WHEN NIGHT IS FALLING

Rip It Up, Issue 219, 1 November 1995, Page 46

WHEN NIGHT IS FALLING

Director: Patricia Rozema Lovers have met in the laundrette before, and that is just what happens to Petra (Rachael Crawford) and Camille (Pascal Bussieres) in Patricia Rozema’s new film. One minute the laundry bags are muddled, the next Camille is being stalked by an elfin circus girl and propo-

sitioned in (where else?) a caravan. Set in a wintry Canadian landscape in which bare trees and power pylons seems interchangeable, Rozema’s film shows what poor defences the intellect has when confronted by the physical and mystical — as represented by the sexy, lissom Petra. It’s Camille’s struggle, and, for an academic in a theological college, she tackles it with some humour, like when she teases the starchy chaplain during an interview with her decolletage. Camille has to choose between Petra and Henry Czerny’s Martin, and the dices aren’t loaded — Martin may be a dull theologian, but he’s not boorishly macho, and he’s a lusty lover to boot. When Night is Falling is a film of delicious paradoxes and highly charged imagery (with some appropriately magical circus scenes). Its only setback is a particularly irritating score, which sounds as if composer Lesley Barner has put a string ensemble on cruise control. WILLIAM DART