Angel Face (Vanessa Fihlo, 2018): France

Reviewed by Nicholas DeBruno. Viewed at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

Angel Face, directed by Vanessa Fihlo (Primitifs), is the story of a young girl abandoned by a reckless mother in her search for momentary pleasure in a man that she has just met. Confronted by this new yet familiar sense of solitude and loneliness. Our protagonist, Angel Face (Ayline Aksoy-Etaix),  in emulation of her mother turns to drinking in search of a warm embracing comfort that is meant to come from a mother not a bottle. Throughout the film the audience is forced to endure a myriad of poor decisions made by our protagonist without any recourse from an adult.

Despite the dark nature of the films subject matter the film keeps a pretty light and angelic style visually. This visual style serves as an interesting contrast to the depressing nature of the life that Angle Face is leading alone. This is further accentuated by the passivity of our protagonist in response to her rapidly changing social environment, whether that’s her closest friends abandoning her at her time of need or the pursuit of an unrequited father figure.

Throughout most of the film Ayline Aksoy-Etaix, Angel Face, has very few lines communicating to the audience mostly through her expressive face. Being as young as she is her performance was very good throughout a majority of the film. That being said, towards the end of the film she screams but while she is screaming she can’t keep a straight face and cracks a few smiles. This happens a few times throughout the film which is a symptom of using a child actor, but I think that overall she had a really good performance, especially in terms of her expressiveness.

One of my biggest problems with the film is the sequences in which Angel Face is drinking alcohol. My dislike for these sequences isn’t because I find them offensive, it’s because I find them unnecessary. There seems to be no weight attached to her drinking and there aren’t any real consequences. Similarly, I believe that these sequences mess with the films pacing, bringing the narrative and the mood of the film to a screeching halt to give screen time to an issue in Angel Face’s life that doesn’t seem to serve any greater purpose. This however is just a minor complaint and I found the rest of the film to be a really interesting look at a role reversal film if the roles being reversed are a mother and her daughter, Angel Face taking more care of her mother than her mother takes care of her. Despite the darker nature of the film I believe that a strong narrative supported by great performances, combined with a highly stylized visual makes this film worth the watch.