The Dream Life of Angels

Star Review

Starting off a little like a gentler, female version of Bertrand Blier’s Les Valseuses, as two directionless, working-class girls hook up in dreary Lille and go out looking for kicks, The Dream Life of Angels quickly develops into something more subtle and searching. Isa (Elodie Bouchez), caring and sensitive, begins to devote her time to visiting a young girl in a coma (in whose dead mother’s flat she is house-sitting) and cementing friendships in the area; Marie (Natacha Regnier), troubled and indignant, drifts disinterestedly from lover to lover, ending up with a Romeo club owner who breaks her heart. Director Erick Zonca evokes great power from this simple story of small lives by charting the disintegration of Isa and Marie’s friendship — and Marie’s self-esteem — with such painful truth it feels at times like docu-drama; it is this approach that makes the conclusion all the more devastating. For their finely-tuned, close-up performances, Bouchez and Regnier shared the Best Actress award at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival.

Julian Upton on 13th June 2007

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Film Description

Isa, a resourceful backpack drifter, and Marie, apartment-sitting for a mother and her daughter who are in hospital, meet on a Lille assembly line and immediately find an affinity with each other. Erick Zonca's debut film follows their trajectory, as Marie becomes dependent on a doomed love affair, in a grim naturalistic fashion which recalls the novels of Zola. Élodie Bouchez and Natacha Régnier deservedly shared the Best Actress Award at Cannes for their portrayals of the two girls.

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Film Details

Cast

Grégoire Colin, Élodie Bouchez, Natacha Régnier

Technical Details