I’ll admit it: Until last week I was not a big believer in… Paris. Not as a geographical place (shpluh), but as the catch-all iconographic epicenter of all things love, sex, and wine.  I’ve seen Midnight In Paris, eaten more than my share of tortes and cheeses, and went through a brief fling with this photo, and even so, the City of Love and Lights and Amelie’s Adorbs Face has failed to woo me from afar. That is, until I saw Claire Denis’ Vendredi Soir (Friday Night), an intimate gem from 2002 that is playing as a part of TIFF Cinematheque’s Objects of Desire: The Cinema of Claire Denis.

Vendredi Soir follows Laure, a disarmingly real everywoman played by Valérie Lemercier (who looks a bit like a grown-up mix between Amanda and Busy from Ready or Not, which may explain my Pavlov’s Dog “I LOVE HER” response), as she prepares to evacuate her beautiful Parisian pad and shack-up with her boyfriend—a character so seemingly irrelevant he only appears as a voicemail message.  She finds herself caught in a traffic jam and offers a ride to a mysterious stranger (Vincent Lindon). And what ensues…well, suffice it to say that Vendredi Soir has earned a rep as the most romantic film ever made about a one-night stand. There is some lovely grown-up sex, followed by some lovely grown-up pizza, and I would venture to call the audaciously floral hotel room in which the characters spend the night a third character. Denis paints a Paris that is not only as romantic and whimsical as one would expect the city to be, but also messy, busy, lonely, and full of real-life human desire. The film walks that trippy line between realistic and dreamlike, and I was reminded at times of that polarizing Girls eppy starring Patrick Wilson (which I loved, btw). And though it may well be the most sensual film ever made about a one-night stand, I’m more impressed with it being the definite sexiest one ever about a traffic jam. Only in Paris…

still from Beau Travail

I’d also highly recommend Beau Travail, the other Denis film that I caught. A kind of military-ballet-slash-African-travelogue, based on a Herman Melville novella called Billy Budd. Not that you need more convincing after that descriptor (you’re welcome), but it also contains the best final scene OF EVER, featuring my new obsesh Denis Levant, an empty discotheque, and this Eurodance hit.

The retrospective, which kicks-off this Friday, is comprised of 14 features (including the two above-mentioned, as well asBastards, which just premiered at TIFF), and four shorts, and is the first overview of Denis’ work at TIFF Cinematheque in over a decade. Moreover, Denis herself will be in attendance on October 17th and 18th, a perfect opportunity to A your Qs to the womanSight and Sound referred to as “the best filmmaker working in the world today.”   And as the retrospective runs until Nov 10th, there are plenty of opportunities to get sensual (and maybe even get the deal with Paris!) with Denis’ brilliant catalogue of work. 

More information, including showtimes, available here.