Despite the numerous flaws of this movie, and unless one has half a brain or very poor taste, it's impossible to dislike this little gem.
Jane Campion has a real talent to coregraph the character's inner worlds on screen, and reveal them openly to the viewer. It's a very strange gift as it almost never uses obvious "tricks", I mean I find it difficult to explain the way she does this. The use of emotionally manipulative music is obvious, of course, but it doesn't even bother me, on the contrary I let myself go, which is amazing considering my allergy to manipulative scores. But anyway this use of music does NOT explain the emotional power of "Angel" or "Piano", it's only a contribution.
With all its weaknesses (mainly in the second act, in which the editing and continuity are awkward), "Angel" is another proof that cinema is indeed an art, and that making "art" cinema doesn't mean making artsy-fartsy movies for the snobbish. Here what we have as a result is real poetic power, not intellectual performance (though the latter was obviously needed to reach the goal..).
I'll always prize filmmakers that are able to put so much heart in what they do. We badly need them.
Oh and now that I've seen this one, I won't ever look at Jackson's derivative "Heavenly creatures" with the same awe.
Jane Campion has a real talent to coregraph the character's inner worlds on screen, and reveal them openly to the viewer. It's a very strange gift as it almost never uses obvious "tricks", I mean I find it difficult to explain the way she does this. The use of emotionally manipulative music is obvious, of course, but it doesn't even bother me, on the contrary I let myself go, which is amazing considering my allergy to manipulative scores. But anyway this use of music does NOT explain the emotional power of "Angel" or "Piano", it's only a contribution.
With all its weaknesses (mainly in the second act, in which the editing and continuity are awkward), "Angel" is another proof that cinema is indeed an art, and that making "art" cinema doesn't mean making artsy-fartsy movies for the snobbish. Here what we have as a result is real poetic power, not intellectual performance (though the latter was obviously needed to reach the goal..).
I'll always prize filmmakers that are able to put so much heart in what they do. We badly need them.
Oh and now that I've seen this one, I won't ever look at Jackson's derivative "Heavenly creatures" with the same awe.