VENDREDI SOIR
FRIDAY NIGHT |
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Director:
Claire Denis
Screenplay: Denis & Emmanuelle Bernheim, based on Bernheim’s
novel.
Cast: Laure: Valérie Lemercier
Jean: Vincent Lindon
Marie: Hélène de Saint Père
Running time: 90 minutes
Production: France, 2002
Rating: Not rated (some discrete sex scenes)
Gauge: 35mm (color)
Language: French
Distributor: Wellspring Media
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"Claire
Denis films like we dream. Fractions of dreamlike seconds, a drowsiness,
a few mental images mixed with what seems the recording of the most
mundane aspects of daily life, and here is where the film situates
itself, as if between two waters, in the twilit space that separates
waking from sleep." Jean-Michel Frodon, Le Monde. |
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After Beau
Travail and Trouble Every Day, Denis and cinematographer
Agnès Godard collaborate on another stylistic experiment,
limning the sensibility of a woman during an unexpected, almost
wordless sexual encounter on a winter night in Paris. At her apartment,
Laure finishes packing her belongings in preparation to move in
with her lover the next morning. She goes out to visit friends,
but a transit strike has paralyzed the city and Friday night traffic
is at a standstill. Resigning herself to being trapped in her car,
Laure starts to observe the world around her with detached curiosity.
Suddenly she sees a man who, in contrast to the multitude of frustrated
drivers, saunters among the vehicles looking calm and relaxed. He
asks for a ride and gets in beside her. A sexual current passes
between them. They park in a side street and kiss, then go to rent
a room at an anonymous hotel and spend a passionate night together.
A prowling, curious camera seems to comprehend the very texture
of this sensual adventure. Having subtly captured Laure's anxiety
occasioned by the prospect of long-term commitment, the film evokes
the relief and renewed sense of autonomy her one-night stand provides,
while permitting her the freedom of an open future.
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| PHOTO Wellspring
Media |
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