My Nights Are More Beautiful Than Your Days (1989)

It was a bit confusing watching the film, well that’s how it was for me. When the play button was pressed, I had to adjust my senses that it was a French film. You see, I’m already used to hearing Japanese than English, and it took quite some time before I really got into the film. Click the link Below to watch the trailer.

My Nights Are More Beautiful Than Your Days Trailer

DVD Cover

So the story began with Lucas(Jacques Dutronc), who’s a computer language programmer, sitting in a room in a hospital, being diagnosed with a virus in his brain. The effects of the virus were seen throughout the film, evident in Lucas’ incomprehensible vocabulary, and gradual memory loss.

A clip of Lucas and Blanche in a restaurant.

After his visit to the doctor, he met Blanche, portrayed by the very beautiful Sophie Marceau. There they get to talk, watch a couple fight and then leave upon seeing Blanche’s mother with a guy. 

The two of them begins to have a relationship. Lucas’ language program has been sold and would be a key to computer communication: this was what his assistant had told him but it seems like there’s no more point for he is dying. He then left all his money to his assistant.

Blanche and Lucas went out to eat, but then argue which makes Blanche leave him. As Lucas’ thinks about Blanche, he does like her and decides to see her again. But Blanche has to leave and he then follows her with his motorbike.

Along with Lucas’ saying words repeatedly, flashbacks are simultaneously shown. He saw his father kill and drown along with his mother in a pond. He then goes to the hotel where Blanche will be performing, checks in the hotel’s most expensive suite, disarranges his room and goes to see Blanche.

I was thinking at this part that Lucas has begun to do things he has to do, one by one, before his death. Though it focused mostly on how he followed Blanche, I think that his relationship towards the staff in the hotel is something to remember.

It appears in the next scenes that Blanche is sort of a mind-reader, along with her homosexual husband. She also gets to talk easily with Lucas and seems to understand him despite his babble of rhyming words. I also appreciated Lucas, because even with his deteriorating brain, he always remembers and recognizes Blanche. Later on it was revealed that Blanche was a child of a broken family; as a child she witnessed how his father hurt and abused her mother. It is now clear why she and Lucas seem to be just right for each other.

A clip of Blanche doing her work as a mind-reader.

I actually find the film very focused on style, though  its partly on theme and emotional effect as well. I had to digest the dialogue, and how the scene was shot since its actually has a lot of extreme close up shots. I find it very awkward at first, but as I continue to gain information about Lucas and Blanche, the way the story was presented, along with the characters, was just right.

At the end of the film, Blanche and Lucas decided to do double suicide; they went out to the sea and disappeared.

My Nights Are More Beautiful than Your Days (Mes Nuits sont Plus Belles que vos Jours) was directed by Andrzej Zulawski.