Not Angels But Angels

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Movie
Original title Not Angels But Angels
Country of production Czech Republic
original language Czech , English
Publishing year 1994
length 80 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Viktor Grodecki
script Viktor Grodecki
production Peter Lencses
music Johann Sebastian Bach , Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , Heitor Villa-Lobos
camera Vladimír Holomek
cut Viktor Grodecki

Not Angels But Angels is a Czech documentary directed by Wiktor Grodecki from 1994 . The subject of the film is Prague's stick boy scene after the collapse of socialism in Czechoslovakia . The Czech-language film title is Andělé nejsou andělé .

content

For much of the film, several boys from the former Czechoslovakia between the ages of 14 and 19 talk about their experiences as prostitutes. The thematically grouped conversations deal with the reasons why the boys began to prostitute themselves, as well as their social environment, fears, future plans, customers (mostly sex tourists ), financial matters, crime, safe sex and sexuality in general. In addition, Wiktor Grodecki lets pimps speak who pretend to "help" the boys.

The film also shows footage from Prague Central Station , from various nightclubs, as well as pixelated porn images from the scene.

background

The 35 mm color film with Dolby Stereo was originally produced by MiroFilm for Czech television.

Grodecki dedicated another documentary and a feature film to this topic with Body Without Soul ( Tělo bez duše , 1996) and Mandragora (1997).

reception

The reviews for Not Angels But Angels were mixed:

Dietrich Kuhlbrodt praised Not Angels But Angels for epd Film (5/1995) as “an aesthetic risk. And it worked. [...] What we experience is instructive. What we see are not informants, but personalities who are not judged. ”The TV Guide described the film as captivating but artificial and not reserved enough.

Norbert Krüger ( Hamburger Rundschau ) criticized the background music of the film: “It is not really clear what Grodecki is trying to express with this film. Should Bach's St. Matthew Passion and Mozart's Requiem , with which he underlay parts of the interviews, have a contrapuntal effect, or does he believe in the innocent passion of his fallen angels? The only thing that becomes clear is that those who are interested in this scene receive a very personal portrait of their protagonists with 'Not Angels but Angels'. ”The Film Lexicon Two Thousand One is also critical of this musical background (“ A questionable approach that works more towards prejudices than for To plead tolerance ”).

Kevin Moss of Middlebury College wrote of Grodecki's trilogy that the films only pretended to be objective. “In truth”, “Grodecki's films are both very manipulated and highly manipulative”. "Abnormal" sex practices are portrayed as imports from the colonizing, capitalist West. From the trilogy, the film Not Angels But Angels comes closest to a documentary. Also referring to the trilogy, Robin Griffiths wrote that, although the films were among the most widespread contributions to queer cinema canon from post-communism, they were also among the most problematic.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dietrich Kuhlbrodt : Review of Not Angels But Angels on filmzentrale.com
  2. ↑ Not Angels But Angels on tvguide.com
  3. ↑ Norbert Krüger: Fallen Angels ( Memento of the original from May 10, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.norbert-krueger.com
  4. ↑ Not Angels But Angels. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  5. ↑ Kevin Moss: Queer as Metaphor: Representations of LGBT People in Central and Eastern European Film . In: Roman Kuha, Judit Takacs (ed.): Beyond the Pink Curtain: Everyday Life of LGBT People in Eastern Europe . Peace Institute, Ljubljana 2007. ISBN 9616455451 . P. 259
  6. ↑ Robin Griffiths: Bodies Without Borders? Queer Cinema and Sexuality After the Fall . In: Robin Griffiths (ed.): Queer Cinema in Europe . Intellect Books, Brisol / Chicago 2008. ISBN 1841500798 . P. 129