Angel-A (2005)

Director:

Luc Besson

Writer:

Luc Besson (writer)

Release Date:

21 December 2005 (France)

Genre:

Comedy | Fantasy | Romance

Plot:

A beautiful woman helps an inept scam artist get his game together.

Plot Keywords:

Seine | Money | Angel | Tall Woman Small Man | Lack Of Trust

Cast

Jamel Debbouze	...	André
Rie Rasmussen	...	Angel-A
Gilbert Melki	...	Franck
Serge Riaboukine	...	Pedro
Akim Chir	...	Le chef des malfrats
Eric Balliet	...	Garde du corps Franck
Loïc Pora	...	Le malfrat #2
Venus Boone	...	La mère d'Angela
Jérôme Guesdon	...	Le malfrat #3
Michel Bellot	...	Le planton US
Michel Chesneau	...	Le flic commissariat
Olivier Claverie	...	Le sécrétaire US
Solange Milhaud	...	La femme de Saint-Lazare
Laurent Jumeaucourt	...	Le dragueur
Franck-Olivier Bonnet	...	Le dernier client

Also Known As:

Alerte rouge (France) (working title)
Ангел-А (Russia) [ru]
Angel-A (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
Angel-A (Greece) [el]
Angel-A (Argentina) (festival title) [es]
Angel-A (Brazil) [pt]
Angel-A: O fylakas - angelos mou (Greece) (DVD title) [el]
Um Anjo da Guarda (Brazil) (festival title) [pt]

MPAA:

Rated R for language and some sexual content.

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

France

Language:

French | Spanish

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital EX | DTS-ES

Certification:

Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | Finland:K-11 | Ireland:15A | USA:R | France:U | Germany:12 | Australia:M | Argentina:13 | Brazil:14

Filming Locations:

Montmartre, Paris 18, Paris, France

Company:

Europa Corp.

Movie Connections:

References Léon (1994)

Besson wanting to claim himself as an "auteur"

Besson's intention by directing this movie was good. There is, it seemed to me, a big effort to make his film deep considering the discourse. It can be perceptible through the plenty of plays with symbols that are contained in it. The main problem is that by writing such dialogs, certain scenes seem too artificial and often too long. This has to be added to the fact that if you see the film in french, you"ll quickly notice that the dialogs that often concern both J Debbouze and Rie Rasmussen are more than sometimes incomprehensible and require a permanent attention to decipher them. Rie Rasmussen, even if she's quite a wonderful creature on a physical aspect, is however an average actress and the scenes that deal with emotions are spoiled -this is rather surprising considering Besson's job on The Professional- by a clumsy actor's direction. However cinematography by Thierry Arbogast is astounding and foreigners will find a wonderful black and white postcard of Paris as they'll see the movie. It is also regrettable that Besson didn't appeal to Eric Serra for the soundtrack. For Besson's defense, it must be said, I think, that his staff and himself have worked in such constraining circumstances to shot in Paris that the number of shots was counted and couldn't allow actors to give their full potential. This is the first time also that a director has full access to production and budget resources by himself so he can write a screenplay that does not have to be selected by instances like CNC allowing himself to direct a personal but too poorly "collaborative" project. Anyway, this is a film that has definitely to be seen.