Angel's Egg

I understand this film more with each watch. I think I love it so much because it really does set the backdrop of how I’ve felt for the past few months. For me, Angel’s Egg represents a loss of hope and faith, with definite ties to religion as well. The girl’s faith is represented as her egg, which all comes apart when the egg shatters. That’s pretty clear. I also think the daily habit of collecting water glasses for no apparent reason, as well as the fishermen hunting for fish-shaped shadows, represents the futility of religious customs from an objective perspective. It seems like these things provide no gain to the people doing them, yet they continue to do so regardless. Why? Hope! As much as I hate the male character, he’s also so so interesting. I kind of interpret him as someone who hasn’t quite lost his faith, but is angry at the world and believes that god has forsaken him. He tries to convince the girl that things are just all that they seem, and that hope in a destitute world is useless. He crushes her egg with his cross-shaped weapon not as a wake-up call to her, but out of jealousy that she’s so innocent and full of hope. I think he believes that if everyone turned their back on god, then maybe things would improve in the post-apocalyptic world they’re in.  I love when he quotes a phrase from Noah’s Arc, “The ark floated on the face of the waters, and all flesh died that moved upon the earth. Birds, cattle, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm upon the earth, and every man. Only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the ark. Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. Then he waited another seven days, and sent forth the dove, and she did not return to him anymore.” I think that explains him as a character perfectly. He wants to believe, but he doesn’t see the signs of a higher power anymore. He’s past the idea of hoping for a better world, because he sees the godless world as it is. When he saw that the girl had entered the strange floating afterlife, I think he again was jealous of her unwavering faith. I hold this movie close to my heart because I lately really have been acquainted with the concept of losing hope, not particularly from a religious perspective, but with life in general. The world in this movie feels like my world, and the idea that no one is coming to save me is a difficult concept to grasp. This movie is maybe the most effective use of metaphors I have ever seen in any piece of literature, and the more I think about it (which is OFTEN), the more I realise just how close it hits to home. Although it’s only like an hour long, I could talk about it for so much longer because it is such an impactful meditation on human nature and the tendency to cling onto hope as a coping mechanism. On top of all this, the cinematography is gorgeous to look at, I need each still of this thing put up in frames around my room tbh. Genuinely one of the most impressive films I have ever seen and ever will see