Peau d'ange
2002 Drama / Romance
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Summary
17-year old Angèle leaves home and finds work as a housemaid to
a bourgeois couple in a nearby town. One day, she meets a young
man in a suit, Grégoire, who passes himself off as a manager in
a music company. Mourning the recent death of his mother,
Grégoire is in need of company and he persuades Angèle to
spend the night with him in a hotel. The next day, they part and
have no intention of seeing one another again.
Angèle soon realises that she is in love with Grégoire
and decides she must find him...Review
Peau d'ange is a curious
little film which has great strengths, but also many weaknesses, and
this may account for the very mixed reviews it received on its release
in 2002. The film marked the directorial debut for Vincent Perez,
who had previously built up a solid reputation as an actor, appearing
in such memorable French films as Patrice Chéreau’s La
Reine Margot (1994).On the plus side, the film has an excellent cast and features some remarkable performances, particularly from its two leads, Morgane Moré and Guillaume Depardieu, who convincingly portray the anguish and vulnerability of their characters. With such strong performances, it would appear churlish to look for faults elsewhere, but the deficiencies in the scripting department are so blatant, they are hard to overlook. The fundamental problem with this film, and the only thing preventing it from being a great piece of drama, is that the whole thing feels painfully contrived and rushed. The characters are two-dimensional and are not given time to develop. The story has too many improbable elements to be convincing and ultimately feels naive and insubstantial. Perez’s direction may lack confidence but overall is pretty respectable for a first film, showing a surprising maturity in some scenes. © James Travers 2008 Write a review for this film... |
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