Description

You and The Night 2013
Les rencontres d’après minuit (original title)
Unrated | 1h 38min | Comedy, Drama, Romance | 13 November 2013 (France)

Storyline:

Around midnight, a young couple and their transvestite maid prepare for an orgy. Their guests will be The Slut, The Star, The Stud and The Teen.

User review:

The film had my full attention when it begins. It certainly provides beautiful imagery set to very suitable electronic music. I was at the edge of my seat to see Eric Cantona put his trousers-snake on full exhibit as well. It’s all downhill from then on, though. Rather than getting down to business, as one would suppose one would at an orgy, the director makes an attempt at making the characters “profound” and digresses from the actual orgy theme. His characters are ranting on and on about their back stories, and this is visualized in an abstract artsy fartsy manner that is distracting and evasive. It comes across as very moralistic, as if the characters need a legitimate post modernist approved excuse to attend an orgy. The sex must first be metaphysicalized before it is engaged in. It must have the pretension of “high” art, otherwise it would be deemed vulgar. This is the type of French drivel that pretends to be very liberal and provocative but is in fact very apologetic and orthodox in its views on sex and sexuality. Namely, we are being lectured: you should be looked down upon if you engage in promiscuous sex for sexual pleasure’s sake only. And that you shall feel obliged to love and feel a deep connection to, even the most unattractive and unpleasant people randomly forcing themselves upon you. We wouldn’t want to be deemed “superficial,” now, would we?

I have no problems with a kaleidoscopic visual trip of eroticism, but it must actually feel sensual, rather than awkward. Hey, if you think it’s sexy seeing an annoying snarly queen dressed as a maid giving a woman a passionless mechanical hand-job on a couch, whilst a beautiful boy is delivering a monologue about his predilection for the night and its forbidden delights, then by all means this must be your type of film. The appeal of nocturnal carnal sin is alluded to, but the image we are provided with is off-putting and not sensual at all. Moreover, the incessant “deep” talk is on overkill and therefore the film drags on and becomes unbearably tedious.

I commend the director for his excellent visuals, now all he needs is a well written script to go with it.

Director: Yann Gonzalez
Writers: Yann Gonzalez (screenplay), Rebecca Zlotowski (scenario consultant)
Stars: Kate Moran, Niels Schneider, Nicolas Maury
Country: France
Language: French
Release Date: 13 November 2013 (France)
Filming Locations: Sanatorium d’Aincourt, Aincourt, Val-d’Oise, France