Angels

Alice Nellis a vraiment fait tout ce qu’elle a pu, ça se sent dans toutes les prises. Malheureusement, le roman de Michal Viewegh, délicieux à lire et de grande qualité, est infilmable. Même si le jeu des acteurs – humains et anges – est précis et que la BO et la photographie sont réussies, l’intrigue reste trop explicite et s’avère rapidement ennuyeuse, voire rébarbative. Je reconnais que la mission était particulièrement difficile, mais la voie de la suggestion ou de la métaphore aurait peut-être été plus judicieuse, par moments, que d’être trop littéral. Je suis déçu, mais j’admire malgré tout l’initiative et les efforts que le tournage a dû demander. (23/02/2015)

I liked it despite all the issues that I could look for (and find). High-quality acting performances by almost everyone involved (especially Bolek Polívka and Klara Melíšková), believable emotions and sentiment on the edge, skillful direction and excellent music by Michal Novinski, undoubtedly the most talented contemporary (Czecho)Slovak film music composer. The message of the film is: live, live, live, and don't waste your time on stupid things when you don't know how long it will last. I agree. (17/04/2017)

It almost looks like the film by Alice Nellis was inspired by the movie "Wings of Desire," but it tried to make it more audience-friendly, like "City of Angels" (a remake of the former). In the end, however, it turned out to be a film with occasionally well-acted characters, but overall suffers from the problem of boredom, where in the end you realize that it's actually about nothing. (25/05/2016)

It’s not a bad movie, even though I usually struggle with movie adaptations of Michal Viewegh’s books. However, this one did not bother me. On the contrary, I liked the realistic part of the movie, dominated by both Klára Melíšková and Boleslav Polívka, and the abstract part of it in the form of angels, who are more or less just observing. I don’t know the original book and after watching this film I don’t even intend to read it. On the other hand, I have to admit that Alice Nellis clearly did a great job filming it. Some moments were really interesting, and I thought that I don’t usually see moments like that in Czech movies. However, it was worse with the overly complicated finale, which I don’t mind with other films of this type, but here it bordered on absurd. You usually picture angels in some way, but I could never imagine that they would make a deal like they did here. Well, now I can. (07/01/2016)

Alice Nellis has delivered a skillfully shot absurdist Viewegh-esque substance with an equally absurd cast. At first glance, it works as a very mature endeavor. The Praguers enjoy less typical views of their homeland, and the cast is paradoxically compact (even Klára Melíšková is not as terrible as usual). However, the subject is really odd. (08/10/2014)