AN ANGEL HOOKED ON ME (2007) – drama film online

Directed by: Gheorghe Preda
Script: Gheorghe Preda
Cast: Anca Florea, Constantin Florescu, Emily Daler, Ioana Ginghină
Producer: Cezar Helmis
Cinematography by: Silviu Stavilă
Edited by: Laura Georgescu Baron
Sound: Mihai Orășanu
Music: Cristian Lolea
Year: 2007
Category: Feature film
Genre: Drama, Experimental
Duration: 98 minutes

18,215 – Cinepub viewers

PLOT SUMMARY

A successful young musician, Ana (Anca Florea) discovers that she has become the object of affection of a stranger who, from a distance, fulfills her most varied desires. But this ritual of seduction is also a demonstration of strength and intelligence on the part of the mysterious admirer.

AWARDS

• 2008 – Gopo Awards – Award for Best Original Music (Cristian Lolea)

CRITICAL REVIEWS:

The film “was intended as a challenge to the current trend: miserabilist, minimalist, anti-capitalist, with social rather than strictly aesthetic stakes, with a direct connection to reality, docudrama, etc. If we turn the model rejected by the director upside down, we should, in principle, find its stakes and an aesthetic film, outside of current events, of the social sphere, psychedelic, fantastical, escapist, a conceptual thriller or an art film in the sense of “artist” as a series of aesthetic prose writers are characterized by style, by artistic writing.” – Angelo Mitchievici, România literară no. 45 / 2007

“In his dialogue with film critics at IPIFF, Gheorghe Preda clarified his aesthetic even further, mentioning that he wants to use actors in a kind of visual semiotics, as signs, with the emphasis on the image. With his remarkable cinematic culture, a lecturer at U.N.A.T.C., refined, I have the impression that Gheorghe Preda made a fundamental mistake as a director, that of systematically ignoring the actor, minimizing the contribution he brings to the film.” – Angelo Mitchievici, România literară no. 45 / 2007

“It is easy to detect Lynch’s influence, especially in “The Lost Highway” or “Twin Peaks” — but Michael Hanecke’s “Caché,” another film indebted to Lynch, can also be included in this lineage — in the way the director amplifies the feeling of anxiety in relation to the systematic disruption of the senses and the loss of contact with reality. In terms of the technical realization of Ana’s psychedelic nightmares, Gheorghe Preda borrows from Gore Verbinski’s The Ring and its sequel, The Ring 2 (2005), directed by Hideo Nakata, who is preparing a third episode.” – Angelo Mitchievici, România literară no. 45 / 2007

“An Angel Hooked on Me” – Gheorghe (Gică) Preda’s feature film debut – is a necessary film. First of all, for its author: Preda is not one of the “decree” generation, he is from the intermediate generation, and this long-delayed debut bears all the signs of the director/screenwriter/set designer’s desire to “break the mold.” At the same time, it is a necessary film for Romanian cinema today: it demonstrates that there is no single direction—that of the so-called “miserabilism” represented by Mungiu, Puiu, Muntean—that there is a diversity of styles and that, as an author, you can be interested in something other than “slices of life” etc. – Alex. Leo Șerban, agenda.liternet.ro

“I believe that Gică Preda is the (willing) victim of a Bovaryism that is not only cinematic. As for any person coming from a rural background, contact with the capital represented an opportunity to ‘rise above his station’ and integrate; like his illustrious namesake, the author of Moromeţii (who became part of literary history), Preda also integrated himself into something—into a Style. He stifled his origins by cultivating an almost esoteric aestheticism.” – Alex. Leo Șerban, agenda.liternet.ro

“The Angel’s Major Flaw… (…) is the comical divorce between the sophistication of the ‘corporate look’ and the (wholesale) poverty of the story: a beautiful girl who lives in a designer villa (with a comfortable bathroom…), an asthmatic composer, is pursued by a mysterious blue creature (she prefers white); the thriller suffocates very early on in the lack of air of the two-color story and, halfway through, it already has no breath left to cross the street. It’s an asthmatic film. For a real thriller, however, you need breath. (If possible, not artificial.)” – Alex. Leo Șerban, agenda.liternet.ro

The film “was conceived more as a work of visual art than as a debut film.” – Andrei Gorzo, agenda.liternet.ro

“For Preda, film directing means first and foremost the construction of frames, and almost every frame in his film proudly proclaims its status as a construct: none of them could be confused with a slice of reality; each demands to be recognized as the work of Gheorghe Preda—an environment created and controlled by him.” – Andrei Gorzo, agenda.liternet.ro

