House of Voices (2004) Saint Ange (original title)

Director:

Pascal Laugier

Writer:

Pascal Laugier

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 | Secret | Drawing | Suture | Death Of Main Character

Cast

Virginie Ledoyen	...	Anna Jurin
Lou Doillon	...	Judith
Catriona MacColl	...	Francard
Dorina Lazar	...	Ilinca
Virginie Darmon	...	Mathilde
Jérôme Soufflet	...	Daniel
Marie Herry	...	Marie
Eric Prat	...	Le responsable des services sociaux
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Marin Chouquet	...	Alex
Christophe Lemaire	...	Un homme des services sociaux (uncredited)
Louis Thevenon	...	Un déménageur (uncredited)
Franck Vestiel	...	Man in Black (uncredited)

Directed by
Pascal Laugier

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Pascal Laugier

Produced by
Christophe Gans	....	producer
Emmanuel Gateau	....	consulting producer
Richard Grandpierre	....	producer
Vlad Paunescu	....	producer
Stephane Sperry	....	associate producer (as Stéphane Sperry)
Matthieu Warter	....	consulting producer

Original Music by
Joseph LoDuca

Cinematography by
Pablo Rosso

Film Editing by
Sébastien Prangère

Production Design by
Bertrand Seitz

Art Direction by
Mathieu Lauffray
Calin Papura

Set Decoration by
Adrian Popa

Costume Design by
Nathalie Guermah

Makeup Department
Laurent Blanchard	....	key hair stylist
Catalin Ciutu	....	hair stylist
Letitia Ghenea	....	assistant makeup artist
Alexis Kinebanyan	....	special makeup effects artist
Benoît Lestang	....	special makeup effects artist
Emmanuel Pitois	....	special makeup effects artist
Valerie Thery-Hamel	....	key makeup artist (as Valérie Théry)

Production Management
Cristian Bostanescu	....	production manager
Nicolas Dancel	....	assistant unit manager
Frédéric Doniguian	....	production manager
Edouard Dupont	....	unit production manager
Elena Valeanu	....	unit manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Jerome Desvignes	....	second assistant director
Julie Grumbach	....	second assistant director
Elise McLeod	....	third assistant director
Elise McLeod	....	trainee assistant director
Franck Vestiel	....	first assistant director

Art Department
Daniel Alexandru	....	sculptor
Cristian Baluta	....	lead man
Bogdan Bostanaru	....	art department assistant
Crina Cartos	....	construction coordinator (as Crina Cartas)
Loïc Chavanon	....	assistant art director
Nadia Cherouk	....	set dresser
Clément Colin	....	second assistant art director
Eric Delfour	....	assistant art director
Costin Dragan	....	art department assistant
Florin Gavrila	....	scenic painter
Valérie Guilbaud	....	assistant art director
Gilles Lebovici	....	property master
Liviu Marcu	....	sculptor
Sabo Marian	....	art department assistant (as Marian Sabo)
Eugen Marinescu	....	art department assistant
Ilie Mihai	....	construction foreman (as Mihai Ilie)
Florin Mirghes	....	art department assistant
Yves Montagne	....	storyboard artist
Dan Munteanu	....	sculptor
Mircea Onisor	....	assistant art director
Victoria Rusu	....	painter
Christian Simion	....	construction foreman (as Cristi Simion)
Gina Stancu	....	painter
Mugur Szabo	....	property master
Samuel Teisseire	....	assistant art director
Marie-Claire Vidal	....	assistant art director
Olivier Colat-Parros	....	sculptor: animals (uncredited)

Sound Department
Stéphane Albinet	....	boom operator
Philippe Amouroux	....	sound re-recording mixer
Assia Dnednia	....	assistant foley artist (as Assia Zipper)
Alain Féat	....	dialogue editor
Denis Jaillet-Marsigny	....	sound recordist
Gwennolé Le Borgne	....	sound editor
Jean-Marcel Milan	....	sound
Radu Nicolae	....	boom operator
Alexis Place	....	assistant sound editor
Jean-Alexandre Villemer	....	sound recordist

Special Effects by
Daniel Parvulescu	....	special effects foreman
Ionel Popa	....	special effects makeup artist

