époque . Alone and without a meaningful task, she dies in feverish fantasies. Nora is the administrator of the estate.

production

Esmé's pictures were painted by Gilbert Pignol . The music was composed by Philippe Rombi , who has since composed the music for twelve films by Ozons and received a nomination for the International Film Music Critics Award (IFMCA) for Angel.

The location was the Abbaye de Bois-Seigneur-Isaac in Braine-l'Alleud (Belgium).

Focus of criticism

Ozone's film met the German-language criticism with mixed, negative judgments. He takes sides for bad taste; “The appropriate imagery for a film about Angel Deverell is that of the dime novel”. On the one hand, ozone shows the seductive, beautiful side of Angel's hermetic imagination, but at the same time also shows its egocentric naivete. One is torn in this tightrope walk between a melodrama full of over-the-top emotions and the tasteless genre travesty. One accusation is that Ozone not only wants to "ironically expose the kitsch of his character, he wants to celebrate it at the same time". The main character submits reality to her dream with irrepressible will, which reminded two critics of a German Chancellor: “I want to go in here! The classic Gerhard Schröder scene. And of course you can become chancellor in this world if you want to. Or a writer. "

It is often said that the enormous effort involved in the decoration and other external features is out of proportion to the narrated content and dominates the film, which remains so pure surface. He cites too many melodramas from the 1950s, which leads to a cheap imitation of earlier film styles without their own wit and charm. Quoting older film aesthetics alone does not give the film life; every Pilcher film adaptation moves its audience more strongly. A benevolent critic discovered that behind the great feelings there was a well thought-out social analysis: “Only films like this one can dream and think at the same time.” Elsewhere, the work is admitted that it is funny because of its total seriousness or because of its slight irony. Other critics counter that he does not drag his audience along because he is too intellectually aware and the main character too striking; this content does not last more than two hours and there is no real dramatic conflict. Towards the end, lengths became noticeable.

There is disagreement about the performance. Romola Garai gives the character an "irresistible arrogance"; her performance is respectable, although she sometimes seems overwhelmed; she plays powerfully, but the character does not arouse emotional participation; she has hardly any charisma. You and Fassbender, Neill and Rampling played disinterestedly, so that the audience was not interested either; only Rampling brings warmth to her little role.

literature

Conversations with François Ozon

Review mirror

positive

  • Der Tagesspiegel , August 9, 2007, p. 29, by Kerstin Decker (“a very extraordinary, a wonderful film”; ozone finds a suitable form to portray kitsch in a funny way; a little too long)

Rather positive

  • Cinema No. 8/2007 (half-raised thumb, perfectly balanced between revealing irony and deep tragedy)
  • Frankfurter Rundschau , August 9, 2007, p. 37, by Heike Kühn (film works emotionally and intellectually as a social study)

Mixed

  • epd Film August 2007, pp. 50–51 (melodramatic staging and magnificent equipment as advantages, but mannerist style)
  • Neue Zürcher Zeitung , April 12, 2007, p. 43, by Marli Feldvoss

Rather negative

  • film-dienst No. 16/2007, fd38263, p. 31, by Hans-Jörg Marsilius (superficial and not thrilling)

negative

  • Focus , August 6, 2007, pp. 52–53 (obsessed with furnishings, main character without charisma)
  • Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , August 11, 2007, p. 33, by Verena Lueken (verriss)
  • taz , August 9, 2007, p. 17, by Ines Kappert (too low in salary, lost in quotes and optics)
  • Die Welt , August 9, 2007, p. 29, by Peter Zander ("Schmalz" below Pilcher level, without life, leaves you cold)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ [1] BFI
  2. ↑ a b c d Kerstin Decker: Das Schlößchen . In: Der Tagesspiegel , August 9, 2007, p. 29
  3. ↑ a b Ines Kappert: Brutal naivety . In: taz , August 9, 2007, p. 17
  4. ↑ a b Marli Feldvoss. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , April 12, 2007, p. 43
  5. ↑ a b c d Peter Zander: Gone with Kitsche . In: Die Welt , August 9, 2007, p. 29
  6. ↑ Direct quote from: Peter Zander: Gone with Kitsche . In: Die Welt , August 9, 2007, p. 29. Hans-Jörg Marsilius draws the same analogy in film-dienst , No. 16/2007, fd38263, p. 31
  7. ↑ film-dienst No. 16/2007, fd 38263, p. 31. Focus , August 6, 2007, p. 52–53. FAZ , August 11, 2007, p. 33. taz , August 9, 2007, p. 17
  8. ↑ a b Hans-Jörg Marsilius. film-dienst, No. 16/2007, fd38263, p. 31
  9. ↑ a b Verena Lueken: Bombastic . In: FAZ , August 11, 2007, p. 33
  10. ↑ Heike Kühn: The poor nouveau riche . In: Frankfurter Rundschau , August 9, 2007, p. 37
  11. ↑ Cinema No. 8/2007
  12. ↑ taz , August 9, 2007, p. 17. FAZ , August 11, 2007, p. 33
  13. ↑ New in the cinema . In: Focus , August 6, 2007, pp. 52-53