“To add to the mystery, Preda uses several smoke screens prepared according to David Lynch’s recipes (the heroine receives a videotape in the mail containing images of herself; or she wakes up in a sinister clinic without knowing how she got there) and gives us a (very vague) clue that supposedly leads to an eccentric mobster. But there is no mobster, no serious unease, and no real mystery. There is only Preda and his aestheticism.” – Andrei Gorzo, agenda.liternet.ro

“Anyone who knows Gică Preda knows what conversations with him are like. It’s not that he signs his letters with David Lynch or Gus Van Sant, but that he is a walking encyclopedia on cinema and visual art.” – Iulia Blaga, agenda.liternet.ro

“Gheorghe Preda has a keen sense of irony, which probably comes across in a disorderly manner in the film. It is certainly ironic that the person who harasses the heroine — taking photos of her, sending her exactly the gifts she wants, including a harpsichord, drawing blue flowers on buildings and buses, sticking advice on the walls, etc. — could be a local mobster, but in the film it is difficult to appreciate this. – could be a local mobster, but in the film it’s one that’s hard to swallow.” – Iulia Blaga, agenda.liternet.ro

Preda’s film unfolds programmatically in a non-geographical (and ultimately non-human) no man’s land (and no woman’s land), with spaces lacking identity, streets devoid of passers-by, buildings devoid of any personality or humanity. In this sense, it is reminiscent of the aseptic and robotized world of “Den brysomme mannen” / ‘Bothersome Man’ – not coincidentally, it starts with a quote from Kafka (the author to whom Jens Lien’s film inevitably referred – although, fortunately, not at all explicitly), to whom it even refers explicitly, through a quote taken from Notebooks… (and included in the prologue) as well as through the initial with which the mysterious stalker’s letter is signed (included in the epilogue): K.” – Mihnea Columbeanu, agenda.liternet.ro

“Gheorghe Preda’s attempt was doomed to failure, but it responded to a real need to diversify the Romanian cinematic landscape, to explore other avenues far from the aesthetics of soup simmering in the kitchen, the yeast thrown over deflated deltoids and overflowing bellies, and the dull apartment discussion, the generic neorealist family portrait.” – Angelo Mitchevici, cinepub.ro

TRIVIA:

• Film director Gheorghe Preda (born 1960) studied economics and film in Bucharest (bachelor’s and doctorate at UNATC) and Paris (master’s at Université Paris III Sorbonne Nouvelle). He taught film and media at UNATC, Hyperion University, and the National University of Arts, all in Bucharest.
• “An Angel Hooked on Me” is his debut feature film.
• He has written and directed feature-length and short films for cinema and television.
• His most recent film is the documentary “Industria fericirii” (2025), about alternative therapies and the world of spiritual therapists.
• This film was seen by 1,818 viewers in Romanian cinemas, according to data compiled by the National Center for Cinematography on the number of viewers of Romanian films from the date of release until December 31, 2014.

LINES:

 • “Adderral three times a day, Saveran in the morning and evening, and Zantex once a day in the evening.” – ENT doctor
• “All you can do to keep the attacks under control is to avoid dust, animals, pollen, even strong emotions.” – ENT doctor
• “According to you, I should live under a glass dome, right?” – Ana Coman (Anca Florea)
• “I received a strange package. I think you sent it.” – Ana Coman (Anca Florea)
• “I’m taking different medication now. (…) No, I don’t feel any better.” – Ana Coman (Anca Florea)
• “I’ll email you more often.” – Ana Coman (Anca Florea)
• “I don’t have many friends. I don’t have visitors. I don’t usually go out.” – Ana Coman (Anca Florea)
• “I am a mature, self-possessed woman who can handle any situation. I am a mature, self-possessed woman who can handle any situation. I am a mature, self-possessed woman who can handle any situation.” – Ana Coman (Anca Florea)

ARTICLES:

• “An Angel Hooked on Me” by Angelor Mitchievici – aarc.ro
• “An Angel Hooked on Me” – caravanafilm.ro
• “Suffering is exposed almost hysterically, on all media channels and social networks” – interview with director Gheorghe Preda – dilema.ro
• The Angel Gets Dressed by Preda (by Alex. Leo Șerban) – agenda.liternet.ro
• Is it necessary…? (by Codruța Crețulescu) – agenda.liternet.ro
• White-blue (by Andrei Gorzo) – agenda.liternet.ro
• What fault does the angel have? (by Iulia Blaga) – agenda.liternet.ro
• The necessary angel… or the neurotic demon? (by Mihnea Columbeanu) – agenda.liternet.ro

This premiere is part of a national archive project supported by the Romanian National Film Centre.
Special thanks goes to the Romanian Filmmakers Union and to the Romanian Film Archive.

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