For a long time, French cinema had the bias to choose to overlook the marginalized, the social misfits who have trouble to struggle and to fit in a society. In the nineties, some French filmmakers began to get interested in these categories of ill-fated ones as Erick Zonca's tale bears witness. His chronicle of these two friends facing the harsh economic, social realities together was bestowed with prizes in 1998, 1999, especially at the Cannes festival where it was one of the jury's favorites. French public and press specialized in cinema gave it an ovation and the film enjoys a favorable reputation abroad, rather rightly so.
The director's forte is to showcase and to assess the persona of his two young interprets. At first sight, they're a mismatched pair that everything opposes and brings together. Isabelle (Elodie Bouchez): a 20 year-old young woman who brims with energy and generosity, ready to accept any job not to get bogged down in poverty including to distribute advertising leaflets on roller skates dressed in "sandwich-woman". Beside her, Marie (Natacha Régnier), bilious, mercurial dissimilar to her sidekick (to put it mildly). Apart from the liking she feels for Isabelle and their friendship is a touch of light in this drab city, she's her complete antipode. She can't put up with her distressing condition, she's rather in bad terms with her mother. She even shows total egocentricity because she doesn't even go to a lot of trouble to visit her cousin Sandrine in a coma and whose mother died shortly after wards. A consequence to her profound discontentment and to her inability to come to terms with her social condition. Maybe an exit to this life for her would be to live with Chris, a rich kid with a more than comfortable living standards. She has a crush on him but the latter treats her like a ghostly girl.
Erick Zonca's chronicle is composed of two parts. The first half is nearly faultless and a prime one from every angle. The director tries to capture short-term moments of bliss when the two friends are together and there's a communicative "feel-good" vibe. Zonca also deftly eschews what could make caricatured some characters like the ruffian-like bouncers. The second part veers to a doom-laden turn which even if it serves the title of the film and Marie also makes it formulaic. From the moment when Marie is enamored of Chris, the audience has to expect the inevitable. Marie's love for Chris jeopardizes her friendship with Isabelle who is very aware that Marie's lover considers her as a casual lover and leads her up the garden path. So, almost adamant feuds break out between Isa and Marie who don't manage to calmly communicate face to face. Zonca steers his film according to what the audience expects and the poise that the film created in the first half is damaged and not well dovetailed as a whole. The interest tends to dwindle and Mr Zonca, I would have liked more unexpected, less easiness but fortunately the communicative vitality, the acting full of spontaneity of the two main actresses largely stop you from dismissing this piece of work.
I don't want to be a major spoiler and pour out the end. I will just say that it encompasses an upbeat, placating whiff thanks to a song discerningly chosen. "La Vie Rêvée Des Anges" is worth a watch thanks essentially to the two actresses whose performances boosted their careers. Natacha Régnier was venturesome to agree to hold difficult or trying roles later as in François Ozon's disquieting "les Amants Criminels" (1999).
The director's forte is to showcase and to assess the persona of his two young interprets. At first sight, they're a mismatched pair that everything opposes and brings together. Isabelle (Elodie Bouchez): a 20 year-old young woman who brims with energy and generosity, ready to accept any job not to get bogged down in poverty including to distribute advertising leaflets on roller skates dressed in "sandwich-woman". Beside her, Marie (Natacha Régnier), bilious, mercurial dissimilar to her sidekick (to put it mildly). Apart from the liking she feels for Isabelle and their friendship is a touch of light in this drab city, she's her complete antipode. She can't put up with her distressing condition, she's rather in bad terms with her mother. She even shows total egocentricity because she doesn't even go to a lot of trouble to visit her cousin Sandrine in a coma and whose mother died shortly after wards. A consequence to her profound discontentment and to her inability to come to terms with her social condition. Maybe an exit to this life for her would be to live with Chris, a rich kid with a more than comfortable living standards. She has a crush on him but the latter treats her like a ghostly girl.
Erick Zonca's chronicle is composed of two parts. The first half is nearly faultless and a prime one from every angle. The director tries to capture short-term moments of bliss when the two friends are together and there's a communicative "feel-good" vibe. Zonca also deftly eschews what could make caricatured some characters like the ruffian-like bouncers. The second part veers to a doom-laden turn which even if it serves the title of the film and Marie also makes it formulaic. From the moment when Marie is enamored of Chris, the audience has to expect the inevitable. Marie's love for Chris jeopardizes her friendship with Isabelle who is very aware that Marie's lover considers her as a casual lover and leads her up the garden path. So, almost adamant feuds break out between Isa and Marie who don't manage to calmly communicate face to face. Zonca steers his film according to what the audience expects and the poise that the film created in the first half is damaged and not well dovetailed as a whole. The interest tends to dwindle and Mr Zonca, I would have liked more unexpected, less easiness but fortunately the communicative vitality, the acting full of spontaneity of the two main actresses largely stop you from dismissing this piece of work.
I don't want to be a major spoiler and pour out the end. I will just say that it encompasses an upbeat, placating whiff thanks to a song discerningly chosen. "La Vie Rêvée Des Anges" is worth a watch thanks essentially to the two actresses whose performances boosted their careers. Natacha Régnier was venturesome to agree to hold difficult or trying roles later as in François Ozon's disquieting "les Amants Criminels" (1999).