Rags to kitsches

>>François Ozon’s Angel is a lavish, affected melodrama about a besotted novelist

by MARK SLUTSKY

The stylistically promiscuous François Ozon, whose films have ranged from a self-consciously stagey adaptation of a Fassbinder play (Gouttes d’eau sur pierres brûlantes) to a ’50s-style, Cukor-esque murder mystery (8 femmes) to a sexy, formal, twisty exploration of a writer’s obsessions (Swimming Pool) brings together many of his fixations in his latest, Angel. Based on the 1957 novel The Real Life of Angel Deverell by Elizabeth Taylor (no, not that Elizabeth Taylor—the English writer), Angel is another Technicolor-flavoured throwback à la 8 femmes, all lush sets, bright colours and extravagant costumes.

Set in the England of the early 20th century, the film stars Romola Garai (Atonement) as Angel, a wild, precocious young woman who longs to escape her beginnings as the daughter of a humble grocer (Jacqueline Tong) through the power of her imagination. Though not learned, or even well-read, she declares herself a novelist, and to everyone’s surprise, becomes a sensation through the offices of her faithful publisher Théo (Sam Neill).

A passionate, driven and not entirely likeable personality, Angel inspires devotion in some, like her devoted fan and secretary Nora (Lucy Russell) and antipathy in others, like Nora’s brother Esmé (Michael Fassbender). He’s an avant-garde painter, and naturally, Angel falls for him, and their romance is the basis of the film’s sweeping melodrama.

The style may be all Ozon, with kitschy affectations like rear-projection driving scenes and the bubbly pink titles that announce the film. But Angel really belongs to Garai, who gives a fearless, sometimes grating (but effectively so) performance.

Wide of eye, heaving of bosom, she really throws herself into the role and it’s hard to imagine another performer carrying it. Angel is such a bratty character to begin with that the fact that she’s so watchable is a real accomplishment on her part.

That said, you do have to wonder what the point of Angel really is. The story and the style are both so old-fashioned that you could imagine this being a movie for old ladies with little dogs in their handbags and I wonder if that’s Ozon’s intention, because if he’s trying to subvert anything here, it’s very subtle.

Angel opens this
Friday, June 6

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