Philémon is a teenager like no other: to survive, he needs human blood. In the rather too quiet suburban housing estate where he moves with his family, he does everything to blend in. Until the day he falls in love with his neighbor Camila and draws attention to them...
The film,thoroughly diurnal ,is not derivative for the story of a young vampire ; the cinematography is luminous, taking advantage of the splendid landscapes; Elodie Bouchez has something of classic goth girl ,Barbara Steele ; the young man's fate can be a metaphor for the transition from childhood to adolescence , the horror you feel when you discover you're different (you're too thin,you're too fat, you think you won't attract girls (or boys) , that maybe you're attracted to your own sex)
The title ( =waiting for the night) is justified
The bridge (you see twice) may be a symbol of a forbidden passage ; thus the ending ,which is not bloody ,gory, horrible, but is given a sober treatment ;the music, recalls sometimes late sixties Pink Floyd ; a cover of Bono/Nitsche 's "needles and pins" by Petula Clark whose version is quite different of Jackie De Shannon's love rivalry : the French lyrics talk about an endless night and solitude .
That said ,the movie may seem slow-moving and even repetitive (for instance Elodie Bouchez' s blood bank ) ; it lacks some black humor , like in Polanski 's "the fearless vampire killers" or in Stan Dragoti's "love at first bite" in which George Hamilton's Dracula compared a blood bank to a supermarket .Hence, in spite of its qualities ,its commercial failure .
