The Dreamlife of Angels (1999)

Masterful Movie

Better Late Then Never

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

When I went to see the film Up In The Air, the audience was mostly middle aged people. It was a film meant to be enjoyed by people who had lived a little and understand what life is like. I'm also going to a 30th year high school reunion and will see a cross section of people from my youth who made difference choices throughout their lives.So this film is best enjoyed (and in a way, it is enjoyable) by those who have lived life and understand how painful it can be. There are two sets of protagonists: The working class girls out on their own struggling to survive. Both are effectively homeless. One girl is basically crashing at a relative's apartment whose an accident victim. The other girl is there only because of a quick friendship. They are both living on borrowed time and need to find a place to live. Some of us have been there. I have. It was a brief period in my life that was not pleasant but helps me to appreciate what I have now. Sometimes I close my eyes in my bed and am so thankful to have a place to sleep and someone who loves me next to me. I wonder that if I hadn't gone through that, would I appreciate life in the same way?Although they aren't present on screen, the real "angels" of the film are the poor accident victim whose apartment the girls are crashing in and her daughter who survived the accident and is in a coma. They are middle class women who had good lives but are now in tragedy. This film is about how the different angels survive and the choices they make. The girls get boyfriends to help them get by and soul crushing menial jobs. This is "office space" for women but without obvious humor. Strangely, I think I appreciated this more than my wife. For my wife, it's depressing but for me it was reaffirming to see things from a different perspective.

The Dreamlife of Angels begins with a wandering young girl turning up at the home of somebody she through she knew, only to find them vacant in that they have gone on a placement abroad. The young girl carries with her a large backpack in a physical sense, that worn look of tiredness and travel all over her face in a more literal sense; there is a feeling for that of journeying, of vast journeying across the length and breadth of a nation, indeed Continent, that has imbued her life along up to this point along with what appears as rather a large network of contacts that have been born out of that. This dwelling here and now may very well be the home to one of them, but the contact and the keeping up of appearances with these people is so few and far between, such is the manner in which these people exist, that knowing precisely where one might be at certain times is impossible – in the young woman's world, people are situated at a place; move along and then relocate somewhere else after any duration of time. Cast away and rejected from staying there by the elderly woman actually inhabiting the house, the young woman's exasperated glance at the world behind her as she turns, additionally into us given where the camera's situated, encapsulates a desolate feeling of now having to resume looking for something that doesn't necessarily exit – to try and get by however she can given this revelation: she is back on the road.The lead is named Isabelle (Bouchez), a woman in her mid-twenties based in France travelling along in the world and getting by on the money she earns out of selling postcards on the street to people, that she herself creates from images plagiarised from magazines. Having failed to find respective dwelling, she turns her interests to the nearby city of Lillie in this: northern France; in a certain way, somewhat refreshingly so in the sense that to have a film of The Dreamlife of Angels' ilk, complete with the aesthetic that it carries, play out in the locale of somewhere such as Lille rather than the more familiarised option somewhere like Paris, is quite pleasant. In Lille a chance interaction with a middle aged Yugoslav, whom runs a sweat shop with his wife, sees Isabelle employed as a seamstress and placed in a makeshift room rife with women doing little all day but sew. Isabelle does not get on particularly well with this scenario, the new zone in which she finds herself one that is rife with an apparent segregation of women into neat rows and lines, each of which are charged with conforming and achieving the same thing that grossly goes against what it was established Isabelle lives for, that is to say; operating as a free spirited and independent person.It is here the film will have her meet the equally young Marie (Régnier); their relationship bedding the film down and seeing it effectively change gears after having previously come across as a project feeding off of a framework more routed to an approach that sees a lone protagonist stumble through proceedings and just getting by, perhaps something in the vein of Mike Leigh's film from a few years previously entitled Naked. Isabelle moves in with Marie, both women on the same respective level in life as they strive to get by with menial jobs on whatever budget; the premise of Marie's occupancy of the apartment hanging over proceedings in that it itself is rife with a sort of deadline - her current occupying of it born out of it being made vacant by a friend of her aunt's, whom lies alone comatose in a nearby hospital following a car crash – the notion of her waking up at any time and thus forcing the two women out again overbearing things.There is the initial fun and frolics that come with two such women hooking up and enjoying one another's company; the charm in going out and causing a nuisance of themselves in the evenings eventually leading to an attempted illegal entry to that of a concert; the tampering with richer French person's cars and the constant looking for male partners, each unravelling on their first proper night out together in what is a childish but innocent enough display of escapism from their everyday lives. Given what transpires, we get the feeling these two can trust each other as they strive towards a respective longer term goal; their bonds leading on into some rather inhospitable territory as this trust and these building blocks of a friendship are constructed before being somewhat cruelly knocked down again. Principally, the rift in their bond sees Isabelle rear off to sympathise with one of the comatose apartment owners after obtaining the rather personal item of their diary; Marie's going off to chase a rich womaniser named Chriss (Colin), whom drives his own plush automobile when they must travel by bus and utilises money both ignorantly and carelessly as they strive to get by, is symptomatic of each woman's need to take up a duty in aiding or obsessing over them after having previously been helped out by their intervention. The writer/director of the film, a certain Erick Zonca whom it is in the larger spectrum of opinion has not gone on to match what he does here, displays ample ability in capturing the essence of both natural conversation and mutual appreciation; the film one rich in acting as well as specific nihilist tonal qualities, all of which results in a meritorious piece worth catching.

