Um Para o Outro

Visually, it's a fine movie. It looks great, with an attractive cast, excellent color cinematography, especially the lighting, and well-composed frames.

And the story is based on true events, provocative, at that. Four young guys, and one young woman named Lucie, explore life and love, perform in a band, and generally hang out together in modern day France. One of the guys (Pierre) is Lucie's brother. When Pierre goes missing and is presumed dead, Lucie sets about to find out what happened to him.

Except for the musical performances, "Chacun sa nuit" is generally a slow, quiet film, with very long camera "takes". Characters spend a lot of time lounging around in the nude, sulking, dawdling, brooding, lost in thought. The script is not overly talky, thankfully. Indeed, the dialogue is measured, deliberate, contemplative.

But, the film's structure is difficult, for several reasons. First, the script's inciting incident happens off-screen, which renders some confusion as to what is going on, in the first half. Second, events do not occur chronologically. Instead, flashbacks to the time when Pierre was alive alternate with events after his death. And that compounds the confusion, especially the first time I watched the film. The second viewing did help to clarify the plot.

In addition, given that the other three guys (Nicolas, Sebastien, and Baptiste) are all about the same age, the same height, and have similar appearances, I found it hard to keep them straight ... so to speak.

I wish the film's script had gone through another rewrite or two. A few changes here and there could have clarified who was who and what was happening. But despite a less than perfect script, "Chacun sa nuit" is a film worth watching, for the beautiful cinematography; for the provocative, underlying concept; and for a story that is based on real-life events.

CHACUN SA NUIT (ONE TO ANOTHER) - CATCH IT ( B ) Chacun Sa Nuit is about One girl having sexual relationships with her 3 friends and Brother. A sexual relationship between a Sister and Her Brother is quite disturbing, shocking and provocative. According to the director the movie is based upon the true events occur in France, now how much reality in that is no one knows. After watching this movie I realize that French people are quite bold and provocative then I've expected. The movie is good though it rolls back & forth between Present time and Flashbacks, which takes time to understand. The movie touches various taboo topics like Sister and Brother sexual relation, Bisexuality, gay sex, guys having sex for money & girl seducing people to get out the facts about who killed here Brother. The Whole setup of the movie is quite artistic though when you are totally engage in the story and nakedness of the movie, the ending is quite Awful & for the Director to say that Adolescent let you do crimes like killing other person without any general motive is unbelievable. Who know what happened in real life but for cinema it's just not acceptable. The stars of movie are young and beautiful; apparently they are naked and soak under Sun naked most of the time. Lizzie Brochere looks quite beautiful & she isn't shy in being naked on screen. All the other guys, Arthur Dupont (Pierre), Guillaume Bache (Nicolas), Pierre Perrier (Sebastien) and Nicolas Nollet (Baptiste) are good looking young boys. My final verdict is, watch it for the Skin & Sex in the movie, who doesn't like beautiful people laying naked all the time? But if you're looking for a master piece with satisfying suspenseful ending it disappoints a little.

We're told this was based on a true story. Okay. The potential was there for a truly powerful, shattering film. Well, it isn't. However, I stayed glued to the screen due to the beauty of the cast. The girl, a throwback to the cookie females of the 60's and the boys one more cinematic than the other. It is difficult to guess - and why should anyone care - the intention of the filmmakers. An art film this is not and it's not a commercial venture, not really. If money was their objective they could have gone all the way. No. The film sort of works because one feels titilated by those eyes and those looks. So if their intention was to titillate they succeeded, big time. I wish this story could be re told with the same cast but with a great imaginative, powerful filmmaker at the helm.

This film is worthwhile for the soundtrack alone. And just as worthwhile in every other way.

Lots of tasteful nudity and sex between uninhibited young friends. Very enjoyable for both young and old to watch. The whole cast is beautiful, like they were born not to wear clothes. Someone complained after the screening that they were too beautiful. I didn't see that as a problem.

The criminal mystery and story background is revealed piece by piece out of chronological order in a series of flashbacks. That is difficult to do well, but here it's done skillfully and adds to the story rather than making it difficult to understand.

At the premiere at the Toronto Film Festival many people walked out of the screening. That surprised me. Sure there's a lot of nudity, but the film festival audience usually expects that and takes it in stride. The film is very French, and perhaps that could alienate Americans used to seeing only Hollywood films. The people who walked out of the film were mostly men. That surprised me too. Perhaps they were offended by the bisexual elements of the film? For anyone who likes film, especially anyone who likes French cinema, this is a must see.

Like so many screenwrites that minimize a functional plot and are based on jarring juxtapositions of elements truly extraneous to the story, (if you can find one in this film), one is left bored but befuddled. Quite a feat of genius--and then, let's throw in a kitchen sink (or two) and melodramatize the melodrama a bit further with all the kitchen sinks having sexual problems. And, as though any elegance might be wasted on the philistine masses anticipated to watch this thing, let's give the characters a good dowsing with Eau de Banal: let's say they are all in a band, and make them act so miraculously casual when confronted by each other's conceits that it seems the writer was trying hard to force accessible in ludicrous loads down watchers' throats. Doltish performances, mishandled script dynamics, and the shaky pursuit of post-modernist neo-realism all packs up together and forms a very cheesy fromage that no normal person could possibly suspend disbelief for in order to receive and swallow, and swallow, and swallow.