He makes a loose pact with his friend Michal (Michal Huszcza) to live life to the fullest, embracing every experience that it throws at them. Kris (Krzysztof Baginski) has just split up with his long-term girlfriend, contributing to the 17 hours in total that he estimates he will spend on break ups during his entire life. One wonders just how many recollections the central characters of this odyssey through house parties, raves, clubs and strung out mornings after are actually going to accrue, given the vast quantities of drugs they get through. The film opens with a definition of the term ‘Reminiscence bump’ – a psychological concept which refers to the tendency for older adults to have increased recollection of events that occurred during their adolescence and early adulthood. A shared spirit with French New Wave and the film’s formal daring will recommend it to cineaste festival attendees, however broader theatrical prospects might be somewhat hampered by the fact the ideal audience for this material – young people of the same age group as the main characters – are not the most likely punters to venture this far into experimental arthouse waters. Though perhaps low on insights, this is an evocative portrait of a brief, intense window of hedonism, self discovery and Olympic levels of self-indulgence experienced by young people on the cusp of adulthood. The director of Fuck For Forest creates an evocative portrait of a brief, intense window of hedonism for young friends in Warsaw In technique, if not the milieu, the film has some similarities to the approach employed by Roberto Minervini fo r Stop The Pounding Heart and The Other Side. Staged sequences and reality are so meshed together that it’s impossible to unpick which is which. Director Michal Marczak ( Fuck For Forest) cast the real-life characters, who play themselves, and then worked with them to develop a narrative for the film. So if watching a mostly abstract film from Poland that may or may not be a documentary seems like your cup of tea, you'll most likely have to catch it on VOD or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray.Inhabiting the blurred hinterland between documentary and fiction, this hypnotically aimless journey through a year and a bit in the lives of a pair of young friends in Warsaw defies neat categorisation. Given the abstract-leaning and plot-less nature of this movie, I cannot see this playing more than one week in the theater. The Saturday matinée screening where I saw this at was attended poorly (4 people, including myself). "All These sleepless Nights" opened this weekend out of the blue and without any fanfare at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati. Let me admit that I struggled big time to make it to the end of "All These Sleepless Nights", as I never connected with any of these characters (or real people), I kept hoping that it would draw me in eventually, but it simply didn't happen. In fact, this movie reminds me of the latest Terrence Mallick movie "Song to Song. Which leads me to ask: is this movie a documentary or a fiction feature in which the characters happen to play themselves? (I didn't realize that until seeing the end credits.) When I said I should spoil more of the plot, you need to take this with a grain of salt, as there really is no plot to speak of, and much of what we see playing out appears to be improvised. Couple of comments: this is the latest movie from up-and-coming Polish writer-director Michal Marczak, best known as a documentary maker. What will become of the guys? And of Eva? To tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out. Then one day at yet another party, they run into Eva, who takes an immediate liking to the guys. After that, we follow the two guys as they roam the streets of Warsaw, seemingly going from one party to the next, and the next after that, while they discuss love and the meaning of life. We then watch Michal at a party interacting with Monika, who looks to be an ex-girlfriend. As the movie opens, we are informed what the meaning of the term "Reminiscence Bump" is while massive fire works go off. "All These Sleepless Nights" (2016 release from Poland 100 min.) brings the story of two college-aged friends, Krzysztof and Michal.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |