The Black Angel

A dreamlike, essayistic drift through foreign landscapes, mixing rapturous alienation with sober documentary glimpses, demanding patience and rewarding it with unease.

Directed by

Werner Schroeter

Genres

Drama

Starring

Magdalena Montezuma, Ellen Umlauf, Carlos De Muna

Overview

Two women, one from Boston and one from Germany, flee their empty lives to seek fulfillment in Mexico. The Black Angel is a transitional film; on one hand, it is a companion piece to Willow Springs, featuring two Schroeter regulars as characters far from home and in extremis; on the other hand, it is a film essay about Mexico and as such a harbinger of Schroeter’s nonfiction work to come. While he clearly shares his characters’ fascination with Mexico, the filmmaker also savages touristic exoticism – the otherworldly appearances of his protagonists and their rapturous reactions to new surroundings contrast sharply with the sober perceptions of Mexican history and economics featured in the documentary segments and in the prosaic presence of a non-professional cast of locals. - Harvard Film Archive

How it feels

Melancholic, eerie, satirical and earnest. Slow-burning and demanding.

About

Isolation, identity, class, colonialism

Content

Mild violence, sexual content and language. No gore.

Note

Written by AI, so it can be wrong. Full breakdown

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