Angel-A (2007)

the audience applauded

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

This film is about Andre Moussah, a broke man on the edge with debts to pay, in beautiful Paris, France. He jumps off one of the city's bridges one early Sunday morning to save a beautiful woman named Angela. She is tall, blonde, fast talking, intelligent , and ready to help Andre out any way she can. The movie is beautifully done in black and white with Paris in all its glory. Andre and Angela make an unlikely couple but Angela isn't who she appears to be. The actors do a first rate job in making me love this pair. I love the music. Luc Besson is a brilliant director who also wrote the screenplay. Besides being serious, this film is a lot of fun to watch anyway. You wish to be like Angela.

Luc Besson's enchanting 'Angel-A' is a modern-day fairy tale film noire fantasy set in black and white Paris. This is perhaps Besson's tribute to the film noire and Godard. It's also quite dialogue oriented (reminding me a bit of Kassovitz's 'La Haine' even though both movies are completely different). The dialogues are amusing. Besson plays around with symbols and words.At times 'Angel-A' feels like a poem as it has a whimsical flow and the city is used to its advantage. The director himself said that Paris is the third main character and I wouldn't disagree. Not only does it look stunning but it works brilliantly as Andre and Angela's platform and path to discovering truth. Thierry Arbogast's cinematography is marvelous as he beautifully captures each image giving life to the world of the two protagonists. The lighting department also deserves as much credit for giving more depth to the visuals.André Moussah seems to have been tailor made for Jamel Debbouze as it's hard to picture any other actor in that role. The actor plays it to the T. Equally, wonderful is Rie Rasmussen who plays Angela, the anti-Moussah, anti in the sense that Angela is everything André is not.'Angel-A' is a modern day fantasy about learning to love yourself. Only then, can you strive to be more.

A quirky drama – sci-fi –thriller, romance ... set in Paris which forms a tremendous backdrop to this black and white movie. Sometimes I didn't know whether to look at the scenery or pay attention to the dialogue which is very fast-paced – to the point of being unrelenting. It's a good performance by Jamel Debbouze who gets involved in a very peculiar relation with Rie Rasmussen. Sometimes this works, at other times it just seems a little too flashy and over the top. The main character (played by Jamel Debbouze) has a truck-load of problems and the resolutions to some of them are just a little too neat.Nevertheless the two main characters do enthrall us with the Parisian backdrop.

My missus brought me this the other month because she knows I'm a fan of Luc Besson, usually the action films he's wrote and produced but it was a nice effort anyway. I found myself pleasantly surprised with this one. I'm not usually into all this soppy romantic b*llocks but with this I'll make an exception. It's actually a really beautiful film, well acted and well made. It tells the story of a no-hoper who finds redemption in the form of a beautiful girl. The film makes you question, for a while, whether or not this girl is actually insane. I was taken with how beautiful and talented Rie Rasmussen was and was even more stuck by the fact she wasn't French and had to learn the language for the role. Jamel Debbouze also did well, his scene in the mirror very well acted (you'll know what I mean if you've seen it). Not for everyone but for fans of a nice night in with the missus, this is a must. Quick note: she cried at the end ***/*****.