Spend an evening with Karin Viard and Alex Lutz, that’s what A night, discovered at the Cannes Film Festival in the Un certain regard section. The actor is heading to the cinema again after being Caesarized for guy in 2019. On the program, the impromptu meeting of a couple who argue like rotten fish in the metro before making passionate love and living together for a few hours of tenderness and questioning of their lives. They only have a few hours: each of them is married and parent.
It was seeing two people arguing in a subway train that the idea ofA night came to Alex Lutz. “Their shouting match was full of charm,” he says. We ended up saying to ourselves that they seemed to like each other. I noted their exchange in a notebook. Karin Viard enters her dance with grace and shattering energy. Both have rarely been as beautiful as filmed by cinematographer Hadrien Bichet and camerawoman Eponine Momenceau during a Paris shoot that only lasted fourteen days.
Kind and beloved characters
Passion, explanations, crushes and whims allow the relationship to develop between these two beings who have only a limited time together and are therefore forced to work twice as hard to live their relationship. “The question of time, what we do with it, what we miss, what we win is for me an infinite matter of scenario, of stories to tell,” says Alex Lutz. He drags his characters into a whirlwind of emotions until a predictable reversal adds to the viewer’s involvement in their story.
The obvious chemistry that inhabits the actors brings a breath of warm air to this pas de deux with bittersweet flavors. Alex Lutz confirms the delicacy of his staging highlighting his partner who gives him the best of his talent. “I wanted to question the couple for one night,” says Alex Lutz. This reflection that leads the duo to a photo booth, to a student party, to the banks of the Seine and then to a libertine club is touching in its tenderness. The correctness ofA night arises from the intimacy that develops between the public and the pair of lovers. We feel that Alex Lutz loves his characters and we also love them by capillarity.