My Life Is Hell

My Life Is Hell (Ma vie est un enfer, 1991) — watch online on iFILM — a French comedy written, directed by, and starring Josiane Balasko. Léa Lemonier turns thirty-five alone, with a dog for company and a life that shows no signs of improving: a sadistic boss, a predatory neighbor, and a psychoanalyst who charges by the hour without delivering anything useful.

Then a demon named Abargadon turns up at her door with an offer she probably should have read more carefully before signing. Heaven takes immediate notice and dispatches the Archangel Gabriel to sort things out. The complication is that Léa is starting to find Abargadon considerably more tolerable than anyone she has ever met.

Balasko turns the Faustian bargain into something wry and oddly tender — a story about a woman so used to being overlooked that even a demon seems like an improvement. Stream My Life Is Hell online on iFILM.