THE DREAMLIFE OF ANGELS w/Elodie Bouchez, Natacha Regnier & Gregoire Colin. Directed by Erick Zonca.
The Thumbs For Sale! Review by Roger Gerbig
With the impending arrival of that Star Wars flick, these Thumbs! felt obligated to travel down the dark alley theat bypasses the multiplex, snakes its way past dozens of dumpsters, and ends somewhere in the vicinity of France--that mythical place where they do indeed make better films than cars.
"The Dreamlife of Angels," a big winner on the international film-festival circuit, lets us in on the lives of Isa and Marie (Bouchez and Regnier, who shared the best actress award at Cannes last year), two young women who seem to be in between most everything--jobs, apartments, boyfriends, and quality time spent with family. Theirs is a tentative existence, filled mostly with mass consumption of tobacco products and a staggering lack of bigger plans. Isa's just arrived in town and discovered her one prospect has taken off for the greener pastures of Belgium. After bedding down for a night in a freezing abandoned restaurant, she wastes no time looking for an establishment with central heating. Despite apparently being perpetually down on her luck, her toothy grin, steely resolve, and sparkling eyes that instantly remind us of alien autopsies past land her a job in a matter of hours.
Once employed at a local clothing factory, she befriends Marie, a quiet girl who's content to hang out in the wings and roll the fattest cigarettes in the history of nicotine addiction. Turns out Marie's housesitting a cozy flat while the owner and her daughter recover from comas obtained in a tragic car accident. Refreshingly, this dual coma plot device is as outlandish as the movie gets. For the next hour and a half, we watch as the women's friendship develops, matures, and nearly vaporizes. Often with the French, you're never quite sure if their films are low budget, filmed to look low budget, or are really documentaries masquerading as narrative fiction. In "Angel's" case this has a lot to do with the oft-handheld camera, unadorned lighting and the complete and total lack of melodrama (and for many, many minutes lack of just plain drama).
Yet it's never boring, which is a testament to the fact that director Zonca doesn't let the story unfold. Rather, he allows it to develop at a pace consistent with what his characters can realistically bear. Nor does he waste our time filling us in on the minutia of their motivation and behavior. Like your friends, family, and yourselves, they sometimes just do things that momentarily evade explanation.
For instance, Marie gets involved with Chris (Colin), a rich kid who's obviously practicing to become a classic philandering Frenchman (and scoring high marks, I might add). Why they are drawn together is never fully explained. Sure, judging from his selection of pastimes, I can see why he might be interested in taming a feral child, but is this the whole story? I don't think so. As for Marie, she makes a living out of asserting her complete and total independence, yet who do you think's running off to the beach house for a weekend of wet sand and bliss? Likewise, Isa visits the comatose daughter at the hospital. While she maintains a certain element of curiosity in the beginning, when asked she can't provide an answer why she keeps going back. Trust me when I say there are many more facets like these to ponder both in real time while watching the film, and later.
With "Dreamlife", Zonca makes his full-length feature debut well past the age of 40. His years of documentary filmmaking clearly leave their mark here, yet this isn't any "NYPD Blue" affair. Though the camera is handheld in many scenes, make no mistake, this is an exercise in subtlety. Everything from pensive moments bathed in the soft bluish light of the perpetually overcast sky, to fierce lovemaking captured by an intrusive cameraman hovering just above the action are captured in whichever style feels most honest. But like the plot, adjustments from scene to scene are a matter of only a few degrees. Everything stays on course and well within the realm of plausibility.
If I appear to be repeating myself, it's because I want to drive a few underlying points home. Having these points illustrated allows you to focus on the myriad of other details present on screen, not to mention more time to take in the subtitles. While I feel I had quite a meaningful experience with this film, I'm not entirely sure why. But having so few conclusions drawn for you by the filmmakers makes deciphering your experience all that more rewarding. Folks, the laserblasts heralding the beginning of the summer silly season have arrived. For a quality calm before the storm (or respite), I can't recommend this flick highly enough
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