The Night (2020)

The Night (2020)

Exactly!
Yes, a friend had written that this film was ‘soporific…’! Yes, that’s it!
But as we rarely agree on films, I think we’re actually in complete agreement on this one!

It’s crazy!
When he makes me want to see a film, that’s surprising enough. I thought that if he hadn’t liked it, there was a chance I might enjoy it. Alas, he was absolutely right!

If you take this film for what it is, it’s really bad.

On the other hand, I have to say it was really nice for me to see Iranian actors, as they’re a neighbouring people to my own. The literal translation of the film would be ‘That Night’. And, unless I’m mistaken, it’s the first film made in America to have been granted a release in Iran since the Iranian Revolution in 1979.

It’s not all bad, and the film’s ideas are actually quite good. But everything becomes too convoluted and implausible. We end up with a sort of settling of scores, because, once again, there are secrets that must be revealed in a feature film. Couples’ stories like so many others, and which are, alas, still all too relevant in this sick society.

There are plenty of unsettling moments in this hotel from which there is no escape, such as a sceptical policeman who turns up, but then you hear a knock at the door and it’s the same policeman again, as if he’d never been there. There’s also a woman and a child who reappear like ghosts. Noises coming from upstairs, but no one in the room in question. Anyway!

The ending is rather reassuring when you think of the events that preceded it, but also artistic, with a play on mirrors that recalls a painting seen earlier in the film. But the remorse remains and proves that it is just as powerful as regret, if not more so.

With ideas like these, it’s a shame the film is boring, slow and long. Another good story, but one that’s directed in such a way as to seem endless and… soporific!