The Rose and The Lily: My Nights are More Beautiful than Your Days: A Review

"Love is a pond that can drown you"

- Lucan de Bonneval

The film Mes nuits sont plus belles que vos jours or My nights are more beautiful than your days (1989) was directed by Andrzej Zulawski who adapted it from Raphaele Billetdoux's book, Night Without Day. Its main characters being Lucas (Jacques Dutronc), a computer genius with an unknown terminal illness that causes him to lose his memory, and Blanche (Sophie Marceau), a young woman who lives in a very vicious environment filled with sex and lunacy as she performs a type of mind reading show after going under a trance-like state. Other characters include Blanche's mother (Valérie Lagrange), Edwige (Myriam Mézières), Ines (Laure Killing), Concierge (François Chaumette), Francois (Sady Rebbot), Page (Salim Talbi), Michel (Jean-Pierre Hebrard), and others.

The movie revolves around Lucas and Blanche where they first meet in a cafe after witnessing a poor couple arguing before coming together again, later Blache tells him that she will be going to Biarritz to perform in a casino to which Lucas follows her to reciting names of objects around him so that he may not forget them as what his illness is doing to him. It is later revealed that Lucas' parents had died after drowning in a lake when he was young while Blanche had been witness to her father's beatings of her mother as a child.

The acting was good, I've found that Jacques Dutronc is actually a singer, though despite this I thought his performance was satisfactory, filling in the insanity and randomness of Lucas quite well. Sophie Marceau was also very good, making quite an interesting heroine, though there were times that she seemed very off as if she couldn't define who she really was very well or seemed out-of-mind. For me, I find the characters of Lucas and Blanche to be very difficult to do since it involves lots of consideration towards how they should approach a situation with their past kept in mind, Duntronc and Marceau had done very well, not completely extraordinary but they expressed their emotions well and played the part swimmingly so I have no complaints.

The plot is interesting and had very good depth of perception, and the characters within it are as well, the execution is the one thing I question since it was not done very clearly which disappoints me though I would also like to point out that I, as a viewer, had some short comings as well.

The music was intence and searing, mellow on some but bold and raw on others, an interesting combination and one that added a lot of flavor and color to the film. I praise Andrzej Korzynski for them.

Confusing is a word that I would like to describe My nights are more beautiful than your days as, I don't really understand the movie most especially the build up in each scene and the growth of the characters within the story. Their motivations are not clear completely and somehow they end up being spontaneous that make the viewers say, 'Huh?'; I, myself, included. I guess it wasn't establiched well, I think - their reasons and such - more likely because they do not operate or work or talk like normal people do, which could be validated by their way of living and environment (for Blanche) and their illness (for Lucas). But still, I am new to this kind of film, I'd say it was absurd actually especially the scenes towards the end with the page and desk man, who I still wonder if are pigments of Lucas' imagination, true people or ghost (as said by the page when they were in the dressing room, saying he had died 2 or 3 days ago because of his sickness).

Though I think this film is a beautiful disaster, or more likely, would've been more beautiful (since it already is in my opinion) if not for the disastrous take on it (no offense on the film's director). The beauty comes from the settings and the way the emotions of the characters play out, especially the love scenes and the morning after they first spend the night together, then the beauty practically gets ruined after they speak, in riddles that I could not truly completely comprehend. Somehow it makes me feel that the words which I had failed to understand made me miss the entire depth of the film, making me as confused as I am now but it goes to show that this really isn't my type of film, full of eccentricies, absurdness, and strange double meanings. Not to mention that it is in french, subtitles were added but it is really hard to truly understand what they are conveying if you are only reading their words, their expression changes but tone of voice sometimes gets disregarded with the lack of understanding.

Overall, a good film. Not for those that are looking for a fun, entertainment-based product of big budget companies in Hollywood, but definitely a good story, if you get past the absurdities and eccentricity - maybe even watch it a few more times to make sure.