I Can't Sleep

I enjoyed this film that had beautiful images of the male body, and a colorful mix of characters. Although the director, Claire Denis is a straight, white, woman, the film is full of homosexuality images. These images are done artfully however, do not limit the films appeal to a wide range of people. Although a serial killer is loose in Paris, this film is not a classic thriller, in the sense that the viewer does not feel on-edge, and actually might feel comfortable with the killer as did I. I would recommend this film as a good peek at what it is like to be an outsider in Paris.

By using any traffic system, you can go anytime, anywhere, anyway you like. This is called evolution. But in other way, that means you may surrounded by many strangers easily no matter what. No consideration if you like it or not. I call it destruction of human relations.

You can't deny thinking about it seeing this film. Cos it has scenes full of it. Distance between people, emptiness of the civilization.

We have to be separated cos they wanted us that way. So they can easily control. We've been cut out from our own lives and pasted on a huge system just to run it.

Not enough lines, but silence speaks. I like these kind of smart film. Hail Ozu.

This is a very strange film, indeed. In the plot there's something about a Latvian immigrant in Paris, a couple of homosexuals, an old lady's murderer, some African immigrants (I think they're from the Maurice Islands), a woman who is a hotel manager and protects the young Latvian, a transvestite who has his own show on a nightclub, and some other crimes and weird stuff.

But it's not a bad movie after all. Despite the confusing plot, the film has some very nice sequences, some shocking scenes and one of the most beautiful actresses I've ever seen, Ms. Katherina Golubeva, whom I'd never heard about before this film. If you have a lot of time to spend, and you're in the mood for an unusual motion picture with a gorgeous young actress, "J'Ai pas Sommeil" is a good pick.

I can sort of see what (co)writer - director Claire Denis was trying to do here: a serial killer "thriller" minus any of the Hollywood flash, cross-pollinated with a "slice-of-Parisian-life" type of film (there is also a bit of "Pulp Fiction" going on, not in the chronology of events which is straightforward but in the way various characters pop in and out of each others' stories; however, because both films came out at the same year (1994), it's hard to say if there was any actual influence). Unfortunately, the result is boring, meandering and interminable. The Lithuanian girl's sections are marginally more interesting than the rest, mostly because Yekaterina Golubeva is stunningly beautiful. Gotta love that totally inaccurate IMDb plot description! * out of 4.

J'ai pas sommeil gets off to a shaky start, with laughing cops and bland-faced Katerina Golubeva driving her rattle-trap Soviet car around Paris, but soon settles down to an absorbing study of greed and murder. Most of the characters are expatriates, some from eastern Europe, some from Martinique, and all are caught up in the search for happiness in a difficult environment (Paris can be hell for outsiders, as Balzac and many other artists have told us).

At first you aren't aware that it's a murder story: you don't see a woman being strangled and robbed until 64 minutes have elapsed, but Denis holds our attention with atmospheric scenes of the gay sub-culture that Camille moves in. She brings out the voluptuous, narcissistic aspects of this world very well. The performances are all good. Richard Courcet as Camille has little to say, but his body speaks eloquently. Alex Descas and Beatrice Dalle are veterans of Denis's films and are effective as the couple with a child. Theo delivers furniture by day and plays violin in a band at night; he wants to go back to his native Martinique but Mona isn't at all sure about this. Line Renaud does a great job as Ninon, the hotel manager who lovingly deals with all these star-crossed souls. I had to go to YouTube after the credits to hear Line sing Ma cabane au Canada and Frou-Frou... she is wonderful.