Nuit Blanche ( Sleepless Night) (白夜巴黎)

I've been posting jokes here  on Saturdays for quite some time. This Saturday won't be an exception. But this week, I'll  do something different. I shall write a film review. It's about  a late night film I saw at the city hall. It's the craziest action film I have seen for a long long time. What's it called? "Nuit Blanche". In English it's "Sleepless Night". The programme booklet says: "the aptly named Sleepless Night will set your heart pulsing all night long with its breathless tension."


The film is about how a corrupt cop busted a drug deal. But there's more, there are in fact two gangs, and two teams of policemen. There are double crosses, triple crosses. It's difficult to tell who is a cop and who a gangster. In any event, we see how the cops and the gangsters fight over 10 kilos of heroin and in the process kidnaps a cop's son to ensure that the cop will deliver the heroin. I do not know what the director intends to do in this film. But to me, it really looks remarkably like a "spoof" upon the "genre" of police/gangster film.

From the word go, we see action, action and more action: people rushing about, driving about in screeching cars, people pushing, shoving other people around  or away in a crowded Paris night club, dishes, plates, pots and pans flying about, plenty of shattered glasses, flickering lights which turn on and off disco-fashion and one fist fight every quarter of an hour or so, and of course, countless gun shots. There is hardly a static shot. The screen images keep changing once every two or three seconds from start to finish. I do not know how the the Film Censor classifies this film. It should merit a Category III because of the continuous display of violence, and preferably with a health warning. "Watching this film may be a health hazard. Not to be watched unless you're properly equipped with ear muffs and dark glasses"! "Breathless tension" indeed! The film perpetrates a non stop assault upon your eyes and your ears. I never saw a film whose scenes change so rapidly and whose sound tracks are so loud. We may like action in a film from time to time. If there can be something called "over-doing" an action film, then I cannot think of a film which better fits this description. It's not often that I look forward to the ending of a film. For this film, I was dying for the arrival of "screen credits" time. Not that it's not an "exciting" film. Perhaps, it is too "exciting". If it were to continue any longer, I'd have serious doubt about my sanity. It must be a joke upon the film buff ! And not a good one either!