You and the Night

The eccentric debut of French writer/director Yann Gonzalez, in which a young couple (Kate Moran, Niels Schneider) and their transvestite maid (Nicolas Maury) host an orgy, combines dreams and extraordinary histories with a rather fluid reality. Love, sex and death come crashing together as the strangers bond by sharing their stories, though sex sits on the backburner at first. One such tale features a well-endowed Eric Cantona (known here as the Stud) at the sexual mercy of a Gulag-style prison guard (Béatrice Dalle), so you get the picture. Gonzalez sculpts something seductive out of the strange, futuristic and retro: 1970s and 80s stylings abound, sustained by a sultry electro score from M83. The film's prurient philosophising can be frustratingly pithy but there's a cheeky gag around every corner and the imaginative visuals, committed performances and tendency to transgress mean things are never less than interesting. It's as if The Breakfast Club were reimagined by controversial director Catherine Breillat.