The first film directed by the iconic Luc Besson (Nikita, Leon, The Fifth Element, The Big Blue) in seven years, Angel-A is his most personal and beautiful yet, and a love letter to his home town. Angel-A is a micro-budget, black-and-white production that darts around the Paris streets in the manner of A Bout de Souffle, the film stars supermodel Rie Rasmussen, who starred in Brian de Palmas’s Femme Fatale and, last seen in the smash hit Amelie. Renowned director of photography Thierry Arbogast joins Luc Besson in their fifth collaboration, fifteen years since they first worked together on Nikita.

The plot is pretty simple, a man who seems worth nothing in life is at his wits end when his eye catches a stunning blonde, and she sets about to put his life right. Looking to escape his past Andre (Jamel Debbouze) accepts the help of the mysterious Angela (Rie Rasmussen) and sets in motion a chain of events that will change his life forever. Beautiful in its simplicity, Angel-A is a striking, supernatural love-story. The characters are very natural, with their interactions very relaxed and real. The dialogue just seems to flow, and nothing about these performances is stilted or out of place. This gave the whole film a very loose and natural feel, almost as though some scenes were improvised. The actors perform wonderfully, especially the male lead, Jamel Debbouze. He has an energy about him and quite a captivating face.

A few years ago, France’s most successful living director announced his intention to quit while he was ahead. He would, he said, make 10 films and then get out of the game. At the time few people took him seriously. But with Angel-A, he has reached his limit.

As played by newcomer Rie Rasmussen, Angela proves a very Bessonian figure: leggy and lippy, a grungy euro-chick with a heart of gold. She could be the younger cousin of Ann Parillaud in Nikita, or Milla Jovovich in The Fifth Element. Parillaud, incidentally, was Besson’s first wife; Jovovich his second.