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RELEASES Italy

Arthouse cinema lives on with Angel

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Besides Marco Martani’s Cemento armato [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, Italy has a second European film hitting screens today: Angel [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by François Ozon (see interview), in competition at this year’s Berlinale.

The director of 5x2 [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
was immediately drawn to the Elizabeth Taylor novel on which the film is based. For him, the story of Angel Deverell, who sublimates her modest writing skills to become a best-selling author and win the heart of the man she loves, is similar to the emotional arc of “many young women today, who in pursuing success have to create their own reality”.

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The film was initially set to star Nicole Kidman but she was replaced, however, by Romola Garai. “[Nicole] had accepted but we needed an actress who could be credible as Angel at 15. The change caused some problems with the producers but Romola was perfect, and allowed us to stay within budget,” says Ozon.

Profoundly anchored in Anglo-Saxon culture – “It’s impossible to transpose the novel to France, there are no women like Angel in our literary tradition” – the film is a tribute to 1930s and 40s Hollywood and is, above all, a new portrait of femininity by Ozon. Says the director: “Some directors identify with male characters, I prefer actresses. They’re more intelligent and take more risks than their counterparts”.

Who knows what Michael Fassbender thinks of this. The German-born, Irish-raised actor who plays Esmé, the painter with whom Angel falls madly in love, after having been one of King Leonidas’ 300 is currently shooting Hunger by Steve McQueen, about a group of IRA prisoners.

The film’s Rome press screening was also an occasion to sound a warning cry. “Arthouse cinema is disappearing in Italy,” said Cesare Petrillo, who with Vieri Razzini runs Teodora, the company distributing Angel on nearly 40 screens. His thinly veiled accusation is also aimed at independent distributors, who accept increasingly more Hollywood blockbusters in their line-ups.

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(Translated from Italian)

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