A story set in an American brothel in the 1870s, about the harsh life of the young women, immigrants and children of immigrants, who travelled thousands of miles to finally end up as prostitutes in the saloons, music halls and brothels of the ‘new frontier’. The film concentrates on five women who work for Annie Ryan (a brilliant role by the Irish Brenda Fricker). The story starts when the women have just returned from the funeral of one of Annie’s girls, who has been killed. The replacement for the dead girl is the pretty German Katya, who finds friendship and solace with Eileen. Then there is the unlikely relationship between the young and attractive Georgie and Ada, the eldest of the bunch and mother of two children. The wise Nettie (Kelly McGillis), the fifth woman in the story, managed to rescue her own child from her alcoholic father and views events in the brothel with a watchful eye.Painted Angels is an ambitious production and excels in its eye for detail and the (slow) tempo. No western clichés here, but a sober, unadorned picture of the lives and the suffering of people on the lowest rung of the social ladder. The film is beautifully photographed and lit, has fine roles by all the actresses and is occasionally reminiscent of nineteenth-century painting. The film was entirely shot on location in Saskatchewan, Canada.
