Watch Only the Night For Free

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Fantastic!

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

"Une Aventure" opens with a dead body, a gun, and blood on a bed. You don't know who died or who killed them. These questions had better sustain you for a long time, because the rest of the film belies its title: it's slow, dull and generally uneventful - it's almost the equivalent of watching grass grow. Ludivine Sagnier has a chameleonic quality that probably attracts directors to her; she can play the sexbomb, the girl-next-door and the pathetic loser. Here she keeps you wondering if her character is a femme fatale or a fallen angel. But this film is destined to remain a forgotten entry in her filmography. ** out of 4.

"Une Aventure" features Ludivine Sagnier portraying Gabrielle, a single unwed mom who is the mistress to an older independent businessman/investor. Although Gabrielle is well provided for by her lover, with a nice modern apartment and a nanny/maid, and although she is the one character in the movie who does not have to work for a living (she calls herself a "lady of leisure"), she is depressed and slowly descending into the depths of mental illness. The main question, as the movie progresses, is whom she will pull into the depths with her (we see just how deep the depths are at the very beginning of the film, as the rest fills in the story leading up to the opening scene).Gabrielle stumbles into Julien one night, who has just moved into her neighborhood, and that triggers a relationship that draws Julien into her life, with all its problems. Julien, although he is living with a woman, starts pursuing and trying to help Gabrielle both out of human kindness and because he is attracted to her. The circle expands as we get introduced to Julien's lover, Gabrielle's lover/provider, and the wife of Gabrielle's lover/provider. This being France, it is possible for all these people to know and interact with everyone else without furniture being thrown at each other. But that doesn't mean that there aren't tensions, or that there isn't hatred buried just beneath the surface of interactions, or that everyone is going to live happily ever after.The best performance is turned in by Bruno Todeschini as Louis, Gabrielle's lover/provider. Ludivine Sagnier shows in this role that she is more than just a pretty face, and she does an adequate job portraying a character who is the opposite of upbeat and perky.Those who purchase or rent "Une Aventure" hoping for a duplicate of Ludivine Sagnier's compelling performance in "Swimming Pool" are likely to be disappointed. Sagnier's character in "Swimming Pool" is carefree and often merrily unclothed; in "Une Aventure" her character is depressed and passive, especially during her romantic couplings. Although there are a few brief nude scenes, and Ludivine wears a very flattering dress in a nightclub scene (this is what is pictured on the box cover), there are nowhere near as many as in "Swimming Pool". Watch "Une Aventure" only if you are into dramatic French cinema about adult relationships.

Very little separates the exquisite Ludivine Sagnier from a Raphaelite oil rendering of a classic angelic innocent in the bloom of adolescence. Also a fine actress, she lights up the screen as no other beauty in recent film history. This dark tale of a sleepwalker unaware of her nightly roaming is a good example of Sagnier's immense glow and not a bad story, either. Age 26 at this time and the mother of a daughter by co-star/then-boyfriend Nicolas Duvauchelle, she still looks fourteen and likely will even when when old age sets in. Anything Sagnier appears in is instantly enhanced by her radiance, beginning with LES MARIS, LES FEMMES, LES AMANTS in 1989 when she was just ten. Perfectly at home in front of the cameras clothed or unclothed, she displays a fairly wide range of roles, but always emanates a natural presence that is quite breathtaking. The best examples of her extraordinarily seductive work can be seen in WATER DROPS ON BURNING ROCKS (2000), LA PETITE LILI (2003) and SWIMMING POOL (2003), while a fine command of more stately character ability is demonstrated in such productions as MOLIERE (2007), A SECRET (2007) and A GIRL CUT IN TWO (2007). Do yourself a favor and take 20-minutes off to view the otherwise rather pointless short LES FRERES HELIAS with Duvauchelle, which has been posted online at Vimeo for at least two years. Single with two children and nearly fifty films since 1979, Sagnier has restricted herself mostly to the more credible European movie industry and has rightfully risen to top billing level. With the call of the West becoming louder and louder, one can only hope that Hollywood won't affect her continuing career adversely. Currently administering to a pair of Muslim lookalikes in THE DEVIL'S DOUBLE (2011), my humble advice is...don't miss any film she appears in.

The biggest draw to this movie for me, was L. Sagnier. A beautiful and very talented woman. And she doesn't disappoint acting wise. It's the movie itself that is kind of a drag (not in a very good sense and actually pretty literally). While It's not so much the (slow) pacing of it, but the fact, that many things just remain in the dark (no pun intended).And while a movie cannot explore every relationship very deeply, you should expect that the relationships of the major character are revealed more in depth. Unfortunately this never happens. And as much as I would love to like it (especially the ending is confusing in almost a good way), there are quite a few things, that don't work here. Nice relationship movie then, with a dark twist (though many things could've been explored better)