MON ANGE (MY ANGEL)

France/Netherlands, 2004, 95 minutes, Colour.
Vanessa Paradis, Vincent Rottiers, Eduardo Noriega, Eric Ruf.
Directed by Serge Frydman.

Mon Ange, as the title suggests, is something of a mystical piece, a contemporary fable and fairy tale.

The setting is Holland, Amsterdam. A prostitute tries to help out a fellow worker and finds herself taking care of the woman’s son. He becomes dependent on her, she does her best to try to find someone to look after him. The film is a small road film, with two unlikely companions.

The basic story of Mon Ange was used in John Cassavetes’ film Gloria with Gena Rowlands befriending a little boy and trying to protect him from the Mafia. It was remade in the 1990s with Sharon Stone.

French singer Vanessa Paradis portrays a lonely prostitute who is asked by a fellow worker to take care of a little boy. She is wanting to reunite with her boyfriend and also to have a child. They go on an odyssey which leads them to the boyfriend – who has moved in with someone else.

The focus of the story is on the character of the boy as well as of the prostitute. There is a strong emotional feel about the whole film which makes it far more sympathetic than one might initially expect. Vincent Rottiers is very good as the boy. Spanish star Eduardo Noriega has a cameo role as Vanessa Paradis’ boyfriend.

The film is very gentle in its tone, emphasising human relationships and character rather than anything sensationalist. It is a strong portrait of a different kind of friendship. This is the first film to be directed by writer Serge Frydman.

1.A pleasing fable? A road film? A film about relationships?

2.The French/ Belgium/ Netherlands settings? The city, the prostitute shops? The railway stations? The open road, the seaside? Realistic sequences? Dream sequences? The musical score, the Elvis Presley songs? Tom Waite song? The musical score?

3.The title – and the reference to Collette as Billy’s angel, Billy as Collette’s angel?

4.The credits, the focus on Collette in the window? The potential clients? Her surly attitude? The audience not knowing her back-story? The phone call, Peggy and the request, her not wanting to follow through, Peggy’s insistence – and her being visualised ringing from jail? Her getting out, wanting Collette to find her son, bring him to the station? Collette and her reaction? With the clients? Getting the client to drive to the orphanage?

5.The orphanage, its severity, Collette and her unwillingness, the client in the car, prepared to take Billy to the station? Signing all the forms? The severe teachers? Finding Billy, the plaintive looks of the other children looking on? His initial reaction to her?

6.At the station, searching for Peggy? The audience already having seen Kovarski and his accosting Peggy, the brutality, learning that she was in hospital? Billy waiting at the station? His memories of his mother, the smaller clothes that she had brought? His waiting? Seeing Collette on the phone? Collette trying to leave him with the ticket seller?

7.Collette, her growing feelings that she would be looking after Billy, yet her determination to be away, her wanting to prove that she was pregnant for Romain? The information to go to the hospital? Peggy being dead? Her reaction? Her asking about a certificate for pregnancy? Billy and his watching his mother?

8.The encounter with Kovarski, his finding them in the hospital, her running away, leaving everything behind, escaping in the bus? Billy and his going in the bus? Kovarski and his frustration? Wanting the key – Peggy and the information about all the money she had earned and had kept for her son?

9.The developing character of Collette? Her age, experience, decision to be a prostitute, her clients? Her care for Billy? Her getting in the car after leaving him in the rain, returning? Going to the hotel, the room? The long sequences of their talking together? Billy and his question that if they went to sleep at the same time they would have the same dream?

10.Collette and her determination to take Billy back to the orphanage? Her dreaming and imagining it? The decision to go to the coast? Meeting Romain? Watching him, her rehearsed speech? Seeing that he had a wife and child? Her going to sit by the water?

11.The portrait of Billy, his age, his experience, his gentle manner? Travelling with Collette, wanting her to look after him, seeing her in the room, her looking for clients to pay the money? His going with her to the station, to the hospital, the death of his mother? Being on the tram, left in the rain? The hotel, the dreams? The dreams of intimacy with Collette? Going to the house, seeing Romain? Romain telling him to take care of Collette because she was sensitive?

12.Their sitting on the pier, the imagination, the dreams, their being together? Collette and her caring for Billy? Billy and his caring for Collette? Their future together?

13.The tender tone, the delineation of the characters? The picture of the relationship, the mutual dependence and guardian angelship of each other?