THE FACE OF AN ANGEL

UK, 2015, 98 minutes, Colour.
Daniel Bruehl, Kate Beckinsale, Carla Devingne.
Directed by Michael Winterbottom.

We all know of people who confronted by a television programme have no inhibitions about yelling back at the screen, venting their displeasure, challenging the film makers or the characters… It doesn’t usually happen in cinemas. But, The Face of an Angel is one of those films where audiences might feel that they would like to stop the film, talk with the director, getting him to clarify what he is on about and why he has made the film as he has. Since this can happen only at a Q&A session, audiences watching this film will have to have the debate within their own minds and feelings as the film goes on.

Michael Winterbottom has been making films for over 20 years, sometimes focusing on crime stories, Butterfly Kiss, The Killer Inside Me, sometimes doing realistic documentaries like The Road to Guantánamo or, more recently, supporting Russell Brand in his protest and indictment documentary against capitalism, especially in the UK and the banks, The Emperor’s New Clothes.

Why the desire to discuss with the director, to challenge, to tease out…? Because he has made a film about a widely known murder case in Italy, the death of Meredith Kercher, the trial of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, their being found guilty, then, on appeal, the judgement being quashed and their being set free. More recently, an appeal has upheld their guilt. There has been a television movie about the case.

While Michael Winterbottom is going back over the case, he takes the point of view that it was so much in the public eye, that there was so much sensationalism, tabloid headlines, all kinds of rumours flying about, that he preferred to look on the case from the outside, even though he has some brief reconstruction sequences, some brief looking at the accused during the trial, and a focus in retrospect on the victim.

This means that a lot of the film is about a filmmaker who has an ambition to make a film about the case but does not quite know how to do it. He is played by Daniel Bruehl, usually a convincing actor, but this time made to play a complicated and even contradictory character, creative with his filmmaking, friendly, separated from his wife, Skyping his daughter whenever possible, yet suddenly doing lines and lines and lines of cocaine, not scrupulous about sexual liaisons, sometimes writing bits of the screenplay, most times observing other people, writers, journalists, disapproving of their tabloid approach. So, one would like to ask the director, is it about him, fictionalised or real, his puzzles about how to make the film, his opting to make the film about a director and his problems, which may or may not be interesting, and he may or may not be sympathetic.

Kate Beckinsale plays an author, based on Barbie Latza Nadau who wrote about the trial and contributed to the screenplay. She is American, and in Rome, unhappily married, with children whom she looks after, going up to Siena each week to sit through the trial, helping the would-be filmmaker.

After, perhaps clarifying, some of these questions with Michael Winterbottom, audiences might like to pause the film again and ask him about his reliance on Dante, even a visit to his tomb, and his using The Divine Comedy as well as Documenti di Amore, for his interpretation about the young people, their coming together, the Inferno that the murder produced, the trial and its purging – and with the father of the victim giving a final eulogy talking about her going to heaven.

All that said, there are a number of interesting features of the film, with sequences mainly in Rome and Siena but also in London where the film director is based, going home, talking with his producers, planning the film. The question is: what is the audience left with as regards the characters, the drama, the would-be film that fails, (except that here it is), a perspective on the characters of the victim and the accused. Given the victim with the face of an angel, and visually beatified in her, this film is certainly very sympathetic towards Meredith Kercher and her family.

A puzzlement.

1. Audience knowledge of the original case, 2007, the victim, the accused, the court cases, the tabloid headlines, notoriety?

2. A film about a film, the audience response to this theme?

3. The opening, the face of an angel, Beatrice, Thomas’s daughter? Leading into the themes of Dante? The Divine Comedy, the three stages, Inferno, Purgatory, Heaven, and the three stages of the case? The introduction of Melanie, her being Beatrice and Thomas’s guide, the gift of the book about love for Thomas? The visit to Dante’s grave?

4. Audience response to the film about film, the focus on Thomas, his quest, puzzle about the case? His personal life, anger at his wife leaving him, marrying again, taking the daughter? His continued communication with his daughter, day by day? In the UK, the backers for the film, the meetings and discussions? Going to Italy, meeting the author, contact with her, going to the trial? Getting an idea, scraps of screenplay? His reaction to the exploitation of the case, meeting with the journalists, somewhat aloof? Critical? Their responses, their doing their job? His sexual needs, with the author, the guide? The increasing use of cocaine? The stopping of the film? How much insight for the audience?

5. Siena, the court, Rome and its scenic aspects? The feel of Italy? The supporting cast?

6. The situation, the evidence, reconstruction, Thomas and his not blaming them? Yet the question of why they were in court and reporting? The decision, the accused and freedom, the anger of the family?

7. The picture of Elizabeth, British, going to study, hopes, a young age, sharing the room with Jessica, her death and its brutality?

8. The possibilities and suspects? Jessica and her boyfriend, the African connections, the young man who was infatuated with her and the suggestion that he killed her, the interviews with Elizabeth’s boyfriend and his comments?

9. The writer, living in Italy, her work, her book, looking after her children, helping, going to Siena, the sexual encounter?

10. The journalists, their talk, clubs, Thomas’s reaction?

11. The writer with his script, his knowledge of the case, Thomas deceiving him, locked in the room, taking the knife, fighting with the author?

12. The police, the trial, their not being thorough, the lawyers, the speeches, the judges?

13. Subsequent knowledge, the new trial, the pair being found guilty?

14. Michael Winterbottom, the case, his interest in reactions, to be identified with Thomas?

15. The title, Elizabeth and the way she was photographed, her face, the father and the eulogy and identifying her as an angel, as in heaven?