In this episode of Lost in Frenchlation, hosts ARBL Murray (Alex Brook Lynn) and Manon Kerjean sit down with filmmaker Vladimir Rodionov at the Luminor Theater during a special Valentine’s Day screening of his romantic comedy Anges & Cie (Angels & Company / Angels Inc.).

Set in a world where everyone has a personal angel, the film treats love like a workplace: angels are assigned “clients,” they follow you through every awkward, intimate moment, and they try (sometimes badly) to steer your life from above. At the center are two almost-lovers who keep colliding and missing each other, while their angels clash like rivals in a buddy comedy. But what happens when a few angels go off-script and decide to let love get messy on its own?

Vladimir breaks down the long road of making a first feature (nearly a decade from idea to release), why he’s obsessed with “high concept” premises you can sum up in one sentence (“what if angels were real?”), and how he built a world where angels operate like a bureaucratic company: hovering behind you, influencing choices, and sometimes giving truly terrible advice.

The conversation goes deeper than the rom-com label: intuition vs. destiny, “signs” that kept him going while the film was hard to finance/cast, whether a darker sequel could exist, and how love can be a surprise that pulls you outside your bubble. They also talk about modern romance in the age of apps (love as an “algorithm” vs. chaos), how movies shape the way we understand love, and what French cinema offers beyond couple-dom: friendship, empathy, and stories for anyone spending Valentine’s Day solo.

Please consider donating to World Radio Paris so we can continue to make these radio shows and podcasts https://worldradioparis.org/donate/

For more information on Lost in Frenchlation, visit https://lostinfrenchlation.com