|
MONTREAL -- Well-directed at the outset and well-cast with leads Morgane More and
Guillaume Depardieu as serendipitous lovers who spend one fateful night together, actor
Vincent Perez's feature directorial debut is one of those Gallic love stories that
features messed-up guys and soulfully innocent gals. Alas, all its charm is in the setup
and the follow-through is joyless, even downright irritating.
A world premiere in the official competition, "Peau d'ange" (Angel Skin) has not
enough to recommend it to more than French-speaking audiences, though Perez's filmmaking
skills and Depardieu's performance make it an above-average candidate for festivals.
With her family in financial trouble, teenage Angele (More) is sent off to work as a house
servant and befriends similarly cast-off Josiane (Magalie Woch). Both are verbally abused
by the boss lady (Helene de Saint Pere) and made to feel socially and intellectually
inferior. But the girls have their own fun and games.
When nervous, brooding, angry Gregoire (Depardieu) comes to town because of his mother's
death, Josiane flirts with him, and he tells her he's a manager in the music business.
Convinced that Angele is a singer waiting to be discovered, Josiane brings them together
on a rainy night that results in a desperate tryst that has unforeseen consequences.
What doesn't happen is Gregoire wanting to keep it going. He's gone off pursuing a
pharmaceutical job, where his brash confidence earns the admiration of his boss (Laurent
Terzieff) and the inside track on wooing his daughter (screenwriter Karine Silla). Angele
tries to be near Gregoire and takes a job with another couple working at the same company.
But her new boss (Olivier Gourmet) is coming apart over his wife's infidelities, and a
tragic murder takes place.
The film starts to fall apart with the incarceration of Angele as an accomplice to murder,
with the poor thing unable to help herself. In prison, she learns to adapt and takes an
interest in gardening with the help of nearby nuns. When fortune shifts in her favor, it's
just a matter of time before she truly runs out of luck.
Shifting between the resurrection of Gregoire's character and rising career and Angele's
misfortunes, Perez makes a big mistake in the finale by snuffing out a character with
minimal emotion. One wonders what the point of the film is, beyond showing how people can
be attached on a deeper level than physical proximity. But when the result is so
miserable, one can't escape the feeling that Angele and Gregoire should not have met.
Unless one is attracted to tragedy for tragedy's sake.
|
|