Angel-A
March 8th, 2007
Luc Besson returns to Paris with a little movie that begins as playful comedy about a crook who meets a beautiful woman — and ends as dreadfully dumbed-down remake of Wings of Desire. André (Jamel Debbouze) is a scam artist who’s run out of luck, ready to hurl himself into the Seine when Angela (Rie Rasmussen) does the same. He saves her life, and they make a pact…. The first twenty minutes are lithe and fun, and in the slick black-and-white cinematography, Paris looks almost as good as the freakishly leggy Danish model.
Then comes the fatal misstep: Angela — mon dieu! – is an honest-to-god angel, sent to teach André the value of love, honesty, and self-respect. She does this by whoring herself out to every man in some sort of day-time nightclub and giving cloying speeches that Rasmussen is not actress enough to pull off (I doubt anybody is.) Even at 88 minutes, Angel-A feels padded and overlong, and the ending is an embarrassment of unearned sentiment.
Speaking of bridges: after the screening, we partied with Ghostface Killah and Spike Lee under the Queensboro, but that’s a story for another day. Angel-A opens May 25.
Angel-A. Luc Besson, 2005. **
Banlieue 13
September 11th, 2006
Bald people and people with tatoos talk tough, run, jump, shoot, and drive cars through locked gates. Parisian Escape from New York setting, Eastern acrobatics, and Euro techno soundtrack. Written by Luc Besson. There’s a bomb and a kidnapped sister and a villian who does too much cocaine for his own good.
Banlieue 13, Pierre Morel, 2004. **
[tags]french, film, 2 stars, action, fighting, luc besson[/tags]
