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The Dreamlife of Angels

The Dreamlife of Angels

List Price: $27.95
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent slice of life
Review: I watched this movie one night - late - after midnight. It is an engrossing slice of life of two French girls trying to make sense of their lot in life.

Cerys - you need to watch this movie - I dedicate it to you.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Totally engrossing film. A must see.
Review: If you like characted driven films you will love Bouchez and Regnier in this little masterpiece. You don't have to speak French to be puled in and captivated by the story, the acting and the remarkable first time directing of Erick Zonca.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Just wonderfull
Review: Read other reviews for all the details you want about the story, the plot, the psycholigal background etc, etc...

But please trust me on this one. Buy it and you'll love it. Never seen such a dramatic ending to a movie.

Zonca proved to be one of the best directors in the world. If only he would have a hollywood budget....

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Therapy anyone?
Review: The characters really need therapy. Their outlooks on life are disturbing and often lack common sense and logic. As much as this usually frustrates me, I enjoyed the movie. I enjoyed the scenes with the girl in the coma and just the joie-de-vivre of Isa. Marie is a total nutcase. Their relationship issues are really the moral of the story although the film focuses on it only as a tertiary element. I believe that I took away some good lessons from this movie in regards to relationships.
I also enjoyed this this movie visually. Isa is adorable and I like the cinematography and colors. There is a very "real" aspect to the movie that helps you to understand the characters and their situations. It was also just interesting to see another way of life.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: TEARS AND TRIUMPH
Review: THE GREATEST FRENCH LANGUAGE FILM IN MANY YEARS.
LOVED IT LOVED IT LOVED IT. 'GIRL MEETS GIRL' & ONE HAS
EVERY REASON TO LOOK ON THE DARK SIDE. A FEW TWISTS
LEAD TO A GRAND EPISODE OF LIFE AFFIRMING SURVIVAL.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Uneven, but worthwhile
Review: There are some marvelous things here. Elodie Bouchez, for one. She's captivating as the impetuous young woman who survives an aimless, impoverished existence by keeping herself open and embracing the everyday pleasures of life. Natacha Regnier, too, is excellent, though, by the end of the film, she's asked to do little more than skulk about anxiously and burst into screaming fits. The scenes between Bouchez and the comatose victim of a car crash are as lovely as anything ever put on celluloid--they are the heart of the film and they are splendid, indeed. Too bad, then, that there's so much excess here, so many overwrought scenes between Regnier and her contemptable lover, so much exhuasted brooding and grating ennui. At times, the rather sado-masochistic romance borders on the hackneyed, if not the laughable--compare it with, for instance, the lamentable "School of Flesh" and what you'll find is that the French have made a cottage industry out of depicting inexplicable cases of sexual obsession. Indeed, I felt like I'd watched the scenes between the mismatched lovers before, which is not something that I could say about the achingly beautiful hospital encounters or the charming banter between the two heroines and the club bouncers they befriend. As much as I wanted to love this film--and as much as I do love the performances and many of the scenes--I felt a bit let down by it. The director shows enormous promise and the two actresses are major talents, but, in the end, the whole does not equal the sum of its parts.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: life and its lessons
Review: This film about the lives of two women and their friendship is poignant and riveting. The acting, by Elodie Bouchez and Natacha Regnier is extraordinary and at times one feels these are not characters but real people. This winner of many awards is filmed beautifully with patches of brilliant color and is a stunning debut by writer/director Erick Zonca. This is not only about friendship but about self-destruction vs. the will to survive. Isa (Bouchez) has such a gentle but strong soul, and Marie (Regnier), is the violent but weak one. You won't forget this moving story of their lives.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: True life captured on film. Eloudie Bouchez shines!
Review: This film is an honest look at the lives of two blue-collar twenty-something single women who scavenge out an existence in a French town. Isa and Marie flesh out two divergent personalities who attempt to live their lives on minimum wage.... when they have work. Isa is "alive" and caring and making the most of her precarious life, while Marie is hardened and desperately wanting something better. Marie's tragic desperation leads her into relationships that plummet her self-esteem, and her downward spiral "separates" her from the people who really care about her. Although the climax may seem abrupt to some viewers, sadly, it is a very "real" way to wrap up an ending. This film reveals the day to day existence of two single young women in working class Europe.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: This angelic title is for two lost souls.
Review: This French subtitled movie is very talky. So if you are expecting Armaggeddon, forget about it. It is also facinating and deserved the accolades that it received at Cannes.

It is about Isa who comes to an Industrial French Town, looking for her friend, who has skipped off to Amsterdam. With no money, she gets a job at a sewing plant, but is immediately fired for being pretty much incompetent. She meets Marie, who has a flat that she is squatting in (the owners: Mother and Daughter were in a car accident and in the hospital), allows Isa to join her.

Isa is shown as flighty, an airhead with no values and Marie as the tough, no nonsense woman. By the end of the movie, when you go through 3 weeks with the roommates, you realize that Isa is actually a sensitive soul and Marie is a insecure woman who needs a man to provide her with definition of identity.

The movie is based on their relationship and relationships in general. They do not have a long, steady friendship, but a heated friendship that is doomed from the beginning. Many of us have this type of transitionary close friendships, whether it is with a roommate in college, friends at camp or with teammates on the football team. During that moment, you are closer than family, but as time goes on, you go on your way and become separated...sometimes never to talk again.

The Dreamlife of Angels takes that to more extreme consequences but they deal with apart of human nature that is facinating and affects many of us. It is a beautiful movie (despite their drab surroundings) and Lodie Bouchez (who plays Isa) is truly an angel....Rating: B+

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A beautiful, touching movie
Review: This is a beautiful, sad, touching movie. The acting is exceptional. The directing amazing. I tend to disagree with another reviewer's depiction of the relationship between Marie and the rich boy. It was true in that Marie was so concerned with escaping poverty and the negative connotations associated with it that she was willing to sell herself short in an effort to escape. Everything, in her mind, hinged on making the relationship work -- she had nothing else, or so she thought. Don't miss this film. Another French gem.


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