Black Angel (2002)

Wonderful character development!

Sorry, this movie sucks

Best movie ever!

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

I was quite amazed by this passionate, old-fashioned style tragic romance. The costumes, the cinematography, Ennio Morricone's sweeping score, all come together to create an absolute classic of it's genre. Anna Galiena and Gabriel Garko are beautiful together as doomed lovers that find each other in the desperate, waning days of the second World War. Helmut Schulz, played by the impossibly sensual Garko, is a sleazy and corrupt young SS officer, addicted to gambling, women, and to other of life's excesses. His decadent lifestyle does not come cheap, and when the beautiful but lonely Livia, (in an amazingly elegant performance by the wonderful Anna Galiena) offers to financially support Helmut, the amoral man does not refuse. Director Tinto Brass photographs the present day in glorious black and white, while we see, in blazing color the erotic love affair as it unfolded, in a series of flashbacks described by Livia, while en route to Venice. "Senso 45/Black Angel" is Tinto Brass' most serious work. It seems like he wanted to create something impressive here, and he did just that. A much more accomplished film than his "Salon Kitty." Effectively capturing the decadence of Fascist Italy, 1945 in a dizzying orgy scene, filled with graphic and strange sexuality and drug taking, a trademark of Tinto Brass, and unforgettable images of Anna and her SS lover in desperate embraces in shadowy back alleys or sparse rooms, with rays of sunlight filtering through lace curtains. It is hard to describe the beauty and elegance of this film. For fans of erotic romance, and films that possess this specifically European style of film making, this intoxicating art-house film is certain to impress. As of yet "Black Angel" has not had a DVD release for North America, but there is a wonderful edition from the UK that offers an uncensored, widescreen version, in original Italian with English subtitles.

Important for definition of this movie is its special flavor. Memories of another films and the taste of a lost age. Symbols of a nostalgic ambiguity and the forms of chimeric images.It is not a good film. It is not a bad or boring movie. Anatomy of a relation between a Bovaric lady and a gorgeous young officer, story of love and revenge, escape and cruel punishment, "Senso '45" is a delicate cinematographic puzzle .At first view is a film of "70. Same atmosphere, same acting and gestures.The androgynous Gabriel Garko is new Helmuth Berger and the drops of Visconti's art are omnipresent. A game, without any mystery but nice for the images of a splendid youth- that is the recipe of this film. Old ingredients and same cook. But the charm is not result of convention or reaction of politeness. To see this film is contemplation of frozen time. A not original film, monument of clichés, scene for all important influences of century, beautiful lie and shadow of a evening. A common sign of a lost hour.

To start with, I am not a big fan of the Tinto Brass style of films. Many often contain rather stagey sex scenes and there is often a lack of warmth about that. Black Angel or Senso '45 is different. It is the story of a wealthy wife in her older years who is attracted to and falls in lust (can't really call it love) with an SS Officer, pays for his vices of gambling, drinking, smoking and keeping a private room and is then rejected after returning from exile to find him in bed with another lover or girlfriend. Livia takes revenge against Schultz for his rejection by informing on him and his plans to desert.Anna Galiena is a likable and ideal choice for this movie. She is not young but she is beautiful and she gives a very believable portrayal of a rich woman who finds her husband a bit of a bore but wouldn't leave him in a million years.

The marketing for this film refers to Tinto Brass's much earlier works, The Key, and Salon Kitty. Although Brass made many films since, this referral is entirely appropriate, as the style of Senso '45 is very much inspired by (if not derived from) these pictures, especially The Key. For the uninitiated: this is soft pornography of the classy kind.As in both of these films, Brass sets the story during WWII. As in The Key, we have as central character a woman well past her twenties (in this case even well past her thirties) who explores her sexuality. Her lover is a blond SS officer, whose mannerisms recall the character played by Helmut Berger in Salon Kitty. Slightly unusual for Brass is to move from comedic to dramatic territory, but this shift proved useful when it came to depicting the dark and obsessive side of the central relationship.The casting of Anna Galiena was excellent, and not just regarding her acting abilities. On the one hand, there is no credibility-stretching age gap between her and her husband (as there was between Sandrelli and Finlay in The Key). On the other, she looks fantastic for her age, even in the nude, and thus the sexual chemistry between Livia and Helmut appears quite real, despite the 20 year age gap between Galiena and Garko. Still, Gabriel Garko's SS officer leaves something to be desired, most simply put: his hair colour does. Garko's hair had been dyed straw blond, but he does not look like a blond man at all. Perhaps Italians do not have an eye for this, or, more likely, it was too late to change casting and Brass insisted on a blond SS man for this leading part, so he went ahead regardless. This bit of sacrificed realism is certainly at odds with the drama.