As part of its great Friday night culture evening, France 5 will present this November 26 at 8:55 pm “Angels in America” by Tony Kushner.
New York, 1985. With, in the background, AIDS – divine punishment inflicted on gays according to Puritan America – this abundant play makes angels come across each other epilogating on the emptiness of the American dream, the ghost of the spy Ethel Rosenberg, disunited lovers and the poor sick. Add to it a touch of homophobia, scandals within the triumphant Republican Party, not to mention the hope of the first AZT tests.
Individuals are looking for each other. Others find themselves in dark corners. Prior, has the AIDS virus, likes Louis who is about to leave him. Roy Cohn, man of power, Jewish and homosexual lawyer, anti-Semitic and homophobic, lives in denial of the contamination of the virus. Harper, she takes refuge in medicines to soften her marital daily life with Joe, whose uncertain sexuality contrasts with strong religious beliefs. And the nurse Belize, proud to be black or to have been a drag queen, watches over the sick in his department …
This “gay fantasy” paints a flamboyant portrait of gay and bisexual love threatened by AIDS in the era. Reagan. But what are the Angels doing?
Angels in America is a film directed by Arnaud Desplechin, from the play he staged at the Comédie-Française in 2020 with the actors of the Comédie-Française troupe. The performances having been interrupted by the health crisis, Arnaud Desplechin gathered the Troupe in a rehearsal room to recreate the show.
Angels invents this marvelous theatrical device, I haven’t seen it anywhere else – yes, once, at Pinter’s! – the split-screen: a scene divided into two, where we can follow two simultaneous actions.
The play is wild. I also want her to be beautiful, and to offer the marvelous.Arnaud Desplechin
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