Engel, die ihre Flügel verbrennen

As I've noted in another review, it's hard to watch a Brynych film without thinking of beautifully crafted films like Transport From Paradise and The Fifth Horseman Is Fear. These films that show the haunted nature behind people's everyday decision making under extreme circumstances.

However Brynych escaped Czechoslovakia for the lurid sex films of West Germany and it's hard to reconcile that this work is from the same man. One almost has to pretend that it's the work of two different men with the same name.

Angels With Burnt Wings is the story of a boy who disapproves of his mother's infidelity so much so that when her latest lover goes for a swim, the son, in a fit of rage, murders him. The event does not go unnoticed as hidden from view is a girl who takes him in and hides him from the growing frenzy of who is the killer.

Of the three that were made in 1970, this is by far the best told of the three. The acting is decent, the plotting is sharp and, of course, the soundtrack is the main star of the show.

But one cannot fail to see a sort of puritan streak come out that feels slightly at odds with the film itself. The film wants to have its cake and eat it too at the same time and, try as they might, everyone can't help but feel just a little two dimensional at the best of times. This contrasts again with Transport... and The Fifth Horseman but also his segment in Dialóg where the characters are warmer and more empathetic. Whether this is something that's lost in translation or just a case of taking a devil-may-care attitude towards the scripts, I'm not sure but watching this film, I'm inclined to miss the 60s Czech Brynych. A film-maker with a compassionate touch lost in the murky depths of political history.