Shot in 13 days and following a principle of one shot-one take, Garrel has produced a masterly testament to his parents’ generation. His only period piece, Liberte, la Nuit is set in Paris during the Algerian war, and has as its central characters a teacher, Jean (played by the director’s father Maurice Garrel), and his wife Mouche (Emmanuelle Riva in what might well be her finest performance), who are caught up in gun-running for the FLN. One day Jean suddenly leaves Mouche and the series of scenes that follows, as she attempts to pick up the pieces, is at times unbearably moving. This is Garrel’s most ‘linear’ narrative and one of his very best films.
France, 1983.
English subtitles.
Black and White.
80 mins.