Mes nuits sont plus belles que vos jours (1989)
Directed by Andrzej Zulawski

Film Review

Avant-garde Polish filmmaker Andrzej Zulawski (one-time assistant to the great Andrzej Wajda) directed this unconventional romantic drama, which seems to lie somewhere between a cinematic joke (possibly a pompous deconstruction of the familiar French melodrama) and a wildly O.T.T. self-indulgent experiment in cinematographic style.  The ridiculously unconvincing performances from the two lead actors - Jacques Dutronc and Sophie Marceau at their worst - certainly do not help matters, neither does the incoherent marauding mess that masquerades as a narrative. However, it's Zulawski's absurd, overly self-conscious theatricality that is most off-putting, making this a hollow, painfully laboured and thoroughly unwatchable piece of misguided artistic nonsense.

Film Synopsis

Lucas is a software developer who is suffering from a rare brain condition that has already begun to affect his memory.  As his health begins to deteriorate he starts to feel prematurely aged and becomes increasingly preoccupied with his mortality.  One day, he meets an attractive young woman in a Parisian café.  She is Blanche, a married woman who belongs to an artificial world that is alien to Lucas - she is a medium in a bizarre travelling show.  From the moment they meet, the two young people are strongly attracted to one another, but there is not enough time for a romance to develop as Blanche has a prior engagement in Biarritz.  Lucas follows her and checks into a luxury hotel.  After their next meeting in a casino, they agree to spend the following few nights together.  Both desperately in need of love, the dying man and the unfulfilled mystic are unable to resist the scorching lure of a torrid love affair...