Angela (1995)

The ten year-old Angela and her little sister Ellie move to an old house in the countryside with her parents Mae and Andrew. Their mother has mental illness and has just left an institution... See full summary »

Director:

Rebecca Miller

Writer:

Rebecca Miller

Stars:

Miranda Rhyne, Charlotte Eve Blythe, Anna Levine

4 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Miranda Rhyne	...	Angela (as Miranda Stuart Rhyne)
Charlotte Eve Blythe	...	Ellie (as Charlotte Blythe)
Anna Levine	...	Mae (as Anna Thomson)
John Ventimiglia	...	Andrew
Ruth Maleczech	...	Sleepwalker
Vincent Gallo	...	Preacher
Garrett Bemer	...	Tom
Peter Facinelli	...	Lucifer
Hynden Walch	...	Darlene
Henry Stram	...	Man at Fair
Caitlin Hall	...	Anne (as Sara Caitlin Hall)
Frances Conroy	...	Anne's Mother (as Francis Conroy)
Gerard Lyons III	...	Anne's Father
Rodger L. Phillips	...	Frank
Io Tillett Wright	...	Sam

Storyline

The ten year-old Angela and her little sister Ellie move to an old house in the countryside with her parents Mae and Andrew. Their mother has mental illness and has just left an institution and her husband tries to keep the dysfunctional family together. Angela is an imaginative disturbed girl that might have inherited the illness of her mother and is obsessed by purification to get rid of her sins; and has visions of the fallen angel Lucifer and the Virgin Mary. She leads her little sister in her paranoia and uses a circle of toys and dolls to protect them against evil. They have a crazy neighbor that Angela believes is an angel and she asks the woman how to find the way to heaven. When Mae returns to the institution, Angela becomes uncontrollable in her quest to heaven.

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Plot Keywords:

girl | mental illness | tween girl | sister sister relationship | husband wife relationship | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

January 1995 (USA)

Also Known As:

Angela und der Engel

Filming Locations:

Poughkeepsie, New York, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Tree Farm Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

99 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Goofs

Boom mic visible. Several times throughout the film, a boom mic (and even part of the boom) is VERY clearly visible, mostly in outdoor scenes when the boom was more necessary. This is a masking problem on an early DVD release, and is probably present on any VHS release as well (the DVD is likely transferred from the VHS). The movie was filmed in academy ratio with the intent to mask it to widescreen, in which it was shown in theaters. When telecined to VHS/DVD for home use to watch on your TV set, or perhaps even for TV broadcast, it wasn't masked: black bars were not placed over the top and bottom to make it letterboxed for widescreen. This was commonly done in Pan&Scan versions of many theatrical movies for TV broadcast and VHS release so you could get the whole screen without those annoying black bars which would give you a smaller amount of image to squint at. Unfortunately, with the whole screen image you also get portions of the image that were not meant to be seen, such as boom mics and track lights on the top and cables and camera dolly tracks and crew-members feet on the bottom. Older DVD releases of many movies just copied the full-screen without remasking it, which would require a whole new telecine transfer from the original film source. Even some newer DVD releases INCORRECTLY masked some movies, as the bars either weren't covering enough or were disproportional (covering too much on top and too little on bottom or vice-versa), since the widescreen aspect ratio varies and WHERE you put the masks can vary in a single movie. This is a big controversy, and happens more frequently than you might think; see the 3-DVD release of the Back To The Future trilogy for a famous example of improper masking. Pretty much, whenever you see boom mics visible, it is almost always a masking problem on a video release (TV broadcast or VHS or DVD transfer); it is not the fault of the director or cinematographer or editor.

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Quotes

Angela: [thinking she is seeing the devil in front of her, hiding her eyes and praying] Mary, full of grace, take away this ugly face. Mary, full of grace, take away this ugly face.

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Connections

References Mogambo (1953)

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Soundtracks

Angel Of Mercy
Performed by Greta Gaines
Written by Greta Gaines
Courtesy of Sweat Ride Music
© 1994

User Reviews

A devastating and brilliant portrayal of the dreams and imaginations of two young sisters.

After a slow start this film was like throwing a pebble into still waters and watching the ripples widen. Written, produced and directed by Rebecca Miller with insight, sensitivity and humour there are strong overtones of the magical and the sinister, the angelic and the devilish and performances from the two child actors which are entrancing. The sisters, aged nine and six, create a world of fantasy which is partly induced by longing for a happy family life and partly by a desperate desire by the older girl to find salvation through spirituality. Their mother, a pale and ravaged shadow of her former self, with distinct similarities to Marilyn Monroe (who was married to Arthur Miller, Rebecca Miller's father) barely notices the girls as they drift in and out of her line of vision and her drunken haze. Their father is totally focused on her unpredictable behaviour and his job in a car scrap yard. There is a strong sexual frisson between the two. When the film starts we see the family move in an old pick- up truck to a rambling and abandoned house with metal beds and dirty curtains. Through a grill in the floor the girls watch their parents making love below, a scene of mystifying and disturbing violence. "It looks as if it hurts", the older sister says to her little sister when she tries to prepare her for when she has to kiss boys and "do it" in order to have a baby. The little sister is, as is the case with siblings, in awe of her big sister and hangs on her every word, believing the increasingly bizarre and black rituals that she is told she must perform in order to "Go into the Big Nothing". There are terrifying moments, funny moments and wonderful cameos - like the next door neighbour who sleep walks every night and looks for a letter in her mail box, always dressed in her nightie and with curlers in her hair. There is a wonderful scene of a baptism in the nearby lake and a night time visit to a fairground where a young man with dangerous intentions almost gets his way. I found it riveting, worrying, delightful, believable and a completely brilliant portrayal of the power of the imagination that children have, which is sadly so little encouraged.