NOTE: This article originally appeared in the April 2007 issue of Venice Magazine, during the initial theatrical run of Luc Besson's Angel-A. Rie Rasmussen, a 6-foot tall former Victoria's Secret model, co-stars in the film with Jamel Debboze (If you couldn't figure it out, that's Rie to the left and Jamel to the right). Plot-wise, Angel-A can be described as Wings of Desire meets It's a Wonderful Life meets Helmut Newton. Better than it sounds though. And Paris has never looked so great on film. Our interview with Besson can be found here.
Rie Rasmussen Earns Her WingsBy Terry Keefe
The making of Angel-A put just a little bit of pressure on Rie Rasmussen. She didn’t speak French, was in her first leading role in a feature film, and was working for Luc Besson in his return to directing, after a lengthy sabbatical following The Messenger in 1999. The film also marks Besson’s first directorial feature in his native French since La Femme Nikita in 1990. To add to the stress even more, Besson is a big public figure back home, and the French are not exactly known for being easy on those who butcher their language. Recalls Rasmussen, “I was really under the gun to get it down correctly. Not for me, because I can handle being critiqued, but I didn’t want Luc back in the director’s chair, and people faulting him for having used a non-French person. It was stressful, even though my character was supposed to have a little bit of an accent, because, as an angel, she wasn’t supposed to be French, [laughs] or anything actually.” Rasmussen had 3 ½ months to learn the language, and did, to the point that many native French were surprised to find out that she hadn’t been speaking it for years.
Rie Rasmussen Earns Her WingsBy Terry Keefe
The making of Angel-A put just a little bit of pressure on Rie Rasmussen. She didn’t speak French, was in her first leading role in a feature film, and was working for Luc Besson in his return to directing, after a lengthy sabbatical following The Messenger in 1999. The film also marks Besson’s first directorial feature in his native French since La Femme Nikita in 1990. To add to the stress even more, Besson is a big public figure back home, and the French are not exactly known for being easy on those who butcher their language. Recalls Rasmussen, “I was really under the gun to get it down correctly. Not for me, because I can handle being critiqued, but I didn’t want Luc back in the director’s chair, and people faulting him for having used a non-French person. It was stressful, even though my character was supposed to have a little bit of an accent, because, as an angel, she wasn’t supposed to be French, [laughs] or anything actually.” Rasmussen had 3 ½ months to learn the language, and did, to the point that many native French were surprised to find out that she hadn’t been speaking it for years.
Angel-A is powered visually by gorgeous black and white photography which is very much a love letter to Paris, capturing the city with a unique POV unequaled in the cinemas since Godard’s Bande a Part. The plot centers around down-on-his-luck crook Andre (Jamel Debbouze), who is about to commit suicide off a bridge due to gambling debts, but instead ends up saving the life of a beautiful woman named Angela (Rasmussen), who takes the leap before he does. Although the big reveal doesn’t come for awhile, Angela has been sent from heaven to get Andre to look at his life from a new angle, one where he isn’t so self-loathing. Rasmussen elaborates, “For me, the personal diamond from the film is this: Once you can accept yourself, and your faults, you can accept your neighbor, with their faults. We’re all faulty together. [laughs] It’s more fun that way.”
Part of the visual charm of Angel-A is that the streets behind and around Andre and Angela are largely devoid of people, making it appear that they have Paris to themselves as their own playground. This was achieved by getting most of their shooting done in the early hours of the morning, as well as scheduling the production in August, when many native Parisians are on holiday. The cast and crew also kept a low profile, and they developed a crafty technique for heading off any press who might show up and draw more attention to the production than they wanted. Laughs Rasmussen, “The Da Vinci Code was also shooting in Paris at the same time. So if we felt like we were getting too much attention from the press, we would call and tell them where The Da Vinci Code was shooting and they’d go there.”
A former Victoria’s Secret Model, Rasmussen also paints, sketches, and takes photographs, having recently released a collection of her work in a glossy coffee table book entitled “Grafiske Historier.” And she’s also a writer-director, whose short Thinning the Herd played at Cannes in 2004. As she’s becoming an international acting name due to Angel-A, it’s surprising that Rasmussen doesn’t exactly see much of her filmmaking future in front of the camera. Writing and directing is where she’s focused her sights and is currently in pre-production on her feature directorial debut, tentatively entitled Human Zoo. Says Rasmussen, “Acting is a fun part of moviemaking, but it’s not my passion. I have a few things I want to say, and it’s not as an actress.”
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