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When Night Is Falling by Patricia Rozema
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VHS Tape Cover InformationActor: David Fox, Don McKellar, Henry Czerny, Pascale Bussi?res, Rachael Crawford Director: Patricia Rozema Edition: VHS Tape Audio: English (Original Language), Analog Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC Running Time: 94 minutes Release Date: 1997-06-17 Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Publisher: Hallmark Home Entertainment Studio: Hallmark Home Entertainment
VHS Movie Reviews of When Night Is FallingMovie Review: Good movie Summary: 3 StarsI think this is a good movie played very well and as noted by other reviewers great cinematography and some humor but it has some minuspoints as well. It misses drama. With this I don't mean sentimentality but rather the absence of intensity in the plot, it is more of a sketch than a fully colored, worked out storyline and I somehow felt that the movie rushes linearly to a predictable but rather unconvincing end without enough intensity, surprises or twists. As a viewer I just did not get the feeling that the choice (between 'the love she can't forget and the desire she can't resist') for Camille was a difficult one to make. This has much to do with her boyfriend being just a flat character, who is not very present in the movie. Also the conservative surroundings are altogether not worked out very well: we just see her boyfriend and some members of the school and they just not give enough weight to the balance. And because of the lack of intensity in the conflict and plot line, I must unfortunately conclude (cynical as it may sound) that this is not about real love, but more about 'attraction', 'curiosity' or 'experiment'.
In conclusion, I can say that this movie is surely worth the watch, but it is not great or at least it did not move me enough. Actually I've watched this movie in tandem with 'Imagine Me and You' and yes that movie is the better of the two (more intense, more moving, more satisfying) and I would highly recommend that one also.
Summary of When Night Is Falling Throughout Patricia Rozema's third film, conservatives tangle with liberals, men with women, and heterosexuals with those of more fluid sexual persuasions. Surface tension aside, When Night Is Falling feels more personal than political. Camille (Pascale Bussi?res) teaches mythology at a Christian college in Toronto, while her fianc?, Martin (Henry Czerny, Clear and Present Danger), is a fellow theologian. Their superior, Reverend DeBoer (David Fox, The Saddest Music in the World), encourages them to marry. When Camille's dog dies, she neglects to inform Martin, but instead confides in Petra (Rachael Crawford), a circus performer she meets at a laundromat. Petra leaves her card, so Camille seeks her out, but when she makes a pass, Camille flees. Later, she suggests they remain friends... until mutual attraction proves too strong to resist. A simplistic reading suggests that the death of a pet can lead to experimentation, except Rozema (I've Heard the Mermaids Singing) aims for a metaphorical reading rather than a literal one. Though the narrative isn't autobiographical, she too attended a Calvinist institution (the same one as writer/director Paul Schrader). It's a testament to her skill that the film feels so fresh, since the storyline echoes Lianna (the academic milieu) and anticipates Tipping the Velvet (the circus angle). It's also one of the more quotable same-sex love stories of the 1990s. As Martin tells Camille, "Maybe you can imagine more intoxicating options. That's okay--that's what imagination's for." To Rozema's heroine, however, fulfillment is for experiencing, not imagining. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
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