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Juste Avant La Nuit AKA Just Before Nightfall
R0 - United Kingdom - Arrow Review written by and copyright: Rob Hunt (25th August 2005). |
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The Film
 Another film in Arrow's "Claude Chabrol Collection", Juste Avant La Nuit's main story revolves around the familiar Chabrol topics of broken families and forbidden relationships. Charles (Michel Bouquet) is secretly having a sexual relationship with the wife of his best friend François (François Périer). François's wife Laura (Anna Douking) prefers her sexual favours with some S&M intertwined, and uses Charles to provide her with violent and abusive behaviour, which she finds sexually gratifying. Unfortunately for Charles, who is uncomfortable with this mode of fantasy, he manages to strangle Laura by accident, a memory that will haunt him throughout the rest of the film. As Charles struggles with coping with what he has done, his wife Hélène (played by Chabrol regular/then-wife Stéphane Audran) tries desperately to ease his fears, whilst at the same time looking after their two children. Her love for Charles is fairly unrequited throughout the film, and ultimately is not what he requires to forget the uneasy truth of his past. Chabrol once again explores issues of marital infidelity and guilt in this film, with a slightly surreal friendship amongst his main characters - for example, in some of his films characters who find out shocking truths (namely the infidelity of their spouses with their friends) seem to hold no grudges, wishing to forget the past and concentrate on the future. If only real life situations were this simple. Once again, despite the sexual overtones that the film carries, most of the intimacy is implied and left to the viewers imagination - a technique (implication rather than exploitation) that are widely underused by filmmakers. Implication often is more shocking that exploitation, and as such helps the story line of this film - although at times it can be misconstrued as to what is actually happening until later in the film. I appreciate this technique too, as not knowing builds up more suspense - and can even create a red herring for the viewer, resulting in a bigger surprise towards the end. The look of this film is, like other Chabrol films, fairly bleak from beginning to end. The washed-out feel of the film is typical of many from the 1970s that I have seen, most of which are reflections on real life scenarios. This is presumably what Chabrol is doing in this film too. The music in this film is far more reflective of the subject matter than Chabrol's "Les Noches Rouges" - with the scene in the bar towards the beginning being a noticeable standout. Many unique camera techniques are used in this offering, with a rather impressive features used at the very start of the film (the transition to Laura's appearance) - one I had not seen before. If nothing else, the technical aspects of this film are numerous. All in all, a quite intriguing film from Chabrol, with another very interesting ending. Like other Chabrol films the ending has meaning behind it, and does not wrap the story up nicely or leave it hanging for a sequel like Hollywood does. It offers difficult questions and proceeds to give controversial answers, leaving the viewer to make up their own mind.
Video
The transfer given to this film is average. There are more flaws in this than most Chabrol films in Arrow's collection, with not only the 'cigarette burns' which occur sporadically throughout, but also specks of dirt and grain on the print. Criminally presented non-anamorphically at 1.66:1 (some of the other Chabrol films in the collection are anamorphic) at least the aspect ratio itself is correct. Thankfully -like the other Chabrol films in the collection- the subtitles on this film are not burnt-in; even better - they are optional! Another good move by Arrow.
Audio
The only audio track available is the original French presented in 2.0 Dual Mono. Levels are well balanced and dialogue is very clear (showing some of the lapses in subtitling). The track is nothing spectacular, but does the job well for the most part. Unfortunately there is a fair bit of hissing and crackling on the track, which was slightly irritating at times.
Extras
Nothing. The inclusion of a Trailer (even if for other Claude Chabrol films - to see if they catch as much interest) would have been nice, but this is bereft of bonus features.
Overall
Another very worthwhile Chabrol film presented fairly well this time around. Sadly there are no extras at all on this release either. Unfortunately, the A/V quality does not hold up so well this time around, so the lack of extras may deter some people.
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