MOVIE REVIEW : ‘House of Angels’ a Sly, Compassionate Comedy

The spirit of Jean Renoir seems to hover over Colin Nutley’s funny and endearing “House of Angels” (at the Royal), which is set in a Swedish country village, the perfect spot to observe timeless human comedy.

In a darkly zany accident the local elderly squire (Per Oscarsson) has been killed and is to be buried in proper formality. Just as the young bearded minister (Reine Brynolfsson) is extolling the eccentric dead man’s virtues a stunning young blonde (Helena Bergstrom) enters the church, strides down the aisle and takes a seat in a front pew.

After the services the townspeople are astonished to learn that the stranger, whose name is Fanny, is the dead man’s granddaughter, who they never knew existed. It seems that Fanny’s late mother, Alice, was something of a free spirit who left town to pursue a career as a singer. Fanny, who has followed in her mother’s footsteps as an entertainer, has no idea who her father was.

Fanny and Zac (Rikard Wolff), her show-biz partner and companion from childhood, are completely uninhibited types. Mostly, they’re on the road, constantly touring on the lower rungs of the continental cabaret circuit, and they think it would be fun to kick back and rest up in the magnificent, though seedy, manor house Fanny has inherited from her grandfather, who turns out to have been a wealthy landowner with extensive holdings.

Both Fanny and Zac, who is gay, cadaverous and favors black leather, are thoroughly likable, genuinely kind, friendly and outgoing. Yet they might as well be creatures from Mars as far as most of their new neighbors are concerned, especially the women, who are at once shocked by Fanny’s frank Marilyn Monroe-like sexuality and intensely jealous of her. Were not Zac fundamentally a quiet, though self-possessed man, he would doubtlessly trigger even more hostility than Fanny.

Nutley, a Briton long in Sweden, and his writer Susanne Falck take pains to acquaint us with an array of townspeople and their foibles. The key couple are the Flogfalts, Axel (Sven Wollter) and Rut (Viveka Seldahl). Axel is a virile, taciturn middle-aged farmer who has coveted Fanny’s property for years, and Rut is the epitome of small-town small-mindedness, declaiming hysterically that Fanny is a drug-taking harlot. In a sly, amusing way the filmmakers make it clear that hypocrisy runs rampant in the community, and Fanny finds herself sorely tempted to pick up the gauntlet the community has thrown down at her. However, Nutley et al have ultimately set their sights higher, and in the tradition of Renoir, extend compassion to one and all, insisting upon seeing good even in the awful Rut.

Nutley directs his ensemble cast as well as Falck writes for them, and in Bergstrom he has made a real discovery, a vibrant beauty with Dietrich legs, a stunning figure--and a great sense of humor and presence. What’s more, although “House of Angels” (rated R for nudity, sex-related material and language) is primarily in Swedish, it’s clear that Bergstrom’s English is just fine.

‘House of Angels’

Helena Bergstrom: Fanny Zander

Rikard Wolff: Zac

Sven Wollter: Axel Flogfalt

Viveka Seldahl: Rut Flogfalt

A Sony Pictures Classics release of a production of Memfis Film and Television with SVT/TVS Gothenburg/Swedish Film Institute/Norsk Rikskringkastning/Nordisk Film & TV Fund. Director Colin Nutley. Producer Lars Jonsson. Screenplay by Susanne Falck. Cinematographer Jens Fischer. Editor Perry Schaffer. Costumes Sven Lundgren, Britt Marie Larsson. Music Bjorn Isfalt. Production design Ann Colleberg. Sound Eddie Axberg, Lasse Liljeholm, Asa Lindgren-Davidsson. In Swedish with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour, 59 minutes.

MPAA-rated R (nudity, sex-related material and language).