One to Another

Toronto International Film Festival Program Guide
2006

Chacun sa nuit | One to Another
Jean-Marc Barr, Pascal Arnold
FRANCE, 2006
French 95 minutes Colour/35mm
Production Company: Toloda
Producer: Pascal Arnold, Jean-Marc Barr, Karina Grandjean
Screenplay: Pascal Arnold
Cinematographer: Jean-Marc Barr, Christopher Keohane
Editor: Chantal Hymans
Production Designer: Serge Borgel
Sound: Pascal Armant
Music: Irina Decermic
Principal Cast: Lizzie Brocheré, Arthur Dupont, Pierre Perrier, Nicolas Nollet, Guillaume Baché Production: Toloda

Chacun sa nuit exemplifies the sexual and cultural questioning that drives so many films in this year’s Festival. The film is propelled, both narratively and emotionally, by human bodies enraptured by sex, exploring erotic ideas and dealing with overwhelming physical desire. The deployment of casual nudity is constant and unsettling, not least because its characters are just on the cusp of adulthood.

The restlessness and uncertainty of being young is also reflected in the film’s persistent flips through time and tone. In their fourth film, frequent collaborators Pascal Arnold and Jean-Marc Barr (the well-known actor) have found a unique rhythm and voice to explore this world.

We are introduced to the story through its female protagonist, Lucie (Lizzie Brocheré). She is surrounded by four handsome young men sunbathing on the rocks, and a reticent voyeur several metres behind. We quickly learn, though, that she is not the object of everyone’s desires and dreams here: rather, the object is Pierre (Arthur Dupont), her brother and occasional lover. He intersects with all of their lives, often sexually, always emotionally and even musically, as front man for their small-town rock band. He is a magnet for every character, but he himself is unstable and narcissistic. We soon skip through time and learn that he disappears, leaving the others yearning for him—and then he is discovered dead.

As we flash back to the events leading up to Pierre’s disappearance, Lucie explores the vast power he had over her, their friends and people she had never met, including a local city councillor who had made Pierre the centre of his occasional orgy nights. As we get deeper into the story, we learn of complexly cross-hatched dependencies and humiliations; bodies are casually traded and ransomed. The surprise ending prompts as many questions as it answers about how sexuality can both inspire and defeat us.

Finally, perhaps the most extraordinary thing about Chacun sa nuit is that it is closely based on actual events that occurred in provincial France a few years ago.
—Noah Cowan