Peau d’ange (2002) - film review

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...

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...

What do you think of this film?