When I taped this movie the reception was really horrid so even though I managed to watch it, it was quite blurry. The movie is also quite dark so this meant that even though there is a lot of potential within the movie itself, it was really annoying for me because I couldn't really make anything out. The plot twists all over the place, which is typical for a French movie. A woman is basically really annoyed at life. Her mother walks all over her, she visits a psychiatrist who is only interested in draining her money, her neighbour is a sleaze who wants to bed her, and her sexual experiences are absolutely depressing. Then she accidentally summons a demon who, for her soul, promises to make her life much better, but the twist is that the Arch-Angel Gabriel says that her soul is not for sale and destroys the contract, leaving the woman in a very embarrassing situation. Having been pushed to the edge of suicide, the demon, Abargardon (Abar) must come back to stop her because if she dies then he is the one who is to blame. The movie twists even further when she falls in love with the Abargardon and Abargardon decides that he wants to remain with her. I guess this is a fantasy movie, in the way that it offers are fantastic solution to a life of problems. It is one that we watch to escape from the hell of reality. Many of us whose life is pointless so dearly wish for something magical to happen, and this is reflection in the film, where Abargardon uses his powers to transform her and to glean knowledge that would otherwise have been forbidden to her. This movie dives in much deeper though because the pet demon becomes the demon lover, and the demon lover then comes to seek redemption for what he has done, and this redemption is given to him. The twist here is that with the redemption, he must also give up the life that he had before, that is the life as a demon. He is tempted to drag him back into hell, and he is always falling back onto the temptation. He even simply gives up at one time and goes back to his wicked ways, but he realises that love is stronger than any temptation, and it is love for the woman that pulls him through. The redemption aspect of this movie seems to have a Christian flavour to it. That is when we seek redemption we are given it, but we must give up our old life and begin a new life. Even though we have been redeemed, we are constantly tempted and enticed to fall back into our old lives, but with that temptation comes the love of God, a love that is so strong that can pull us through anything. If we are tempted, and we will be, and if we slide right back, we can always be assured that God's love will be there to drag us back again. As for a demon redeeming himself, I am not sure and will not conjecture on that theory. Instead it seems that the movie uses Abargardon to reflect the side of us that is ultimately evil, and a side that discovers a beautiful side to the world and thus seeks redemption to enjoy it. This movie seems to be a very Christian movie, and if it has such features in it, then I am surprised that it comes from France. But even though it is such a movie, the ending and even scenes at the beginning drag it back down to a typical pagan movie.
Review of Ma vie est un enfer
