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Angel-A
Year - 2005
Studio - Europa Corp.
Stars - Jamel Debbouze, Rie Rasmussen, Gilbert Melki, Serge Riaboukine
Director - Luc Besson
Writing Credits - Luc Besson
Music - Anja Garbarek
Synopsis
André (Jamel Debbouze) is at one of the lowest points in his life. He's a Moroccan-born American in Paris who's run up big gambling debts with mobsters, and they are threatening to kill him. They dangle him from the Eiffel Tower until he promises to come up with 40,000 Euros by the end of the day. Desperately realizing the hopelessness of his situation, he tries to get himself arrested and confined to the safety of a jail, but the police will have none of it.
He decides to end his life by jumping from a bridge into the Seine. But, as he's poised on the edge, he sees a beautiful, blonde woman also preparing to take the plunge. She (Rie Rasmussen) falls into the river, and André follows to save her. After he drags her to safety, she says that her name is Angela and surprises him by offering to remain with him and help him with his plight. She accompanies him to a mobster that André owes money to, and convinces the thug to forgive the loan. Later, in a crowded nightclub, she takes men into the restroom after each of them pays André a thousand Euros. He is torn between his own moral values and the financial rescue she provides (although he later learns that she was conning those men). After they pay off another major debt, André loses the rest of his money at the tracks by following a bogus tip.
Angela reveals to André that she is his guardian angel and has come to help him believe in himself. He, of course, is skeptical, so she reluctantly demonstrates her powers. As they walk through the streets of Paris, he tells her he has fallen in love with her, but she confides that she, too, feels something, but that she must return to her Heavenly home. As he continues to plead his love for her, her angel wings appear and she begins her ascent. But André grabs her legs and hangs on. His weight is too much for her, and they both plunge into the Seine below.
André crawls from the Seine, unable to locate Angela. He calls out for her over and over and, just as he believes he has lost her for good, she emerges from the water, her wings no longer attached, to remain on Earth with him.
Trailer
Angel-A was suggested as a Film Blanc by Jordan Benedict.