The Black Angel (1994)
Stephane, the wife of a prominent magistrate, shoots and kills a man in her home and claims he tried to rape her. While investigating her case, her lawyer becomes hopelessly enmeshed in a web of lies and subterfuges concerning her past.
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An Exercise In Nonsense
Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.
There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes
Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.
Jean Claude Brisseau is not a prolific director. He takes his time to get back to his steps. Watching this hard, exhilarating, unstoppable proof of his talent you can clearly see that he needs to empty him in each frame, each second of his features. The outstanding scene in which Sylvie Vartan (recovering the best Catherine Deneuve), is paying for her blackmailing is the milestone of his career. The sexual tension, the rotten feelings, the laconic acceptation of a dark destiny... I obtain a great pleasure viewing a "non genre director" doing "film noir", like he was Chabrol, but trying to pass over the topics and penetrating the obscure angles of his absorbent plots.
This is a film you either love or hate. The plot is well constructed, the acting solid, even outstanding in parts (particularly the interview between Paul Delorme and Mme Pitot), the dialogue believable. Where it strains is in the odd surrealist fades, which leave the viewer confused for long moments until he figures out what is going on. The screenplay leaves untied a lot of loose ends that the book cleared up rather nicely, but in the 95 minutes available this is not too surprising. What is surprising, given the complexity of the plot and sub-plots, is how well the characters get developed in such a short film, especially some of the minor characters with little on-screen time. Michel Piccoli and Sylvie Vartan deliver sterling performances, and Mlle Vartan clearly demonstrates that she is not just another pretty face trying to change careers, but a consummate actress with great dramatic ability.In common with too many French films, the soundtrack is poor quality (the interiors of French buildings tend to be large echo chambers, and this is never corrected in the postproduction sound processing), which probably won't bother an English speaking viewer too greatly, but makes following the unsubtitled version difficult, even for a native French speaker.