OPEN AT NIGHT / Ouvert la nuit

 

West Coast Premiere • Comedy • France, 2017

DCP • 1.85 • Dolby 5.1 • Color • 97 min

Directed by: Édouard Baer

Written by: Édouard Baer, Benoît Graffin

Cinematography: Yves Angelo

Film Editing: Hervé de Luze

Original Score: Alain Souchon

Produced by: Barka Hjij (Les Films en cabine), Cinéfrance

Cast: Edouard Baer (Luigi), Sabrina Ouazani (Faeza), Audrey Tautou (Nawel),

Grégory Gadebois (Marcel), Christophe Meynet (Chris), Michel Galabru (himself) 

International Sales: Le Pacte

 

Taking flight where Martin Scorcese’s After Hours touched down, this jubilant comic vehicle for Édouard Baer doubles as an affectionate homage to the timeless allure of the City of Light. Baer’s swaggering buffoon persona is unleashed as Luigi: theater impresario by trade, irresistible charmer by aspiration, and inexhaustible scoundrel by nature. Over the next 24 hours, he’ll need to call on his most dubious qualities. On the eve of opening night, Luigi’s new play is teetering on financial collapse. His cast and crew threaten a walkout if they don’t get paid, and his temperamental Japanese director demands a live chimpanzee for the performance. Even his faithful assistant Nawal (Tautou) has deserted him, leaving Luigi to set off into the Parisian night with his no-nonsense intern Faeza.  Their quest for a chimp and a chump takes them on a delirious tour of the city’s most absurdly charming offerings, from Bollywood shoots to African communes. When Luigi’s deeper fragilities surface, his recklessness escalates into a quixotic high wire act. But who will be there to catch him when he falls?

 

Actor, radio host, comedian, César Awards MC, celebrity personality. With all of that going on it’s easy to overlook the fact that Édouard Baer has directed and written or co-written three feature films. After studying acting, Baer found success with Ariel Wizman co-hosting an offbeat show for Radio Nova. From there the two were conscripted as writers for the now legendary Canal+ satirical show Nulle Part Ailleurs. Baer began to appear before the camera with short sketches at the end of the show. In addition to acting in dozens of films including The Story Of My Life (COLCOA Audience Award winner 2005) and Hopefully (COLCOA 2016), Baer has performed in the theater, notably La Folle et Véritable Vie de Luigi Prizzoti, a music hall piece mixing cabaret and circus. Baer took his directorial bow with La bostella (2000), a comedy in which he plays a fictitious version of himself. His second feature Akoibon (2005) starred Jean Rochefort as the target of the mafia on an island full of oddballs and misfits. Baer wrote the script for Open At Night with writer Benoit Graffin, who is known for Priceless (COLCOA 2007).