Les anges de l'univers

Ok, let me start. I´ve seen this movie about a year ago (in a special cycle, since it didn´t arrive on the regular circuit, as most Scandinavian cinema...) & it moved me like very few. It may be somewhat naïve and even simplistic at times, but this adds to its deepness. At the end, I was literally apathic, not wanting to be close to anyone neither to talk. The OST is also truly fabulous - Mr Hilmar Hilmarsson & Sigur Rós have done a truly stunning ambient work, carrying the film to a whole new dimension. In all, this is a uniquely stunning, profoundly depressive and amazingly beautiful movie, from a distant yet so close cinematography, of which I hope to see more (I´d heard of the film years before I actually had the chance to behold it...). So, for all you unshallow souls & admirers of beauty in/ through sadness, this comes as highly advisable (9 in 10, no doubt)piece of Scandinavian moviescapism. I think the only problem with it is the angst which it leaves - which... in what films concerns, is hardly negative. Congratulations to Mr Fridrik Fridriksson & the rest of the Icelandic (wonderful country, btw...) cast. Unique masterpiece.

The film `Angels of the Universe' is based on Einar Mar Gudmundsson's novel. The movie reveals the reality that lays hidden to sane persons. The story is based on a man who has a loving and caring family, he has fallen head over heals in love, but when his girlfriend breaks up with him the man starts to lose his sanity. We get to see how the insanity overwhelms the man, which lead the man to be placed in a mental hospital. In the mental hospital he makes friend with three, really interesting patients. The movie gets funny and some point but lives in a dramatic environment.

I recommend this movie to anyone who has decided to take a break from the Hollywood motion pictures and see what unknown directors are capable of.

Having a close experience with one such patient is probably the best reason why I had my heart rushing throughout the entire film. Intense, sensible, moral and revealing, and don't forget to check out the marvellous sound track. Really good.

Upon first viewing I liked this movie but I didn´t think it was all that great and very overhyped. The acting was good no doubt about that but it seemed to lack in something and some things were missing. I read the book few months later which this movie is based on and I fell in love with it. The book is a bit different from the movie and we get to know the character from he is born until he´s dead as opposed to this movie we only get to see few years in his life.

What I didn´t like about it was it tried to be so depressing when it didn´t have to be. The music by Hilmar and Sigurros tried to do something to us that obviously the film makers thought they weren´t able to. This was way too distracting. It was also very and I mean very annoying. The movie was also far to heavy. The book had much lighter tone to it and even though the movie had some funny scenes in it there and there it felt like a drag and sometimes it were just snapshots and more.

There seemed also to be lack of character developments and you couldn´t get to know him quite well to understand what he was going through. Why did he go insane in the first place.

This was however a difficult task for both the writer and the director considering that it is based on a person that they knew. Einar Már writes the screenplay which is based on his book that is based on his brothers life that wen´t insane and eventually killed himself but the movie just didn´t capture the wibe of the book. I didn´t feel all to sorry for the characters or anything.

overall grade 6.5/10.

First at all: If you like watching movies I recommend you NOT to watch this one. Why? Afterwards you won't appreciate any other movie so easily anymore...

Actually I don't wanna give rise to any excessive expectations but it is almost frightening how perfect, intense and beautiful this work of Einar Gudmundsson is. When in most movies there is at least one aspect spoiling the whole thing, like good actors but horrible dialogs or a nice scenery but low budget cinematography – in „Angels of the Universe" there is nothing of this ambivalence. Really everything is just great, even (and not least) the soundtrack with the magnificent Sigur Rós.

In this story about Pall, a student that goes schizophrenic after being dumped by his girlfriend, especially the dialogs (and monologues) deserve some attention: together with (and sometimes in sharp contrast to) the plot they range from depressing and fatalistic to the whole opposite of comical and totally absurd. What is more, they are often (with quotes from Hegel and Shakespeare) of such a poetic beauty that the movie almost drifts into a surreal sphere and is only saved to the real world by its incredibly authentic actors.

One of the other comments was already referring to another point: This movie is no trivial entertainment for relaxing in the evening. Despite of several comical reliefs in between it is largely disturbing, partly cynical and bitter, and most of all sad. It is a modern poetry about a life of insanity with all its emptiness, rage and solitude.

Finally: When you've seen the movie – watch it again. There are some great visual metaphors and allusions in it that you realize only when you look twice and connect them with the „moral of the story". And of course: read the book, it contains a lot more of the small funny stories in between and also makes you understand some things in the movie a bit better.