Review: The Dream Life of Angels (1998)

[Greg King]

THE DREAM LIFE OF ANGELS (M).
(Mercure Distribution/Palace)
Director: Erick Zonca
Stars: Elodie Bouchez, Natacha Regnier, Gregoire Colin
Running time: 113 minutes
(French, with English subtitles).
First time director Erick Zonca's The Dream Life Of Angels (La
Vie Revee Des Anges) is a grim, warts and all study of female
friendship. But, unlike most formula driven Hollywood efforts, there
are no terminal diseases or unrealistic, melodramatic plot devices to
test the limits of friendship. Rather, Zonca opts for an intense
level of gritty realism that will satisfy many in the audience who are
looking for something a little different. The film explores realistic
and credible characters, emotions and conventional situations with an
honesty that is rare in today's cinema.
Twenty year old Isa (Elodie Bouchez, from Andre Techine's Wild
Reeds, etc) is a drifter, who lives a hand to mouth existence as she
travels across France. When she arrives in Lille, an industrial town
in northern France, she lands a temporary job in a sewing factory.
She is ill-equipped to handle the job and after a couple of days is
fired. But at the factory she strikes up a friendship with fellow
seamstress Marie (Natacha Regnier), a taciturn and introverted loner
with a rebellious streak. Isa moves into Marie's flat.
It turns out that Marie is merely minding the flat for a woman
who was recently hospitalised following a car crash. Isa and Marie go
out a lot, party hard and drink a lot. The two eventually develop a
friendship with a couple of bikies, who also work as bouncers at a
local night club. But when Marie begins a torrid affair with the
handsome but shallow night club owner Chriss (Gregoire Colin), the two
friends begin to drift apart. Isa can see that Chriss is merely using
Marie, but her friend is reluctant to accept the fact.
Meanwhile Isa herself becomes obsessed with the comatose
daughter of the flat's owner. She visits the girl in the hospital and
reads to her from her diary, hoping to make some sort of connection.
Their various obsessions begin to drive the two women apart. What is
also interesting is how the increasingly strained relationship also
changes their character. We watch how Isa grows in confidence,
strength and assurance while the fragile Marie falls apart. The two
girls chain smoke their way through the film with such passion that
one can almost smell the cigarette smoke wafting through the cinema.
This sombre character driven piece is driven by the
sensational pair of emotionally draining and insightful performances
from Bouchez and Regnier. The two actresses have jointly shared a
number of international best actress prizes for their performances
here, but it is Bouchez who beautifully carries off the more demanding
and showy part. Zonca apparently had the two actresses share a flat
during the making of the film to give an air of realism to their
relationship, and it shows in the increasing air of tension and
acrimony that develops as the film unfolds.
The pace is slow, and Dream Life Of Angels seems to go for
much longer than its 113 minutes running time would suggest. This is,
at times, a fairly bleak and down beat film that probes deeply into
the makeup of its two central characters. The early portions are
tempered with some welcome doses of humour, but the tone slowly
changes as the film continues. There is little let up from its
claustrophobic and depressing atmosphere in the second half.

**
greg king
http://www.netau.com.au/gregking