Přišla v noci
Photographie:
Šimon DvořáčekMusique:
Aid KidActeurs·trices:
Simona Peková, Jiří Rendl, Annette Nesvadbová, Vladimír Kratina, Judit Pecháček, Jan Vondráček, Vasil Fridrich, Denisa Barešová, Michal KernRésumés(1)
Jirka and Aneta are a young couple who enjoy the routine of their quiet relationship and are in no hurry to make big decisions in life. One night in their inherited flat, the doorbell rings and standing at the door is Jirka’s mother Valerie. An initially brief visit turns into a never-ending stay by an intense and caustic diva whose presence fundamentally disrupts the couple’s privacy. Certainties are shaken, boundaries broken. Although the film’s directorial duo works with a familiar premise, they subvert any dark humor with a sense of tension more commonly found in horror movies, all of it wrapped in the penetrating question: Is the mother’s unbearable smothering legitimate or are mothers sometimes the biggest monsters of all? (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)
(plus)Critiques (7)
A Czech unconventional black-humor home invasion. The film is strange in that the genre classification of horror is a misnomer, but what the main characters experience could be called horror, because it’s something you just wouldn’t like to go through. The star is Simona Pekova, she does a very good job. There is a kind of light psychological terror that carries through the whole film and to my surprise I quite enjoyed it. Fucking squaters! The finale could have been handled better, unfortunately no satisfaction comes in the end.
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Hell is other people. And that’s all the more true in the case of your own family, because you can never escape from it, which is also due to the fact that you carry your family inside yourself forever. Jan Vejnar and Tomáš Pavlíček have made a brilliant home-invasion horror movie in which the terrifying (and suffocating) substance of familial relationships takes the place of the usual genre elements. The reactions in the cinema, filled with heavy, painful sighs, sheer terror and desperate laughter of those longing in vain for relief, provide confirmation of how the filmmakers brilliantly captured the details of psychological terror not only of the maternal variety, but also of the general variety extending one way across the chasm between the generations. Their film’s power lies in the devastatingly accurate casting, which fills out the screenplay based on internally observed and analysed feelings and their triggers, which are embedded in the screenplay with frightening precision and devastating authenticity, whether that involves lobotomising solicitude, crushing egocentricity or merely the exhausting, overly clever wisdom of the elderly. She Came at Night also excels in how it manages to acutely thematise the core of its genre, i.e. the home itself, from the perspective of its importance for the central characters, as well as with respect to how its violation impacts the characters. Of all the elements that the filmmaking duo put into their work, the most terrifying is the fact that they don’t demonise the central monster, but rather point out that each of us has the potential to become such a monster. The fact that the monster is not capable of self-reflection and, because of that, sees herself as a misunderstood victim gives She Came at Night an additional chillingly meaningful level that goes beyond the boundaries of the microcosm of one family, revealing an unsettling general truth about the core of numerous problems in society.
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Přišla v noci est une comédie noire qui transpose des expériences familiales et relationnelles vécues dans une forme presque horrifique, basée sur la prémisse anecdotique que votre belle-mère vient en visite chez vous. Ici, l'humour et la surprise fonctionnent à merveille. Très probablement le film tchèque le plus intéressant et divertissant de cette année. [KVIFF 2023]
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La meilleure comédie tchèque de ces dernières années, qui élève le travail sur les relations familiales tordues au niveau mondial en s'appuyant sur des éléments de genres perturbants tels que l'horreur ou le thriller d'intrusion à domicile - un genre basé sur la prémisse oppressante selon laquelle l'intimité du foyer des héros est perturbée par un intrus extérieur. Dans ce cas, l'intrus est une mère impitoyable, manipulatrice, conflictuelle, égoïste et adepte du chantage émotionnel, mais aussi tragiquement seule, qui s'installe dans l'appartement de son fils et de sa petite amie. À partir d'une idée simple, de moyens modestes et de conditions intimes, ils ont réussi à en tirer le maximum. Le film repose sur des dialogues et des situations familières et précisément observés liés à la vie familiale, dont les désagréments sont poussés jusqu'à des niveaux absurdes. Le récit est systématiquement conçu de manière à ce que chaque scène soit à la fois comique et angoissante, et peut être lu métaphoriquement comme une exploration de la problématique de la communication intergénérationnelle défaillante. La fusion des deux atmosphères tonales différentes, où les éclats de rires bruyants alternent souvent et régulièrement avec des frissons intenses, se déroule de manière tout à fait fluide et harmonieuse dans le film.
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Like The Owners, She Came at Night relies on a fairly mundane theme, but one that the makers take their own way and serve up an unusual humorous piece that gives you chills, all the more so because it can relate to many of us. The film stands above all on the phenomenal, playfully theatrical performance of Simona Peková, who almost steals the whole thing for herself, and surely many a viewer recognised in her the mother of her dearly beloved half – although it is true that the film is a lethal cocktail of the most toxic qualities cumulated in one person. I was a little puzzled by why I think it’s an unfinished ending. I must not forget to praise the distinctive score.
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Je me suis peut-être trop enthousiasmé cette fois-ci. Le film de l'année ? Certainement pas ! En fin de compte, ce film m'a semblé absurde et légèrement bizarre. L'incessant « Mon petit Jiří ! » m'a écorché les oreilles après la quinzième fois. Finalement, c'est Annette Nesvadbová qui m'a le plus marqué avec toutes ses manifestations de désaccord – tantôt silencieuses, tantôt bruyantes. Et la meilleure scène était la première avec la séance photo, même que j'ai éclaté de rire en plein cinéma !
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She came at night, entertained a little, stirred up trouble, and prepared the ground in the form of a great atmosphere. She left for a moment and stopped at the lobotomy, and it wasn't enough for her, so she took a stone and hit herself in the head several times, and the creators nicely messed with the audience. That's how it could be summarized, or how to go from a brilliant black comedy that gives you chills to absolutely unbelievable, bizarre, and stupid art in the form of the final act. I had to hold myself back a lot not to give it one star less because I hadn't been so angry leaving the movie theater for a long time. A truly wasted opportunity to focus on an unexpected and entertaining subject.
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