"I want to cry but there are no tears in me..."
"Nuit #1" (2011 release from Canada; 91 min., English title "Night #1") brings the story of Clara and Nikolai. As the movie opens, we see them dancing away, as if in a trance, at a rave party, bouncing up and down the floor, all in slow motion. We then jump forward to them arriving at Nikolai's apartment, where they have passionate sex. Later on, Clara gets ready to leave, but at the last minute Nikolai hears her leave and calls her back. The two start talking... At this point we're 15 min. into the movie, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.
Couple of comments: this is the feature length debut from Canadian writer-director Anne Emond. Here, she tackles a bunch of topics, most importantly the loneliness and sense of being adrift of two young people (although the Nikolai character is 31, so not that young anymore). At one point Clara sighs "I want to cry but there are no tears in me", wow. As the title implies, this is, literally, the first night (#1) but to me it also implies between the lines that it is not the last night, although we don't know this of course. my point is: don't call this "the one-night stand movie" as that belittles what this movie is really about. As other have commented, the movie gets better as we get deeper into it, and the last half hour, when we finally hear the perspectives and thoughts of Clara, the movie is at its best. Kudos to the two lead performers, Catherine de Léan as Clara and Dimitri Storoge as Nikolai, who brings us fearless performances. This movie was up for a number of awards, including the Canadian equivalent of the Oscars in 2012. Certainly, this is not for everyone. There is a fair amount of nudity, in particular in the first 15 minutes, so if that offends or bothers you, please check out another movie. Much of the movie takes place in Nikolai's apartment, and in that sense this is pretty much like a filmed theater play, so if that is something that may bother you, please stay away from this.
I stumbled upon this when browsing in the foreign movie section at my local library, and took a flyer on this. I'm glad I did, and I will seek out other movies from director Anne Emond. Worth checking out for fans of "all talk, no action" foreign language films.
Couple of comments: this is the feature length debut from Canadian writer-director Anne Emond. Here, she tackles a bunch of topics, most importantly the loneliness and sense of being adrift of two young people (although the Nikolai character is 31, so not that young anymore). At one point Clara sighs "I want to cry but there are no tears in me", wow. As the title implies, this is, literally, the first night (#1) but to me it also implies between the lines that it is not the last night, although we don't know this of course. my point is: don't call this "the one-night stand movie" as that belittles what this movie is really about. As other have commented, the movie gets better as we get deeper into it, and the last half hour, when we finally hear the perspectives and thoughts of Clara, the movie is at its best. Kudos to the two lead performers, Catherine de Léan as Clara and Dimitri Storoge as Nikolai, who brings us fearless performances. This movie was up for a number of awards, including the Canadian equivalent of the Oscars in 2012. Certainly, this is not for everyone. There is a fair amount of nudity, in particular in the first 15 minutes, so if that offends or bothers you, please check out another movie. Much of the movie takes place in Nikolai's apartment, and in that sense this is pretty much like a filmed theater play, so if that is something that may bother you, please stay away from this.
I stumbled upon this when browsing in the foreign movie section at my local library, and took a flyer on this. I'm glad I did, and I will seek out other movies from director Anne Emond. Worth checking out for fans of "all talk, no action" foreign language films.
- paul-allaer
- Mar 21, 2016