France / 1982 / 67′ / No Dialogue

This mesmerizing feature film does not have a narrative set in place; rather, it invites you on a surrealist ascent into a world of silhouettes and symbols. Patrick Bokanowski, French filmmaker and artist, has developed a manner of treating filmic material that crosses over traditional boundaries of film genre: short film, experimental cinema and animation. He challenges the idea that film must essentially reproduce reality, using techniques that convey a subjective mental vision and explore artistic possibilities. L’ANGE could be described as a spiritual quest that doubles as a study of optical illusions. The climbing of an immense staircase arranged upward reveals a distinct sequence that seems more mythic than literal. Symbolic scenes occur on different levels where the characters seem to be prisoners of their deeds and of their own folly. The steep staircase leads little by little towards the zones of great light, almost a spiritual ascension, where human beings and nonhuman beings meet.

As a surrealist masterpiece, L’ANGE was played non-stop in a Tokyo art house cinema for almost ten years.