jcappy Isa is truly the central character in "Dreamlife of Angels." She's most attune to her own memory, the meaning of love, and the social world she inhabits. And most critically, she has an instinctual grasp of gender which seems to grow with age and experience, rather than be stifled as is the more typical path with young women.What Isa does is create connections with the female world. She's for women, seemingly all the women she comes in contact with, no matter their age, relationship, or condition. She's barely enamored of men because those she has known invariably have damaged the women she has known. I speak of her mother, of Marie's mother, of Sandrine's mother, of Sandrine herself, and of course, her dear house partner, Marie Thomas.Of course, these connections do not a community make, except perhaps in Isa's mind. They are there because they provide her with the answers that allow her to persist with her difficult life, and assuage the isolation that the severing actions of men in her women's lives have caused. And these strands remain part of her life's memory as certainly as the scar on her eyebrow. In a sense, they re-member hers their dis-membered selves.This is her story. This is what she's telling the viewer, I think. Her life speaks of being alone, poor, and without status and why that is and what she does to counter it in her own limited way. She is guided by this shared reality with women. Even by those women she is barely made aware of like her clothing factory boss's daughter who's in Boston making police and military uniforms. They are all evoked in her knowing expressiveness and words whether to actual or referred to women. All this helps set her apart from the world of compulsory heterosexuality that plagues her dear companion Marie Thomas.I suppose there must be many reasons why Marie is so lacking in Isa's perception despite their very similar backgrounds, but we almost grasp this as a fact at the moment they meet. In part, it may be her physical appearance: blond, blue-eyed, tall, waif-like, and titillating boyish, which satisfies the narrow definition imposed by males as sexy. Or it might be because she smokes grass and cigarettes and needs to be out at night. Whatever, the fact that Marie is more feisty and fierce with men than is Isa, does not mean that she is less attuned to them, or more confused by them than her new chum. Because along with the oppressive and fatalistic cultural factors that drive her destiny, she does herself push the envelope as if she had little of herself to protect. Even with the relatively harmless, Charlie, she says to Isa: "I screwed that guy twice; I don't know why. I'm stupid." So, enter Chris and his cunning--and cutting, entry into her vulnerable self. He sees right through her defenses from the start, or he would not take on the task of taming her. His possessing her is the end to what self-possession she has mustered during her working class, troubled life. She is his and can no longer relate to Isa or anything she says as regards Chris. She speaks for Chris; and Isa's counter influence over her, which made little impression on her affair with Charlie, is now dead. Even Chris's aggressive, violent sexuality becomes defensible in Marie's eyes, as does his male superiority. As the spiral of sexism is played out at her expense.So chalk up one more loss for Isa to the masculinist world within which she must function. She will survive this one more menacing and tragic entanglement, but be no more along in life than from the point she began it. In film's end she is back in the same kind of female-labor factory where she met Marie, her tenacity intact, and her female chorus physically and collectively (via Isa's remembrance) upholding her spirited and enduring life. But the viewer cannot but wonder: how long can she on loving without expecting any love in return?

Jordiuly There are people who have not the lot to be born in a good family, with enough income to give to their children a life without difficulties and guarantee them a promising future. The people without this lot pass their days dreaming about a better life, a life in which don't have the need to search every night a bed to sleep, a life with a permanent job that assure enough income to don't care about the basic needs, a life to live not to suffer. But there are people able to keep going ahead, optimist people who can wake up every day with a smile, who are able to enjoy every little moment. But other people cannot take out from their mind the life that they want to have, the life with which they dream about every day. They do everything to reach that life, but they don't get it and they sink in a deeper pessimism that makes them live with sadness and disillusion. "La vie rêvée des anges" shows us the day by day of two young women in this situation. They either try to reach their dreamed life either try to enjoy the life they got. It is an excellent human drama, highly recommended to those who like the genre. Just the brilliant interpretation of both actresses makes the movie a must-see. In addition, the soundtrack is amazing; you must wait until the end of the movie to hear the unique song but it worth the wait.

tobiemh 'La Vie Rêvée Des Anges' set in Lille, France, is in essence a film depicting the beginning and ending of a friendship. We are first introduced to one of the two main characters as a homeless, young girl who has come to Lille, looking for a friend. Hearing that the friend has left Lille, she has no choice but to survive on the street. She is fortunate to find a job at a sewing factory, where she meets Marie (the second main character). This friendship, albeit rather reluctant at first on the part of Marie is the basis for the storyline of the film. As the film progresses we see that it is not Marie who is the stronger person, and the sensible decision maker, but in fact it is Isa, the girl who goes from job to job with a very care-free attitude to life. Isa proves to be realistic, perspicacious and anxious to open Marie's eyes to her self-destruction and in a way opens the audience's eyes. Marie's poor decision of not being able to refuse the man to whom she is attracted, eventually leads to a calamitous relationship where Chriss uses her and this in turn leads to the outcome of the film and the breaking of the friendship between Isa and Marie.The director purposefully uses hand-held cameras, natural lighting, real and natural sets and few sound effects and music (the only music track is in the last couple of minutes) to create the film's intended atmosphere. In a way this dogma-style film-making could be a way to emphasise the freedom in the lives of the two main characters. Together, Isa and Marie enjoy not conforming to the everyday roles of society. The natural way by which the characters live their lives is conveyed to the audience through the use of natural techniques in the filming itself. And perhaps the only music track to appear in the film, is a way of creating a dream- like (giving the film its title) atmosphere at the end of the film, in contrary to the natural techniques of filming which have been up to this point. The death of Marie could possible be a way of showing us the strength in Isa, who is able to carry on her life and find another job, just as before, or in turn it could just be that there are only two choices in their lives – to conform (like Isa in the end) or not to conform to society (essentially like Marie). Having said that, perhaps another intention of using this natural-like film technique is so that the director does not judge the lives of the two characters, but instead leaves it up to the audience to be the judge.From the aggressive and homicidal nature of Marie's character, to the calm and untroubled life of Isa, these contrasts placed together in a film have a great chance of leaving an impact on the viewer, and all in all make it an good and engaging film to watch.

dancopp Yes, the acting is superb, both the leads: the footloose, free-spirit Isa and the angry and erratic Marie. Also the supporting cast: the fat-boy bouncer and the rich-boy cad.What's available to young women cast out of the nest? How does one survive the winters as a homeless person in the northern France? Mind-numbing factory work is available. But where to live, and how to find the community that homo sapiens need to be mentally healthy? We learn what it takes to survive. Isa has great resources; she's an extrovert and has a genuine concern for others. She finds community with a most unlikely person. Poor Marie, wanly beautiful, is withdrawn and suspicious; one must intrude forcibly to get beyond her defenses. And yet she's careless. So faced with the same chances, one woman finds psychic sustenance while the other stumbles into despair.