Oddly, as you look at prior reviews for this film, there are many that speak very highly about this film. Not surprisingly, I cannot see why. It is French, which shouldn't garnish the praise just because it is in a different language (at times, foreign language films get praise for just being foreign), the story itself is as bland as white bread with butter, and finally our two main characters bring nothing refreshing to the table. "La Vie Revee Des Anges" transforms before your eyes into an over-hyped sub-par film about the French depression and the absurd nature of the woman's choice. As you can see, I had trouble with this film. I didn't know what to expect when it began, but I wanted to be impressed. I wanted to see phenomenal acting coupled with a story that best represented the imaginative title, but alas, nothing of the sort occurred. Here is what I saw for nearly 113 minutes: a homeless woman travels through France cheating some out of their money. She happens to find work at a sewing factory, but ends up loosing her job – not before she meets Marie, a woman of the same vein, who become closer friends. I would argue that a friendship does not blossom, but instead two people searching for something different happen to stay under the same roof. The homeless woman, Isa, convinces Marie that she can say, and the two attempt to share the times of their lives. Surprisingly, they share different values and visions, so when two men enter their lives, they react differently. Then, when a random third enters, he is used to gain sympathy and skewed views from the audience. He is the flint to this fire, but again, it just doesn't gain enough flame. In the end, an event occurs that is meant to shock and evoke tears, but between the lines of boredom, it just garnishes a yawn followed by excitement that the ending credits were drawing near.I don't want to sound too pessimistic about this film, it had potential. I think director Erick Zonca can control his actors as well as give us haunting images, but when handed a struggling story, it is obvious that he cannot maintain. My biggest issue with this film is that random events occurred to two complete strangers. There was a point in this film where Zonca attempted to connect Isa and Marie as "friends", but as the film continues, I can never see them as such. These two women, prior to working at the same place, never knew each other, yet instantly they were to live together and have a connection. Suddenly, they are "dating" two men, and anger ensues when a third becomes a part of the picture. We were missing some scenes in between that would allow us to see a stronger connection. We needed to see conflict and resolution prior to the ending, or perhaps a stronger story about both of them prior to their first meeting to really have us understand these two. I was bored, these characters brought nothing to the table. Randomly, near the center of the film, Isa begins to visit this other complete stranger – of which Zonca immediately demands that we feel sympathy for. What this film transforms into is Zonca throwing random events, that with strengthening stories, would cause any audience member to tear up, but there isn't time for the details, so we eventually ... hum ... get lost in translation.I think our two actresses would have been strong contestants in this film, had the story not been in shambles. I cannot fault the actresses, though a stronger voice between them would have been helpful. Marie's love interest falls prey again to someone who we, as an audience, don't know anything about. The brief snippets of information that we are handed in this film, does not give us enough to make our own judgment. He is portrayed, wrongly in my eyes, as the villain, but for me, it was just another case of not knowing enough to make the assumption. This is the argument that I have with the relationship between Isa and Marie. We don't know enough, they don't know enough about themselves to really pass judgment. When Marie makes the choice to be with the more dominate male in the film, Isa passes judgment – how could she? Did she know enough about the past of Marie or Marie in general to do so? I think not, how could she, we didn't get that satisfaction. So, this annoyed me throughout the film. Characters I didn't even know well enough, were passing judgment on others that nobody new well enough. It was rather embarrassing.Overall, I focused mainly on the characters of this film as my most irritable moment because I wanted to like these Isa and Marie, but not enough was given to us for anyone to relate to the realizations or hardships. I agree that quite a bit of poverty was happening in France during this time, but again, Zonca could have established this a bit further with a bit more detail. Detail was the lacking element which lead to the downfall of this film. The moments with Isa and Marie could have been heightened with more detail, the scenes with Isa in the hospital could have been more developed, and the final scene could have had such a delivered impact if only we cared. I didn't care about Isa or Marie by the end, and that is why I am bitter about the film. The French have made such amazingly strong films, that this one came as a surprise. I cannot suggest it – nor shall I.Write that in your diary, Isa! Grade: ** out of *****

I really didn't like this movie much at all. Much of it was because I didn't like either main character much at all--particularly Marie, as she's mostly a self-involved and hateful person. So, because of this and the generally gloomy and awful mood of the film, I can't see the average viewer liking this film.However, this is a rare film that is actually well-written but probably doesn't have a large audience. Those who will like it are either those who like depressing and awful films (fans of Bergman's most depressing films, this is probably for you) OR someone who watches it for the psychological studies. I was a therapist before my mid-life crisis and now I teach psychology in high school. If it weren't for all the nudity in the film, it would be a great film to show the kids when we discuss personality disorders. Isa is a pretty good example of an immature person who MIGHT be diagnosed with a Schizotypal Personality Disorder because she is just plain weird, though not apparently mentally ill. The connection she creates with the girl in the coma is just bizarre as are many of her other behaviors. Marie, though, is the more unlikable character and is a more clearly defined demonstration of a personality disorder. She actually shifts from an apparent Avoidant Personality Disorder (a person who acts like they need no one and may be quite surly to prove it) to a Dependent Personality Disorder (she MUST have one particular man, even though he mistreats her and is a bad person).Once again, this is not a fun movie to watch and the ending is depressing as can be, so don't rush out to see this movie unless you are a person looking for this specific type film.