Angel (The)
Original Title
El Ángel- Director: Luis Ortega
- Writer: Luis Ortega; Sergio Olguín; Rodolfo Palacios
- Producer: Agustín Almodóvar; Pedro Almodóvar
CGiii Comment
How can you like someone so horrible? Well, Lorenzo Ferro pulls it off with a spell-binding performance.
How can someone so beautiful be so bad? Well, Lorenzo Ferro has the face, the charm and the talent...to convince...anything is possible! He adopts a certain laissez-faire approach to murder...so cold-hearted...but, the master-stroke is mixing the callous with the calm. Murder, here, is nothing but pragmatic.
The big question that Luis Ortega asks is: Criminality, nature or nurture? His answer is loud and - unequivocally - clear...and, considering this is based upon actual events, his answer will surprise many. Blaming it on the parents is always the easy option...not here, there are catalysts for this here criminality that will get those latent psychological brain-cells working. Getting in with the wrong crowd is part...but, not the whole parcel. Pin-pointing psychologists will - surely - get themselves into a tizzy with this one...because, whether they like it or not...Carlos is a bad boy, pure and simple.
He's young, he's goodlooking, he's bright, he's sociable...he got-it-all man! Not your typical serial killer...and that's what makes him so alluring!
Beside the murders and robberies...there's a love-story of the unrequited kind...introduce hurt, heartbreak and vulnerability and Carlos becomes a three-dimensional cause for empathy. What?!? Surely not!!! Indeed you do...you care...and that's down to actor and director working in perfect harmony. It's - bizarre as it seems - an absolute joy to watch.
Soundtrack, support and cinematography simply add to the mesmerising effect that Luis Ortega has created.
It's not pleasant, it's definitely uncomfortable...it's intelligent, challenging, thought-provoking filmmaking and it's up there among the best Argentinian films ever made...quite possibly, at the very top!
Trailer...
The(ir) Blurb...
Buenos Aires, 1971. Carlitos (Lorenzo Ferro) is a seventeen-year-old with movie star swagger, blond curls and a baby face. As a young boy, he coveted other people’s things, but it wasn’t until his early adolescence that his true calling — to be a thief — manifested itself. When he meets Ramon at his new school, Carlitos is immediately drawn to him and starts showing off to get his attention. Together they will embark on a journey of discovery, love and crime. Killing is just a random offshoot of the violence, which continues to escalate until Carlitos is finally apprehended. Because of his angelic appearance, the press dubs Carlitos “The Angel of Death.” Showered with attention because of his beauty, he becomes an overnight celebrity. Altogether, he is believed to have committed over forty thefts and eleven homicides.
Cast & Characters
Chino Darín;
Cecilia Roth;
Luis Gnecco;
Malena Villa as Marisol / Magdalena;
Peter Lanzani;
Mercedes Morán;
William Prociuk;
Daniel Fanego;
Lorenzo Ferro as Carlos Robledo Puch