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Credits
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Summary
Keen to find a husband, Séréna places an ad in the newspapers, and receives
a promising reply from a landowner living in Chateauneuf-sur-Rhône. Shortly
after arriving in the rural town, she realises that he is not what she was looking for,
but she stays in the area, getting a job as a barmaid. She is soon noticed by a
farm worker, Roland, who, after a life of solitude, finds he is in love with her.
He robs a bank to buy a château and persuades Séréna to marry him.
On the wedding night, Séréna absconds, and meets up with a writer, Antonine,
who suffers from fits of paranoia and depression. Antonine is enchanted by Séréna
and takes her to his attic where he works, keeping her locked up their during the day.
When she hears about this, Antonine’s wife, Marianne, walks out. She is on
her way back to Paris when she decides to seek out Roland to let him know where his wife
Séréna is living...
Review
Directed by Danièle Dubroux, who also stars in the film (along side some other
high calibre acting talent), L’Examen de minuit is a typically French mix of drama
and black comedy which has as many good points as bad. On the plus side, the film
is beautifully photographed, giving an authentic-looking picture of rural life in France,
complete with colourful rustic characters. The film goes so way to portraying the
ennui and eccentricities of country life (where else could one man pull off a bank robbery
in broad daylight and make a safe getaway on a bicycle?).
Where the film falls down is that it perhaps goes too far in playing up its characters’ eccentricities. Although all of the main characters in the film have some kind of emotional or mental impairment, which could to some extent justify their unconventional behaviour, very little in the film seems to ring true. Despite commendable performances from all of the lead actors, the characters they are portraying just feel too contrived or too under-developed to be convincing. The way in which all of the characters go sudden changes in behaviour is also suspect – for example, one minute Antoine is holding a gun at Roland’s head, the next minute he is prepared to risk his life to save him: why ? L’Examen de minuit is certainly a watchable film, but its flawed character development and unconvincing plot (particularly the ending) mars the pleasure of watching the film. © James Travers 2002 Write a review for this film... |
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