CineMatinee- April 2008
Unless otherwise noted, screening time is 1.30 PM, and admission is $4 for everyone except film society members who are admitted for $1. The theatre is located one half block of the Mesilla Plaza. For more information, please call 524-8287 or 522-0286.
April 19- Angel A (2005, 90 minutes, rated R in French w/ subtitles) Andre is a petty criminal in debt to everyone he knows. With only 24 hours to come up with a serious haul of cash before his troubles worsen, Andre decides he's better off dead and heads to a bridge to commit suicide. Unexpectedly, a statuesque woman named Angela is already there and jumps first. When Andre follows to save her life, she pledges total companionship to the diminutive crook and sets out to clear his debts. As she makes good on all of her promises he starts to believe that he's found an angel sent from above to help him, and it turns out that might not be too far from the truth.
The picture is a clever little drama/comedy that coasts by on a massive reserve tank of charm. Really a battle of fears between Angela and Andre, Angel-A is an episodic tale of a man's self-actualization and unstoppable devotion.
The performances from the two stars are the ties that bind Angel-A together. Sprinting to keep up with director Luc Besson's cart wheeling screenplay, the actors are two striking physical specimens and the camera loves their differences. Andre is a dumpy, physically disabled troublemaker; a loser in life who's starting to believe his own press. Angela is a towering blonde firecracker with a sexuality that melts glass. The duo makes for one hilariously uneven couple, but their acting couldn't be more finely matched and ready to engage.
Besson also has the mesmerizing cinematography of Thierry Arbogast to rely on. A longtime collaborator, Arbogast and Besson have elected to shoot Angel-A in black and white, both to soften the alarm of any magic spilled onscreen and to let the fine Parisian locations breathe. Stripped of color, Angel-A couldn't look better if it tried; the creamy vistas lend the tale a certain distance to better absorb and create a new glimpse of Paris.
