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Vincent Perez is probably best known in the English-speaking world for his 1996 lead role in The Crow: City of Angels. Perhaps synchronicity can be blamed for the actor's leaden feature-length directorial debut, Peau d'Ange. The title character is Angele (Morgane More), so from the start subtlety seems unlikely to be one of the picture's strong points. The remaining 81 minutes do not contradict that initial impression. Angele is a poor farm girl working as a maid for a wealthy family in a provincial French village, where she's seduced by a dashing, troubled young man named Gregoire (Guillaume Depardieu, son of Gerard.). For her, the encounter is heaven; for him, it's just another interlude on his descent into a personal hell. Yet after Gregoire leaves town, he gets his act together in a distant city. Angele eventually follows, but before she can track him down, her life takes an improbable turn while working as a housekeeper for a well-to-do couple. The distraught husband kills his cheating wife and the beleaguered heroine is convicted as an accomplice. The sudsy plot would be absolutely unbearable if not for Depardieu's charismatic presence. Looking less like his father than a softer version of Julian Sands ("Room With a View"), he's got that je-ne-sais-quoi thing happening, not to mention a genetic predisposition for acting. What might come across as scenery chewing by a lesser thespian is a rather riveting performance by Guillaume. If only the film supported his efforts.
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