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      Tonight (Nuit de chien)

      2011 List
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      Critics Reviews

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      Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews The highly stylized work revels in the absurdity of fascist decadence. Rated: B+ Apr 14, 2014 Full Review Read all reviews

      Audience Reviews

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      Audience Member 2 Stars out of 4 *Written a few years ago by Parker Mott Arid. That’s what sums of Nuit de Chien. To really define what the film is would make me a confused liar. But I’ll try to be as interpretive as a can, though I am not responsible for being mendacious from beyond here for what I write about the plot. I think it is about some fictional war, following Gregory’s character, a man lost with himself who he should be working for and with. The film follows the meandering experience of this character through a bunch of catastrophic events. Though not nearly executed to the aptitudes of Children of Men, both films have the same premise of following a male character through a bunch of difficult decisions and violent occurrences. However, the film seems to struggle with an idea of a near-apocalyptic Germany run by a dictatorship. Though well-filmed, Nuit de Chien fails to understand each character’s morals and the set pieces are clichéd and dull. At first, Nuit de Chien looks like a World War 2 film, but the Nazi Army is not present nor any sense of anti-Semitism. There are suicide bombers, violent politicians, and then you have the protagonist, travelling through the whole story of terror. Some are out to kill him; some want to help him. However, the story of Nuit de Chien really serves no point and its ending raises an eyebrow on why one just sat 2 hours to be told a tale of some battle that is never really understood or serves any meaning to the audience. Whereas, Children of Men had a much better plot premise about how women can no longer reproduce, and each character in the film is unique and we care about them and their fate. At the end of Chien, it is ‘sad’ but the story falls flat on telling the audience if the fate of Germany is bright or dark. But Children of Men told the audience that there is indeed hope for man kind. However, there are times when Chien shines (no pun intended) through its filming. The colors ooze off the screen and add a gloomy feel to the carnage on the screen. It is filmed in a dark shade for most of the film, since the entire film is at night, hence “Night of the Dog” (Nuit de Chien). But the acting at times is over-acted, which always a fatal issue to a story revolving around such serious context. These characters are one-dimensional and they all seem similar to each other, in terms of how they deliver lines, and their opinions towards the violent dictatorship. It doesn’t generally have a bunch characters with various perspectives on the dictatorship. Sure, you have a suicide bomber opposing the government and Greggory’s character is a rebel with a cause, but these characters are just dull formations of each other. However, Nuit de Chien is not all bad; it is, for the most part, entertaining, but can suffer from the syndrome of nostalgia; the film’s fatal issue. On the contrary to fatal, there are no fatal flaws to the story, which is good, but it is hard for a war film to be good when it serves no meaning. Full Metal Jacket was so good because every character in the squad, even an extra on screen, was important to the audience. And the message is clear: “We are living in a world of s**t.” And Platoon was an introspective adaptation to Oliver Stone’s time spent in the US Army during Vietnam. Both films serve a purpose at least for the audience or the director (Stone), but here there is no true message at least that would make this film a memorable war flick. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/26/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      Movie Info

      Director
      Werner Schroeter