Poussiere D'ange = Angel Dust

Inspector Simon Blount, 34, has lost his taste for water since his wife left him for restaurant proprietor Igor. When asked by Commissaire Florimont to investigate a series of supermarket burglaries, Simon befriends angel-faced Violetta who ‘lives’ in the bedding department of a supermarket. Violetta happens to have a keen interest in Commissaire Florimont whom she suspect was involved in the murder of her mother many years ago. Film noir archetypes are evident throughout ‘Poussiere d’ange’, in the mise-en-scene, narrative voice over and characterisation as much as in the generic plot (rogue detective with morals uncovers coruption in high places). The consistently underlit or nocturnal mise-en-scene, the ubiquitous rain, and the seedy urban locations are all reminiscent of classic Hollywood film noir. But it is above all in the knowing characterisation of the detective hero that the genre is most evident. In both actions and appearance, Simon is a hyperbolic version of the crumpled private eye. He narrates his own story with the laconic humour typical of the genre. The traditional ambiguity of the film noir hero - is he a criminal or a lawman? - is epitomised in the scene where he wakes up in the drunk-tank in his own police station. His exaggeratedly dishevelled appearance - unshaven, clutching a bottle of whisky, wearing an overcoat and practically living in his beat-up car - identifies him with ‘the earlier iconography of, say, Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe.” Reference: Guy Austin. ‘Contemporary French Cinema: an introduction’. Manchester University Press, 1996.

Credits: Director, Edouard Niermans ; writers, Jacques Audiard, Didier Haudepin, Alain Le Henry, Edouard Niermans ; photography, Bernard Lutic ; music, Vincent-Marie Bouvot, Jacques Witta.
Cast: Bernard Giraudeau, Fanny Bastien, Fanny Cottencon, Jean-Pierre Sentier, Michel Aumont.