SmugKitZine Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

MamaGravity good back-story, and good acting

Grimossfer Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

christopher-underwood Sublime, dreamlike and impressionist take on one night in Paris. There are two people who meet and get it together but this beautifully shot film pays as much attention to the neon sign of a café or the bumper of a car as it does the main protagonists. A transport strike has left the gorgeous Parisian streets grid locked with purring chrome creatures all headed somewhere, presumably. This movie is so good to look at it reminds one of how by taking just that much more care director's could give us this all the time. It is not just the leading actor that has to be lit right but yes the underside of balconies the lettering outside the hotel, even the condom machine. It would be fair to say here that less care seems taken with the appearance of the lead couple than their surroundings and this helps give us an increased sense of the 'reality' of the characters. Beautiful film and the scene in the bar when a third character introduces the erotic element that the main couple will take up is brilliant.

beatnick49 This movie is good.The concept is simple, two strangers meet up by chance, and fall in love. However unlike the love films we are accustomed to, this film, ends on a somewhat positive yet open note.There is mostly quiet movie, but like the Japanese film Dolls (which I reviewed just a few minutes ago) the lack of dialogue works. This is a movie about love and just a night together in both the crowded and deserted parts of the city (which are deserted because of the congestion). The main point of the movie is what the stars are doing, sitting in the car together, meeting up again, eating together, sleeping together, and just getting along and being friends and lovers.The movie is also well shot with some nice shots of Paris and and appealing looking hotel and restaurant.9 out of 10.

jamie73 This film resists all that is wrong with blockbuster cinema, totally refusing to offer straight-forward, passivity-inducing narrative structures. It is one of the most book-like films you are likely to see, taking its time to develop the central characters in manner that leaves them open to determination by the audience's imagination. It is an erotic film that has no climax. It is a film that engages in life rather than distracts us from it.This is an immensely subtle film that uses a broad range of cinematic techniques so you should definitely see it on a big screen. In fact, I wouldn't even bother seeing it on TV, so diminished would its impact be.

jotix100 Claire Denis sure knows the French woman's mentality. She is very sly in presenting us this story, that on the surface tells us one thing, but deep down, it has nothing to do what we are actually watching.The transit strike plot, with Laure sitting in traffic and going nowhere, is played too long. We all get the idea of the boredom and frustration of the driver caught in similar circumstances. That part of the film can drive the viewer nuts, since nothing happens.Laure doesn't feel any remorse into picking up Jean, who is obviously stranded, or is he?. Their conversation doesn't reveal anything, yet, one can feel where this is leading to: somewhere where Laure and Jean can copulate to their hearts content.The clue of what's to come takes place after they have an espresso at the cafe. Jean asks for change to go downstairs to the vending machine for a 4 condom pack. Oh la la... Jean is not a casual sex offender, he must protect himself, as well as the woman he takes to bed. Casual meetings such as these can be very dangerous!The scenes in the hotel are well staged. In fact, there is nothing shocking, or done in bad taste. When Laure and Jean are making out, their behavior is very chaste, without French kisses, (I wonder if Pres. Bush would call them Liberty kisses?...) is a let down. But Jean and Laure do it very stylishly and with decorum.Jean, obviously, is not a one-woman man. After all he has more condoms in his pocket and when he is in the pizzeria, he spots another woman who makes it known she wants to play with him downstairs. At the end of the film we watch Laure leave the hotel room running into the deserted streets with a grin on her face. She'll go now to her own lover as though nothing had ever happened that night. She is a woman empowered by her own will to have fun, yet not take it too seriously, or hurt anyone. Perhaps she's laughing at her own sense of adventure having done something that perhaps no one will ever know.Both of the principals are very effective. Veronique Lemercier and Vincent Lindon play very well together. The director is perhaps telling us that there is still hope for all of us, non movie star types, to have fun and meet a partner for the night, have great sex on the next transit strike, if we are in Paris.