The End of the Night (1978)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The end of the night |
| Original title | L'amour violé |
| Country of production |
France Belgium |
| original language | French |
| Publishing year | 1978 |
| length | 115 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Yannick Bellon |
| script | Yannick Bellon |
| production | Jacqueline Doye |
| music | Aram Sedefian |
| camera |
Georges Barsky Pierre-William Glenn |
| cut | Janine See |
| occupation | |
| |
The End of the Night is a 1978 Franco-Belgian drama directed by Yannick Bellon .
action
Nicole is 25 years old and works as a nurse in a hospital in Grenoble . Her friend Jacques is in the army, which is why they only see each other irregularly. Instead, Nicole spends a lot of time with her best friend Catherine and her husband Julien, as well as at work, especially since she regularly rides her bike for house calls . It's the beginning of July. After a meal with Catherine and Julien, Nicole is on her way home and buys cigarettes in a tobacco shop. She is noticed by four drunk young men who follow her in a pickup truck. Shortly after a small town, the men push her off the road and take her to a wooded area. They force her to undress and then rape her. At night they bring her back to the scene of the accident and leave her in the ditch. Drivers find Nicole, who remains lying motionless, and take her to a colleague from the hospital at her request. He takes care of her and promises not to tell anyone about the rape. In front of her mother, Nicole claims to have had a motorcycle accident, but tells Catherine the truth.
After a while, Nicole is allowed to leave the hospital. Now Jacques also learns what happened. He reacts angrily, reproaches her for having been out on the street alone in the evening, but concludes that nothing has changed for them as a couple - a point of view that Nicole contradicts. In the following weeks Nicole struggled with the psychological consequences of the rape: she reacts with disgust to flirtations from patients, is barely able to use public transport and feels unattractive. During this time she finds comfort in Catherine. When she finally tells her mother the truth, she only reacts helplessly. Catherine in turn advises Nicole to file charges against strangers, but Nicole prefers to forget what happened.
It is already autumn when Nicole recognizes one of the perpetrators on a photo during a house visit: Patrick works as a car mechanic, is married and has two children. Nicole believes it's too late to file a complaint, but Catherine encourages her to go to the police. Jacques, on the other hand, opposes Nicole's plan to file a complaint, believing that she will not get it in court. He has no alternative suggestion as to how she could cope with what happened. Catherine arranges a lawyer for Nicole, who makes it clear to her that the trial is likely to be psychologically difficult for her to endure and that she has to be prepared to be partly treated like a guilty party herself. Nicole is sure of her cause, even if her mother is against her, Nicole is not the first and will not be the last to be wronged like this. Nicole files a complaint with the police. Patrick is arrested and soon after his testimony, the three other perpetrators can be found: newspaper deliverer Daniel, merchant's son Jean-Louis and bar owner René. Meanwhile, Nicole is on vacation with Jacques in the mountains and admits that she has filed a lawsuit. Jacques is beside himself and separates from her.
The conversations with the judge are difficult for Nicole to endure, but her questions suggest that Nicole is complicit, so she may have approved the act because it took about six months to file the complaint. Nicole rejects any consent. The men, in turn, admit they drank that afternoon, but claim the whole thing was just a joke. Shortly after the first interrogation, Nicole is visited by both Patrick's wife and Jean-Louis' parents. They want her to withdraw the lawsuit, but Nicole refuses. The reaction is accusations and trivializations of the act. The negotiation continues. Under police surveillance, Nicole, her lawyer, the judge and the defendants drive into the forest where the rape took place. The action is recreated on site and the previously self-confident men soon run out of words to explain. Jacques has meanwhile thought about himself and his relationship. He wants to return to Nicole and looks for her until he finds her on the crime scene inspection. While the four perpetrators are being taken away, Jacques goes to Nicole, who takes him in her arms.
production
The end of the night was filmed in the Isère department , so Grenoble , Fontaine, Saint-Martin-le-Vinoux and Seyssinet-Pariset were used as locations for the action. The film was released in French cinemas on January 11, 1978 and also opened in German cinemas on September 5, 1980.
The song, which can be heard several times in the film, is Jamais plus toujours by Aram, the text of which is by Yannick Bellon.
criticism
The film-dienst called Das Ende der Nacht a "serious attempt to grapple with the problem that the film sees in the traditional role models of men and women". Although the film “provides a clear understanding of important findings”, the staging is “a little too smooth and constructed” in places. Die Zeit wrote that the director succeeded in “experiencing the fears and emotional injuries and encouraging women to overcome their shame and no longer remain silent when they are affected.” However, since Yannick Bellon “does not leave out any aspect if possible wants, the plot sometimes seems heavily constructed and is unnecessarily extended, especially in the second half ”, but the film is more realistic than The Scream from the Silence , which was also released in 1980 in German cinemas with the same subject , and the culprit at the end presented a psychopath.
Web links
- The end of the night in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ The end of the night. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Anne Frederiksen: FilmtipPrograms . In: Die Zeit , No. 40, September 26, 1980.