It was the first theatrically-released Blain's film since "Pierre et Djemila" (1986) ; in-between , there was a curious MTV adaptation of the Comtesse De Ségur "la fortune de Gaspard ":against all odds,it was not irrelevant in his filmography : it depicted a platonic gay relationship between a stingy tycoon and a young go-getter ,and was finally a plea for a square deal for the underprivileged .
"Jusqu'au bout de le nuit" is arguably Blain's most accessible movie (along with "un enfant dans la foule" ) but it does not twist the codes of the thriller as much as "ainsi soit-il " would do as the century came to an end .By several respects ,it's his less personal film although it retains his recurrent features .
Consequently , all the scenes with the mother are deeply moving : her approval of her son's revenge would be better applied on "ainsi soit-il " ,but all the other scenes are harrowing :Maria's visit to the convalescent home , the meeting at the jail, the morgue ....Blain 's obsession ,his longing for a family ,one of his permanent features ,is as intense as ever : his love for Maria,the unmarried mom and his affection for her little daughter go straight to the heart : nobody depicted the man/children relationship
as unsung Blain did (see his masterpiece " le pélican" ).
"Jusqu'au bout de la nuit" is Blain's most violent film ,relatively speaking. In "le rebelle " (1980) his revenge was cold and ruthless (depicted in succint style ) but non-political (the hero was through with the communist blah blah blah );in "Le Pélican" , the miserable daddy was powerless against a bourgeois society and surrendered ;in "Pierre et Djemilah ", the lovers were defeated and destroyed by the religious fundamentalism .
In his own formidable way ,Blain strikes back ; it's his rebellion against the society that protects the wealthy and whose police are at their beck and call ; the conversation with his hostage is revealing ; "You steal the state ,and I hold up the banks " , a sentence which reminds one of Arthur Penn's "Bonnie and Clyde " but his prisoner is not fooled : "we are the strongest ,you're defeated before you begin ".
Blain's own sons appear in supporting parts; one of them,Paul ,would be the hero of "ainsi soit-il " which ,IMHO ,was to surpass this one ,because the thriller side takes a back seat to the psychological drama, Blain's forte. In "jusqu'au bout de la nuit",he looks exhausted , desperate,old before his time, in spite of a possible happiness with Maria and her daughter; it's no coincidence if "ainsi soit-il " begins with a father's funeral.
