Saint Ange (2004)

Director:

Pascal Laugier

Writer:

Pascal Laugier (writer)

Release Date:

23 June 2004 (France)

Genre:

Drama | Fantasy | Horror | Mystery

Tagline:

You're staying here alone? Are you sure?

Plot:

In 1958, in the French Alp, the young servant Anna Jurin arrives in Saint Ange Orphanage to work with...

Plot Keywords:

Orphanage | Mirror | Shower Room | Tap | Foetus

Cast

Virginie Ledoyen	...	Anna Jurin
Lou Doillon	...	Judith
Catriona MacColl	...	Francard
Dorina Lazar	...	Helenka
Virginie Darmon	...	Mathilde
Jérôme Soufflet	...	Daniel
Marie Herry	...	Marie
Eric Prat	...	Le responsable des services sociaux
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Marin Chouquet	...	Alex

Also Known As:

House of Voices (International: English title) (USA) (DVD title)
Sanatorium (France) (working title)
St. Ange (Philippines: English title) (poster title)

MPAA:

Rated R for some nudity and disturbing images.

Runtime:

France:98 min | Philippines:99 min

Country:

France

Language:

French | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Certification:

Finland:K-15 | Philippines:PG-13 | Malaysia:18SG | Malaysia:U (cut) | UK:15 | USA:R | France:-12 | Singapore:NC-16 | Singapore:PG (edited version) | Australia:MA

Filming Locations:

Bucharest, Romania

Company:

Castel Film Romania

Trivia:

In Mexico the film was released with the title "El Convento" ("The Convent") as the action happens in an orphanage. In fact, you can see only two nuns in the movie

Goofs:

Continuity: When Anna and Judith are trying to escape from Helenka, Anna wraps only her right hand in paper to break the mirror, seconds later both of her hands have the protection to avoid cutting herself.

Soundtrack:

I'm in the mood for love

Vaccum movie with some effective silly scenes.

First off, this is supposed to come out as a treat for fans of Fulci's The Beyond (it even features the return of its star Catriona MacColl) and his other gloomy films. So it's got nice locations (romanian studios), pretty minimal as the whole movie takes place in a great mansion supposed to be a WWII orphanage, its narrowing woods and cellars. Cast is pretty top notch with kinky Virginie Ledoyen (L'Eau Froide, La Cérémonie, La fille seule - her only good movies in my opinion - The Beach) and wacko Lou Doillon (Jane Birkin's daughter - one of the most irritating actress to come out of french cinema lately, but physically disturbing and therefore probably appropriate for this movie!).

Beautiful photography, gloomy atmosphere, weird and nasty children (kinda reminiscent of the evil ones in Cronenberg's The Brood, but not really either), derelict locations, potential scream queens, this movie shows good production values but sadly remains pretty lazy storywise. I won't describe the story too much, but after a pretty classy/classic (easy) hour of ghost induced story, the movie goes wacko and tries to become a bit disturbing. Unfortunately, even if the scenery and filming shows you some very weird and dare I say effective clinical & morbid images (the only part giving the movie a little of its own personality), those images bears no real depth and fall flat in utter stupidity! So even though I admire the plastic quality of the last half hour, I remain highly skeptical in its capacity to convey an interesting story falling back on its feet without relying on weirdness because the lazy writer(s?) have no real vision of the story as a whole. Also, the twist revelation about the cats killer's identity is really lame. Sadly, another example of France incapacity to produce thoughtful and provocative fantasy...

Think a mixture of Furie's "The Entity", Robert Wise's "The Haunting" with Fulci's "The Beyond" and Chris Cunningham's clinical imagery.

Just one's opinion.

4/10