Shadow of Angels
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44% Critic Match

Shadow of Angels

4.4 / 10 1976 1h 41mNR German
Drama

Storyline

Beautiful, detached, laconic, consumptive Lily Brest is a streetwalker with few clients. She loves her idle boyfriend, Raoul, who gambles away what little she earns. The town's power broker, called the rich Jew, discovers she is a good listener, so she's soon busy. Raoul imagines grotesque sex scenes between Lily and the Jew; he leaves her for a man. Her parents, a bitter Fascist who is a cabaret singer in drag and her wheelchair-bound mother, offer no refuge. Even though all have a philosophical bent, the other whores reject Lily because she tolerates everyone, including men. She tires of her lonely life and looks for a way out. Even that act serves the local corrupt powers.

Cast & Crew

Ingrid Caven

Ingrid Caven

Lily Brest

Lead
Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Raoul

Klaus Löwitsch

Klaus Löwitsch

Jude

Jean-Claude Dreyfus

Jean-Claude Dreyfus

Zwerg

DK

Debria Kalpataru

Marie-Antoinette

Annemarie Düringer

Annemarie Düringer

Luise Müller

Adrian Hoven

Adrian Hoven

Herr Müller

BG

Boy Gobert

Polizeichef

What People Are Saying

3.0
A staggering achievement of craft and ambition. Daniel Schmid's vision lands with breathtaking precision.
Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
3.0
Every frame feels alive. Shadow of Angels is the rare release that takes its audience seriously.
Anthony Lane, The New Yorker