Friday Night (2003)

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

1st watched 3/9/2010 -- 7 out of 10 (Dir-Claire Denis): Beautiful film about a woman preparing for a new life, getting stuck in a traffic jam, picking up a stranger and then having a night together with him. This film is like watching a ballet with it's beautiful depiction of everything from the city of Paris, to the hotel room, to the main characters. The camera is like a peeping tom into the heart of the main character played by Valerie Lemercier as we feel and see everything she sees and feels. Except, of course, the emotions are a little restrained -- which is typical of the French. With French films, you never expect a cut-and-dry ending and they take their time letting you experience every moment(this is unique to this countries films). The film has a very simple premise and it lets you think thru what's going on in the character's minds and never gives away anything. There is very little dialogue which lets you breathe in and experience every minute. Sure -- not much happens, but it doesn't have to. Sometimes life is "exactly" like this and Claire Denis captures it beautifully. Do we know what happens to the character's when it's over?? -- no, but we can guess and that's where the fun lies in a film like this.

Sublime, dreamlike and impressionist take on one night in Paris. There are two people who meet and get it together but this beautifully shot film pays as much attention to the neon sign of a café or the bumper of a car as it does the main protagonists. A transport strike has left the gorgeous Parisian streets grid locked with purring chrome creatures all headed somewhere, presumably. This movie is so good to look at it reminds one of how by taking just that much more care director's could give us this all the time. It is not just the leading actor that has to be lit right but yes the underside of balconies the lettering outside the hotel, even the condom machine. It would be fair to say here that less care seems taken with the appearance of the lead couple than their surroundings and this helps give us an increased sense of the 'reality' of the characters. Beautiful film and the scene in the bar when a third character introduces the erotic element that the main couple will take up is brilliant.

What we have here is two ill-defined, unlikeable characters being bounced around for no justifiable reason. The pacing and cinematography are annoying. It all has that been-there-seen-that feel about it. The narrative keeps changing POV for no good reason. And the sex is stone cold. Don't get me wrong, I am not a trasher of independent French films. I do not _require_ to be entertained a la Star Wars. To be fair, the overall mood and feeling (Paris as the humid, drizzly, polluted wintery-cold nightmare) is well captured. You can smell the stale-cigarette-soaked hotel room. Compared to other "random coupling" movies (The Lover, Last Tango in Paris, La Desenchantee), this is limp "caca de chien".

The traffic jam sequence alone stands as an amazing and lyrical study of the rhythms of stop and start driving. The two lovers are so anchored in the magnetism of the present. This movie is a homage to human nature, and sexual attraction consummated. Also, I absolutely love that the film accepts and cherishes the moment as the lovers do. It's very French.