From «ANGÈLE» to Angèle and back again

Unpublished article - Kelly Lambiel

After Brol, the album that made her a household name in 2018, Angèle is back three years and a few confinements later with Nonante-cinq. More personal, even intimate, it is accompanied by a documentary soberly entitled ANGELE, released on Netflix just two weeks before the album's release; the opportunity for the singer to tell us about it and herself?

From virtually anonymous «daughter of» or «sister of» to «female artist of the year», from Chanel muse to spokesperson for the feminist or LGBTQIA+ cause, from French-speaking singer to pop icon or international actress, from booed stooge to adored star, from little girl seeking her place and legitimacy to young woman making her mark and asserting herself, one might well ask who Angèle is: a pure marketing product or an authentic personality? Following the «brol» (understand mess) provoked by her dazzling success and the many upheavals that accompanied it, she admits to having asked herself the question many times, lost along the way. «It all happened so fast, and it was so hard too,» she confides in the opening minutes, inviting viewers to follow her on a journey of introspection.

The weight of notoriety

Narrated by Angèle herself because, as she so aptly puts it, «no one will ever be able to tell it as well as I can», the documentary looks back at the young woman's story, from her childhood to the production of her latest title. Brussels I love you. Now confined, she takes advantage of the forced deceleration offered by the pandemic to create, but also to reconnect with her inner self. Between doubts and certainties, gaping wounds and healed wounds, she tries to analyze her successes and the many difficulties that fame has brought her face to face with.

By revisiting her past through old diaries, countless archive images shot by herself, her parents or Brice VDH and Sébastien Rensonnet (the report's directors), emails, voicemails and testimonials from those close to her, the artist embarks on a kind of investigation supposed to help her find herself and, at the same time, make the public aware of the real Angèle, hidden behind the ANGELE trademark.

A questioning sincerity

In doing so, she recalls a happy, but not always easy, childhood spent in the shadow of famous parents, and revives the painful memory of her first steps on stage, when she was violently booed while opening for Damso. With great honesty, she also explains that for a long time she hid her lack of self-confidence behind a healthy dose of self-mockery. Lastly, she recalls having suffered enormously from seeing control over her image and private life slip from her grasp on several occasions, in the face of various scandals or because of the labels and intentions sometimes attributed to her, she says, in spite of herself.

Read also | Angèle, an angel with angels

Despite the expected content, which in the end doesn't tell us much - it's hard to escape the phenomenon if you're even slightly interested in the music news of recent years - it's still interesting to be able to access a certain form of intimacy. Although there are too few of them, punctuating today's narrative and commentaries with words straight from the past and coming out of the pen or mouth of the person who lived them at the time, gives a documentary considered by some to be empty and too egocentric, a little consistency, sincerity and a welcome form of veracity.

Although it doesn't really live up to its promises, and doesn't go so far as to be genuinely authentic, this documentary is more than just a promotional product designed to accompany the release of the album. While it doesn't really reveal who Angèle is, which we might actually have suspected, it is interesting in the way it raises questions about the star system and, no less interesting, helps us understand how and why she became ANGELE.

Write to the author: kelly.lambiel@leregardlibre.com