What: The Night Eats the World (La Nuit a Dévoré le Monde) (2018)
Who: Directed by Dominique Rocher, starring Anders Danielsen Lie, Golshifteh Farahani, Denis Lavant, Sigrid Bouaziz
Where: Alliance Française French Film Festival 2019; see website for full program
The Night that Eats the World is advertised as “a zombie flick for those who wouldn’t usually watch zombie films”, and I am immediately intrigued. I am not into zombie films. In fact, I don’t much like horror. On the way to the cinema I begin to freak myself out worrying what the movie will be like. In the end, I am surprised. It is indeed for people like me.
Based on a novel by Pit Argarmen, Sam has returned to his ex-girlfriend’s house to pick something up. When he gets there, there’s a wild party going on. He finds his stuff, he sits down in the study to look at it, and he accidentally falls asleep. When he wakes up, the world has changed.
As all last person on Earth movies tend to be, The Night that Eats the World is bleak. Sam is alone, trapped in the apartment block with only what he can find for sustenance. As Sam spends more and more time alone, he slowly begins to descend into madness. What’s real? We don’t always know.
Despite this, the movie doesn’t give out hope. Until the end, Sam stays positive. The beautiful panoramic shots of Paris totally help in this regard. But all the same it’s nice to end the movie, no matter how bleak, on this note.
3 out of 5 stars
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