Vendredi soir (2002)
Country: FR
Technical: col 89m
Director: Claire Denis
Cast: Valérie Lemercier, Vincent Lindon, Grégoire Colin
Synopsis:
Paris, one winter's evening: Laure prepares to leave her flat and move in with her boyfriend when, stuck in traffic following a public transport strike, she picks up a handsome stranger and spends the night with him.
Review:
An apparently preposterous scenario is rendered present and real by Denis's concentrated shooting style. She not only makes us spend time with her characters when nothing very interesting happens to them - or nothing apparently very interesting - she also gets right up close and personal. There is hardly a scene of sustained dialogue between these two ships in the night, and that is the point: anything breaking the supreme isolation of this evening in time and place (thanks to gridlock) would simultaneously break the spell of their shared solace. It is a tour de force of acting and directing; it's only a shame the final flight into the street and freeze frame don't quite satisfy.
Country: FR
Technical: col 89m
Director: Claire Denis
Cast: Valérie Lemercier, Vincent Lindon, Grégoire Colin
Synopsis:
Paris, one winter's evening: Laure prepares to leave her flat and move in with her boyfriend when, stuck in traffic following a public transport strike, she picks up a handsome stranger and spends the night with him.
Review:
An apparently preposterous scenario is rendered present and real by Denis's concentrated shooting style. She not only makes us spend time with her characters when nothing very interesting happens to them - or nothing apparently very interesting - she also gets right up close and personal. There is hardly a scene of sustained dialogue between these two ships in the night, and that is the point: anything breaking the supreme isolation of this evening in time and place (thanks to gridlock) would simultaneously break the spell of their shared solace. It is a tour de force of acting and directing; it's only a shame the final flight into the street and freeze frame don't quite satisfy.
Country: FR
Technical: col 89m
Director: Claire Denis
Cast: Valérie Lemercier, Vincent Lindon, Grégoire Colin
Synopsis:
Paris, one winter's evening: Laure prepares to leave her flat and move in with her boyfriend when, stuck in traffic following a public transport strike, she picks up a handsome stranger and spends the night with him.
Review:
An apparently preposterous scenario is rendered present and real by Denis's concentrated shooting style. She not only makes us spend time with her characters when nothing very interesting happens to them - or nothing apparently very interesting - she also gets right up close and personal. There is hardly a scene of sustained dialogue between these two ships in the night, and that is the point: anything breaking the supreme isolation of this evening in time and place (thanks to gridlock) would simultaneously break the spell of their shared solace. It is a tour de force of acting and directing; it's only a shame the final flight into the street and freeze frame don't quite satisfy.