It rarely happens that days after watching a movie, its scenes and words have become so ingrained in the mind that they replay again and again or continue to be clearly audible. But that's exactly what happens with "Ma nuit", a life-affirming, symbolic film set in Paris.
The night reflects the emotional state of 18-year-old protagonist Marion. Her sister died five years ago, today would be her twenty-third birthday. Marion's mother has invited some of her sister's former friends, but Marion doesn't want anything to do with them, she leaves.
Still in the afternoon she meets friends, somewhere in Paris, but they are all girls with whom it is difficult to communicate because there is nothing really profound they have to say to each other. They are unable to alleviate Marion's existential ailments.
How should life continue from here, how should the future be filled? Is it even worth being confronted? These are questions Marion asks herself, and one gets the impression that she seriously considers that it would make sense to follow her sister into death.
Marion follows her friends and goes to a wild party. She dances, takes drugs and at some point is so exhausted that she just wants to lie down somewhere. Then finally she has had enough, leaves the house, goes out into the dark streets of the night.
Going home now? You don't know that exactly, the quarrel she had with her mother at the beginning of the film actually speaks against it. On the contrary, it seems as if she wants to walk along the streets of Paris forever, until this seemingly endless night will finally be over.
Suddenly a young man appears, Alex, one who also was at the party and who somehow had noticed Marion. Why is he following her, does he want to seduce her quickly and then disappear into the night, or has he found a soul mate in Marion?
Marion suspects the former, brushes him off and continues on her way. Then chance comes to their aid, Marion is attacked by two young people, Alex rescues her. But he doesn't pay attention to his parked motorcycle, and it gets stolen. Now the two are linked by fate, they go through the night together, and gradually an intellectual exchange takes place, one that makes clear that Alex also has fears about the future: he wonders how life on a planet that is heading for an ecological disaster will henceforth be possible.
Then Marion is suddenly alone again and she has a nightmarish vision. She hears a shot, people run into the street in a panic, a getaway car drives towards her, she tries to escape, falls, hits her head hard on the asphalt. A symbol for the fears of an entire generation?
But Alex comes back, takes her to the hospital, where an empathetic nurse takes care of her and gives her the right advice for her state of mind. As long as there are people to take care of you when things are going badly, nothing is lost.
Now Alex and Marion are starting to become friends, and there's even a memorable scene in which they both have fun and laugh together - in a kind of hide-and-seek game from Alex's hard-of-hearing roommate. In the morning, Marion separates from Alex, knowing that she has found a companion. In the final shots, she is skating buoyantly through the now daylight streets of Paris, and then suddenly stops and smiles, raising her arm to the light-filled sky, knowing that her personal night is now as much a thing of the past as her personal trauma - and that life for her can finally commence.
The night reflects the emotional state of 18-year-old protagonist Marion. Her sister died five years ago, today would be her twenty-third birthday. Marion's mother has invited some of her sister's former friends, but Marion doesn't want anything to do with them, she leaves.
Still in the afternoon she meets friends, somewhere in Paris, but they are all girls with whom it is difficult to communicate because there is nothing really profound they have to say to each other. They are unable to alleviate Marion's existential ailments.
How should life continue from here, how should the future be filled? Is it even worth being confronted? These are questions Marion asks herself, and one gets the impression that she seriously considers that it would make sense to follow her sister into death.
Marion follows her friends and goes to a wild party. She dances, takes drugs and at some point is so exhausted that she just wants to lie down somewhere. Then finally she has had enough, leaves the house, goes out into the dark streets of the night.
Going home now? You don't know that exactly, the quarrel she had with her mother at the beginning of the film actually speaks against it. On the contrary, it seems as if she wants to walk along the streets of Paris forever, until this seemingly endless night will finally be over.
Suddenly a young man appears, Alex, one who also was at the party and who somehow had noticed Marion. Why is he following her, does he want to seduce her quickly and then disappear into the night, or has he found a soul mate in Marion?
Marion suspects the former, brushes him off and continues on her way. Then chance comes to their aid, Marion is attacked by two young people, Alex rescues her. But he doesn't pay attention to his parked motorcycle, and it gets stolen. Now the two are linked by fate, they go through the night together, and gradually an intellectual exchange takes place, one that makes clear that Alex also has fears about the future: he wonders how life on a planet that is heading for an ecological disaster will henceforth be possible.
Then Marion is suddenly alone again and she has a nightmarish vision. She hears a shot, people run into the street in a panic, a getaway car drives towards her, she tries to escape, falls, hits her head hard on the asphalt. A symbol for the fears of an entire generation?
But Alex comes back, takes her to the hospital, where an empathetic nurse takes care of her and gives her the right advice for her state of mind. As long as there are people to take care of you when things are going badly, nothing is lost.
Now Alex and Marion are starting to become friends, and there's even a memorable scene in which they both have fun and laugh together - in a kind of hide-and-seek game from Alex's hard-of-hearing roommate. In the morning, Marion separates from Alex, knowing that she has found a companion. In the final shots, she is skating buoyantly through the now daylight streets of Paris, and then suddenly stops and smiles, raising her arm to the light-filled sky, knowing that her personal night is now as much a thing of the past as her personal trauma - and that life for her can finally commence.