Visual Effects by
Christophe Belena	....	scan and printing: Duboicolor
Mélodie Boileau	....	visual effects coordinator
Lucie Bories	....	digital compositor
Seb Caudron	....	visual effects supervisor: def2shoot
Nicolas Daniel	....	video operator: Duboicolor
Rip Hampton O'Neil	....	technical director: Duboicolor
Laurent Herveic	....	visual effects artist
Abdel Ali Kassou	....	scan & printing DuboiColor
Michel Kinfoussia	....	digital effects artist
Karine Marchandou	....	I/O manager
Sebastien Rame	....	digital artist
Stéphane Soubiran	....	visual effects

Stunts
Ion Carangea	....	stunts

Camera and Electrical Department
Erwan Becquelin	....	grip
Franck-Norman Bihi	....	gaffer
Nicu Botarleanu	....	electrician
Sandrine Boucher	....	trainee assistant camera
Calin Catalin	....	gaffer (as Catalin Calin)
François Comparot	....	key grip
Franck Coquet	....	electrician
Gigi Dumitrescu	....	focus puller (as Gigel Dumitrescu)
Eugen Dumitru	....	grip
Joseph Emiélot	....	grip
Samuel Fisher	....	grip
David Frak-Lauer	....	assistant camera
Michel Galtier	....	focus puller: main camera
Catalin Grigoras	....	electrician
Bogdan Holbura	....	video assist operator
Marcu Ion	....	electrician (as Ion Marcu)
Dan Lita	....	electrician
Stefan Mangir	....	assistant camera
Luis Peralta	....	gaffer
Ionut Perianu	....	assistant camera (as Ion Perianu)
Sandu Polu	....	grip
Gabi Postascu	....	key grip (as Gabi Postasu)
Estelle Ruet	....	still photographer
Gilbert Seybald	....	gaffer
George Stan	....	electrician

Casting Department
Dan Berthier	....	casting: children

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Elena Fratila	....	assistant costume designer
Aurelia Ivascu	....	wardrobe assistant

Editorial Department
Aurélie Laumont	....	color timer
Christophe Pinel	....	assistant editor
Charlotte Teillard D'Eyry	....	assistant editor

Music Department
Scott Davidson	....	music engineer

Transportation Department
Bobby Barbacioru	....	driver
Eugen Dinca	....	transportation coordinator

Other crew
Alain Bertheau	....	assistant to unit production manager
Patrick Boshart	....	location scout
Daniel Cariou	....	location scout
Mathilde Cukierman	....	location scout
Clara Jacobs	....	production assistant (as Clara Gheorghiu)
Jérémy Jacobs	....	assistant to unit production manager
Nathalie Lampre	....	administrator
Ruxandra Popescu	....	production accountant
Bernard Savin Pascaud	....	location scout
Pierre Selinger	....	production attorney
Bogdan Stefanescu	....	location manager
Ioana Stoica	....	production assistant
Valentine Traclet	....	script supervisor
Doris Yoba	....	production assistant

Thanks
Oana Paunescu	....	special thanks

Production Companies

• Castel Film Romania
• Eskwad
• France 3 Cinéma
• H Factory

Distributors

• Bazuca Films (2007) (Chile) (theatrical)
• Pioneer Films (2006) (Philippines) (theatrical)
• Shaw Organisation (2005) (Singapore) (theatrical)
• ARP Sélection
• Albatros Film (2009) (Japan) (DVD)
• Compagnia Distribuzione Internazionale (CDI) (2004) (Italy) (all media)
• Focus Features
• IPA Asia Pacific (2004) (Thailand) (all media)
• IPA Asia Pacific (2004) (Vietnam) (all media)
• IPA Asia Pacific (2009) (Japan) (DVD)
• LW Editora (2011) (Brazil) (DVD)
• Movie Bank (2006) (Netherlands) (DVD) (rental)
• New Select (2009) (Japan) (DVD)
• Quasar Films (Argentina)
• Scanbox Entertainment (2006) (Finland) (DVD)
• Universal Studios (2005) (USA) (DVD) (as House of Voices)

Other Companies

• All Deco International  sculptures

Also Known As:

"Saint Ange" - France (original title)
"St. Ange" - Philippines (English title) (poster title)
"Mother" - Japan (English title), Japan (English title) (DVD 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

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

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

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: About ten minutes into the movie Jurin Anna is exiting the locker room area. When she exits she places her two bags of luggage on the floor, while wearing black leather gloves. She then turns to close the door with no gloves on, and once the door is closed she turns and picks her bags back up with her black leather gloves on again.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Viande d'origine française (2009) (TV)

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