Night #1
Night #1
| 10 August 2012 (USA)
Night #1 Trailers

Clara and Nikolai meet at a sweat-soaked rave and end their night at his apartment. The first part of the film is an erotic and candid portrait of their lovemaking. When Clara tries to sneak out without saying goodbye, this typical hookup takes an unexpected turn...

Reviews
Paul Allaer

"Nuit #1" (2011 release from Canada; 91 min., English title "Night #1") brings the story of Clara and Nikolai. As the movie opens, we see them dancing away, as if in a trance, at a rave party, bouncing up and down the floor, all in slow motion. We then jump forward to them arriving at Nikolai's apartment, where they have passionate sex. Later on, Clara gets ready to leave, but at the last minute Nikolai hears her leave and calls her back. The two start talking... At this point we're 15 min. into the movie, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.Couple of comments: this is the feature length debut from Canadian writer-director Anne Emond. Here, she tackles a bunch of topics, most importantly the loneliness and sense of being adrift of two young people (although the Nikolai character is 31, so not that young anymore). At one point Clara sighs "I want to cry but there are no tears in me", wow. As the title implies, this is, literally, the first night (#1) but to me it also implies between the lines that it is not the last night, although we don't know this of course. my point is: don't call this "the one-night stand movie" as that belittles what this movie is really about. As other have commented, the movie gets better as we get deeper into it, and the last half hour, when we finally hear the perspectives and thoughts of Clara, the movie is at its best. Kudos to the two lead performers, Catherine de Léan as Clara and Dimitri Storoge as Nikolai, who brings us fearless performances. This movie was up for a number of awards, including the Canadian equivalent of the Oscars in 2012. Certainly, this is not for everyone. There is a fair amount of nudity, in particular in the first 15 minutes, so if that offends or bothers you, please check out another movie. Much of the movie takes place in Nikolai's apartment, and in that sense this is pretty much like a filmed theater play, so if that is something that may bother you, please stay away from this.I stumbled upon this when browsing in the foreign movie section at my local library, and took a flyer on this. I'm glad I did, and I will seek out other movies from director Anne Emond. Worth checking out for fans of "all talk, no action" foreign language films.

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bsa1944

I suspect that most people who would watch this very low budget film might consider it simply awful. Some will consider it pornographic for the fairly explicit sexual scenes in the first part of the film. Others may consider it depressing (it is but not without a ray of hope) and/or self-indulgent.However if, like me, films dealing with the dark side, "Leaving Las Vegas" for example, resonate with you you may enjoy this as it is a film that explores the emptiness, alienation and loneliness of life in our time.Personally I felt a sense of empathy for the characters and liked it quite a lot. I recommend it to like-minded viewers.

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Pepedrabbit .

I saved this movie on my Netflix's list for so long, and I could never bring myself to view it because it's an indy and all, and with all indies, it's hit or miss. Then, for no reason, I turned it on and couldn't stop. Okay, the first 15 minutes were just steamy sex. Thereafter, the movie settled down to serious stuff.This movie affected me in strange ways. I am much older than this couple, yet I marveled at their life experience. It is the helplessness and hopelessness and carelessness of youth. I was once their age, but I was never come close to doing any of the things they had done. My life was typical, almost too boring to bear. This is a low-budget film, but very thoughtfully made and well-acted. A young man and a young man meet on a dance floor, and end up in his apartment to have sex the same night. After that transpires, the "now what?" is very revealing. This is the story of two "lost" souls, both searching for a meaning, but living each day in a haze of drugs, sex and alcohol, yet finding hopelessness wherever they turn. Long after they should have known better, they continue to exist in this warp of self-destructive behavior. In the end, you are left with a feeling of emptiness for this couple, yet you think that it might all work out. The ending doesn't really neatly tie up things. Good thing that it doesn't. They will continue to struggle, but it seems two lost souls found one another.

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suite92

Clara and Nikolai meet at a rave. They go home together. They have sex.She cannot sleep, takes a bath, then leaves. He calls her back before she's out the door.They talk, endlessly, in long, pointless, low-energy monologues. Then they talk some more. The problem is, their lives are flat, failed, undistinguished, prosaic: the lives of two slacker drug users who cannot engage life. Who cares? Self-loathing is just not appealing.------Scores------Cinematography: 7/10 Fairly good for the difficult low light conditions often chosen by the director. When there was sufficient light, the visuals were rather good.Sound: 5/10 OK, though nothing great.Acting: 4/10 Meh. Any high school drama student could have swapped in for either of the principals.Screenplay: 4/10 Plain, boring, non-engaging. The script is not clever enough to make one care about the characters, who are about as engaging as lichen on rocks. Write an essay, get it published, get it out of your system, but don't make a film about it, especially one this bad.

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