The Dreamlife of Angels

Isa arrives in Lille with a rucksack. She has no money; she tries selling postcards and finds work at a factory. She meets Marie there. Marie is staying in a flat; the woman who owns it and her daughter are in hospital after an accident and the place is empty. The two start living together. Isa finds the daughter's diary and starts reading it; then she goes to visit her. Marie takes up with a club owner. He is not interested in her and she cannot see it. The distance between the two women opens. Erick Zonca directs; it is his first feature. Élodie Bouchez plays Isa and Natacha Régnier plays Marie; Grégoire Colin and Patrick Mercado are in the cast. It is a French production, made in 1998. The two actors shared the best actress award at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. The film was named best film at the Césars in France. It was shot in real locations in Lille and the city is inside the narrative. The matter it treats is two ways of surviving; one makes connections, the other waits to be rescued. The narrative does not make poverty decorative; finding work, the rent and food run through it. The narrative does not idealise the friendship and neither woman can save the other. The line about the girl in hospital is its silent centre. The ending is hard and comes without preparation. Its limit is the watching; the narrative is slow, bleak, and the ending shattering. Who it is for: viewers who like French social drama and character films. Who it is not for: it is slow, heavy, and the ending bitter.