You and the Night.

A Freudian fantasy about sex, death and loneliness and how a group of strangers try and find the secret of life through collective sex in which each person tells their own dream like erotic fantasy, thereby forming a substitute family from the freedom to indulge in highly sexed situations.

 

Kate Moran.

Around midnight, a young couple and their transvestite maid prepare for an orgy. Their guests will be The Slut, The Teen, The Stud and The Star. As each guest arrives they tell their story, most of them too fantastical to believe. Once the guests have shared their stories the hosts tell their story of immortality and a love that crosses death. As the orgy begins fantasy and reality combine until the group is both watcher of and participant in their own liaisons.[1]

 

The girls get to know one another. 

French Director Yan Gonzalez had made six short films before embarking on his début feature You and the Night (2013). Sex is his driving force in a film that can be seen as a mixture of comedy, horror and drama, but one that does not fit easily into any particular genre.  More a French Theatrical art house film that uses artificial setting’s and strange landscapes giving you the impression that you’re watching a cross between Alejandro Jodorowsky and Catherine Breillat.

 

Whats that naughty French footballer up too? 

Our stories involves a group of characters that do not appear to have any defined sexuality but are happy to indulge in sex without the normal moralistic constraint's that under other circumstances would pressure them to restrict these urges. Starring Kate Moran, who Gonzalez first saw naked on stage, as Ali. Niels Schneider, seen in two of Xavier Dolan movies I Killed My Mother (2009) and Heartbeats (2010) brings intensity to the part of Matthias. The most recognizable face in this movie is Eric Cantona in quite a different role from Ken Loach’s Looking for Eric (2009). Following an approach from the Gonzalez he was happy to be cast as the stud and if you take nothing else away from this movie it will be the sight of the rather large penis hanging out of the ex footballer trousers. Described by the transvestite maid as a ‘sleeping Shepard boy’ it was the most expensive prop in the movie taking two weeks to create in the special effects department! You will also recognise Beatrice Dalle (Inside 2007) who plays the Commissioner.

 

Every one needs a cute wee maid!

Although the movie owes a lot to the VHS culture of the 1980’s midnight movies the director has allegedly been quoted that the movie was made as a tribute to John Hughes 1985 coming of age drama The Breakfast Club?  An interesting modern electronic soundtrack from the director’s brother Anthony Gonzalez and his band M83 for the main part, but it also includes music from other artists. The human jukebox is an interesting concept where you place the flat of your hand on it and its reads your mood and selects music to suit it. This fascinating movie was shot on 35mm film stock, which adds a texture to a film that will either beguile or disgust?  

Is it fantasy or fiction?

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[1] DVD Synopsis.

Heartbeats.

By the time he was 21 Canadian born actor, writer and director Xavier Dolan had directed two films. The first was I Killed My Mother (2009) a biographical drama about the mother and son bond, which garnered three awards at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. His next film was Heartbeats (2010) another remarkable achievement for such a young director and one in which he wrote and starred in. This movie premiered at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival as well as Toronto and at the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival’s and has been described as a story about perverse love.

 

Xavier Dolan, Neils Schneider and Monia Chokri.

Frances (Dolan) and Maria (Monia Chokri) live in Montreal, seem to be financially independent and are very good friends. This relationship is severely tested when they both fall under the magnetic spell of Nicolas (Neils Schneider) a golden haired Adonis with come-to-bed eyes. Francis daydreams that he is ‘James Dean’ while Maria, stylish and tough but fragile below surface, aspires to emulate ‘Audrey Hepburn’. Both are very beautiful people, bright and intelligent and both attempt to bed the dream like character of Nicolas but struggle to do more than fantasise, talk about it and smoke seductively - although all three sleep in the same bed at times!

 

Maria aspires to be Audrey Hepburn.

This extremely beautiful relationship drama is fall of inner feeling wonderfully portrayed by our three leads. The film boasts a great soundtrack and some imaginative slow-motion camera work and a great sense of humour. Dolan has a certain style that’s can be referenced through directors like Pedro Almodovar and Wong Kar-Wai, a style that certainly charmed this blogger. Can’t wait to sample more work by a very promising filmmaker.