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Friday Night (2003)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:52
Fresh:42
Rotten:10
Average Rating:7/10
Consensus: A dreamy, visually poetic film.
Synopsis: Claire Denis' FRIDAY NIGHT, a fantasy that follows a woman into a one-night stand, is an adaptation of the popular novel by Emmanuelle Bernheim who also cowrote the story with Denis. Dreamy and... Claire Denis' FRIDAY NIGHT, a fantasy that follows a woman into a one-night stand, is an adaptation of the popular novel by Emmanuelle Bernheim who also cowrote the story with Denis. Dreamy and confused, the film begins as Laure (Valerie Lemercier) is packing up her Paris apartment and preparing to move. The chaos of this situation leads directly into the next, as Laure gets in her car and begins to drive across town to a dinner party, only to become stuck in a massive traffic jam. As radio reports continue to stress the drastic and unbreakable gridlock that has Paris literally locked in the streets, a rainstorm blurs Laure's vision. Suddenly, a stranger (Vincent Lindon) approaches on foot, and she offers him a ride. But they're not going anywhere, just smoking, and sitting idle. Eventually Laure calls her friends and cancels on the dinner party, leaving her Friday night wide open to follow whatever path it may take. A master at building tension and suspense, Denis creates so much chemistry between Laure and her fantasy man that viewers may await a turn to violence or something shockingly unexpected. However, that nervous and mysterious feeling just builds as the ambiguous story of FRIDAY NIGHT continues and a seemingly banal situation--a traffic jam on a rainy Friday--becomes a magical adventure. [More]
Starring: Valerie Lemercier, Vincent Lindon
Starring: Valerie Lemercier, Vincent Lindon
Director: Claire Denis
Director: Claire Denis
Screenwriter: Claire Denis, Emmanuelle Bernheim
Producer: Bruno Pesery
Studio: Wellspring
Reviews for Friday Night
There's something about Denis's filmmaking style that is deeply affecting.
an economically constructed road movie, beautiful to look at and full of minutely observed details
[Denis] creates so many dazzling little moments that she turns what might have been something slight and forgettable into something occasionally magical.
...if you go with the ebb and flow, Friday Night can be as intoxicating as a good cocktail.
It will make you long for the weekend...a picture that seems to ramble its way through an essentially tepid little anecdote.
I would not want to spend my Friday Night watching this Friday Night. It's bad enough to sit through it on Wednesday morning.
Denis imbues the simple details of a one-night stand with powerful eroticism and humane understanding.
Friday Night never makes the leap from a little fantasy about sex with a stranger to a larger story about a woman settling down for life.
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