Angele

But who is really Angèle Van Laeken, better known under her stage name Angèle?

The new Netflix documentary on the artist Angele paints an uncompromising portrait of a Belgian artist, singer-songwriter, musician, pianist, record producer and actress who, despite a few strategic mistakes at the beginning of her career, has managed to establish herself as the voice of a whole generation. We all know her music and some of her video clips worthy of international artists but what do we really know about Angele. 

This documentary directed by Sébastien Rensonnet and Brice VDH comes back on her childhood in Uccle, in the Brussels Region, the fact that she remained during this one in the shadow of her parents, the singer Marka and the actress Laurence Bibot but also of her big brother the rapper Romeo Elvis. We learn that it was her father who pushed her to learn the piano when she did not want to follow in her parents' footsteps. The documentary gives the floor to her parents, her grandmother, the artist Damso but also her two managers. We follow with a real pleasure from the first steps on stage to now the evolution of a great artist whose talent is undeniable and who keeps saying that the main quality is not to be physically top but to have a brain and to know how to use it to write lyrics that sound right and a music with the right rhythm.

The principle trap of documentary films about musical artists is to deliver a hagiographic version of the said artists which tends to erase all the defects and errors that they committed either by bad strategic choices or by an excessive ego which make that they live in an imagined world far from the real reality of our current society. This is not the case of this documentary which presents us a real artist who has always wanted to gain her independence and especially to remain irreproachable and to conceive her own music (speech and music). Certainly, Angele made like most young artists mistakes and this documentary approaches them with intelligence and respect. In the same way, this documentary presents us an artist who succeeded in finding her own musical universe and who took advantage of the confinement to work on her very awaited second album which will be released on December 10th and which will carry the title Nonante-cinq.

Angele reveals herself here as a shy and gifted artist in perpetual doubt and whose music is a way to exorcise her demons. In the same way, it is interesting to see this natural artist far from the image she has created express herself freely and bite the life and stay feet on earth knowing that success requires a lot of work and an energy without common measure. This dive into the intimacy of this artist may remind some of the excellent documentary In Bed with Madonna by Alek Keshishian with the big difference that here everything sounds true and is not calculated or even sounding false. We will also appreciate the friendship made of a mutual respect between Dua Lipa and Angel during a very successful duet Fever.

While we will have to wait until May 15, 2022 to discover her as a guest on stage alongside Dua Lipa and December 2, 2022 at Paris La Defense Arena (our media will be in VIP placement at the first and in the gold square at the second), this documentary will make all fans of this artist patient, whose new single Bruxelles je t'aime is a hit in power and a vibrant tribute to his city of birth. 

Angele
Directed by Sébastien Rensonnet, Brice VDH
Produced by Saïmiri
Starring Angele, Dua Lipa
Music by Tristan Salvati, Angele
Cinematography : Brice VDH
Edited by Pascal Oberlin 
Production : Netflix France
Distributed by Netflix
Release date : November 26, 2021
Running time : 85 minutes

Viewed on November 22, 2021 (Netflix press screener)

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