Before Sunrise
Festival de Cannes
MOVIE REVIEW
Strangers by Night (2023)
Longtime readers of this site will know this critic has a serious weakness for the genre of romantic comedy where the couple spend the night walking around a city, talking and getting to know each other as they explore the world instead of each other’s bodies. The previous entry in this genre was the Toronto charmer “Stay the Night,” while “Strangers by Night” is set in Paris. Its couple is older, with less reason to get together than most, but the irresistible pull between them is something the movie does a wonderful job exploring, up to a point.
They meet on the Paris subway, when she (Karin Viard) bumps into him (Alex Lutz, also the director) as she rushes into the car before the doors close. He snaps at her; she shouts back; and the sparks are so electric in their ensuing argument that 10 minutes later they are having a quickie in a photo booth in one of the stations. This is a compliment of the higher order, even if she is wearing a skirt. The Parisian metro is notoriously filthy; and it's hard to imagine a less hygienic place to take your knickers off. But the heart wants what it wants, especially if a man is directing, though both Ms. Viard and Mr. Lutz are credited as cowriters along with Hadrien Bichet. Afterward they go above ground and make excuses to keep talking to each other, though after he makes a call she throws his phone into the river. He laughs and does the same to hers. Instead of getting mad, they are delighted; now they are liberated from all their responsibilities and free to spend all the time they want together. Even so, they speak formally with each other; and it takes them a few more hours to exchange names - Aymeric and Nathalie.
As they walk they spot a house party, Nathalie manages to convince someone to shout down a door code; and they dance until they're both on the bed with the coats, sweaty and happy. But their own coats and bags, including their wallets, have disappeared, so they simply “borrow” some others from the party and go back out into the world. Their cashless adventures sometimes work extremely well - Aymeric sneaks them into a closed furniture store, where they play house among the displays - and sometimes not, when they bolt from a Vietnamese restaurant without paying because there is simply no other option. Charming! As if that wasn't bad enough Aymeric's rudeness about the food has Nathalie asking him directly if he's right-wing. Not at all, he assures her, but it's at this point the spell is broken for the audience, even at the Cannes Film Festival. It's hard to root for two entitled, selfish, racist brats especially if they are old enough to know better. And of course they know better - if you can't imagine why they just can’t start dating, you've never heard a stereotype about the French before. And that's before the sequence in the sex club.
However. Mr. Lutz and Ms. Viard have an unforced chemistry that's very appealing; and their tenderness with each other - a lot of hand holding and forehead kisses - on such a little acquaintance emphasizes their mutual attraction without making a fuss. The ways in which they gently probe each other for the reasons they don't want to go home demonstrates a knowledge of heartbreak and disappointment which a lot of movies simply don't have; and Eponine Momenceau's workaday filming of the most beautiful city in the world makes its own point about the ordinary opportunity for human connection surrounding us all. It doesn't all work - the flashforwards which take place in a hospital especially overdo it - but for the most part this is a fine addition to the romantic comedy genre – except for the racism.
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