Fifty-five-year-old French filmmaker Claire Denis has an oddball directing style, and most of her films have featured novel approaches-like character studies focusing on small quiet moments and casual observations. She uses very little dialogue and relies on visuals to do most of the work. With films like hers, it is out of the question to expect anything resembling a plot.
Denis' latest film, \Friday Night,"" now playing at the Orpheum Theatre, 216 State St., tells the story of Laure (Valerie Lemercier), a middle-aged French woman. As the film opens, she is packing up her belongings in a small Paris apartment. Laure lives alone and is spending her last night there before moving in with her lover, Francoise.
As she leaves for a friend's house for dinner, Laure phones Francoise and says she is tired but does not know why. She is then stuck in a traffic jam. While she is waiting in her car, lost in thought, a handsome Frenchman, Jean (Vincent Lindon), appears out of nowhere and asks for a ride. Laure tells him that it would probably be faster to go by foot, to which he replies, ""I'm in no hurry.""
Neither is this movie. The audience watches him deeply inhale cigarette after cigarette, while Laure continues staring off into space. Laure eventually decides to ditch her friend and asks Jean to dinner. So begins their torrid love affair. They rent a hotel room, make love, go out to an Italian restaurant, make love some more ... and so on.
Agnes Godard's cinematography is good and it almost achieves an intriguing, hypnotic tone, but that does not make up for the fact that there is not much to it beyond a few casual, offhand observations. There is far too much pretentious arthouse importance hefted on a story that could maybe make a half-way-entertaining short film. When all is said and done, ""Friday Night"" leaves the audience hungry for a real movie.
