User Reviews

The chemistry between Camille and Petra is off the charts. I love how the vulnerability shines through in both characters. There's the excitement and fear, the insecurity and wonder of being attracted to and in love with another person and hoping they are as well. Which is always made harder when it's two people of the same sex.

Having said all that, I first saw this movie years ago and absolutely hated it. I felt that neither Camille nor Petra respected each other very much let alone each other's boundaries and wishes.

But at the same time I agree with the sentiment presented in the movie that some actions may be uncalled for, but if you wait for what's called for usually nothing happens.

Still, I hated how Camille asked Petra to be friends only to treat her like she didn't matter in front of people of the church. How she seemed to be ashamed of her. I understood it but hated it nonetheless.

Now, years later, I have more empathy and understanding for this move and these characters.

I've realized it's hard to be honest about who you are in front of the people who's opinion has meant a lot to you thus far. Especially when you're terrified they won't like who you are. So it's easy to make up lies that hurt those you care about instead.

I also thought that Camille actually died at the end of the movie, to me at the time evidenced by Bob coming back to life after Camille and Petra got together. I thought Petra and Camille being together basically represented Camille's afterlife. And that Bob being alive was meant to hint at that.

Now I realize that Bob was never just a dog. He represented Camille's sexuality. We first meet Bob in bed with Camille. She's naked, content and being woken by Bob with licks to her face.

Camille finds Bob's dead body in an alley soon after and can't explain his death. And yet it happens right after her fiance gets his promotion. A promotion that for her will mean having to marry him. Which symbolically would mean the death of her (not straight) sexuality.

There are a lot of hints throughout the movie that support this. The fact that Petra and Camille meet when Camille is openly mourning the loss of Bob, saying he was what she loved more than anything. Even though in front of the fiance she acts like his death doesn't matter. The fact that she doesn't actually bury Bob, she preserves him as best she can. The fact that Petra makes it clear she's attracted to Camille and can therefore not be friends with her. Camille reacts to this by saying that they aren't animals that are unable to control their urges around each other. Only, they end up giving in anyway.

The fact that a big deal is made about the fiance finding Bob in the fridge and it's connected both to the fiance's promotion and the impending nuptials in the subsequent conversation Camille and the fiance have. A subtextual conversation about Camille's sexuality with Bob on the table as the not really talked about elephant in the room. And the most glaring, the fiance promises Camille to help bury Bob twice during that conversation only to leave without doing so. Never mind that Bob has been dead and on ice for days now and is now decomposing on Camille's dining table. She ends up burying Bob herself in a shallow grave after which she almost dies as well.

We also get an indication of Camille telling the reverend about her sexuality. And he tells her that putting a name to it allows us to control it. And I believe Bob, the dog, was born. Whether Bob was also an actual dog and not just a metaphor is anyone's guess.

Bob coming back to life from his grave after Camille almost died and we see Camille and Petra together-indicating Camille chose Petra- drives home that Bob represents Camille's sexuality that has now been resurrected.

All of which I didn't get the first time I saw the movie. If I'm right it's pretty brilliant to be honest. And a great movie with a great ending.

Camille is a professor at a conservative Christian college who is affianced to minister and co-worker Martin. When Camille meets and is attracted to nervy and vivacious circus acrobat Petra, an inner tension begins to build within her.

One gets the feeling the film-maker double majored in Art and Theater as this film is bursting with circus-themed surrealist metaphors and intense use of saturated colors. The surrealism sometimes seems a little heavy-handed, but I understand the film-maker was trying to contrast the Christian college milieu with that of the circus folk. The acting is very good and the film excels at depicting the hesitancy and awkwardness involved in striking out in an entirely new direction. Can you simultaneously reach physical fulfillment and grow spiritually by finding your erotic center and exploring new sexual possibilities? That's the question this film deals with. To the scriptwriter's credit, the professors and ministers who espouse decidedly conservative positions with regard to homosexuality are not superstitious, fire- breathing gay-bashers. There are some beautifully filmed and - by U.S. standards - quite revealing scenes of lesbian love-making in "When Night Is Falling," so if this sort of thing disturbs you, steer clear. In sum, this film works well and conveys the difficulty, awkwardness and joy of discovering new ways of being. To quote first Camille and then Petra: "I'm nervous." "So am I; I think you're supposed to be."

A chick flick, and not a bad one. I don't mean that as a put down, just an observation. User Ratings show a total of 674 votes, with males giving the movie a rating of 6.5 and females a rating of 7.7. The difference is probably statistically significant.

The story itself doesn't add up to much, and there are multiple holes in the plot. The holes aren't small ones either, not the kind that can be easily overlooked. One example: Camille passes out in the snow and is in the process of freezing to death in a lonely woods when a couple of campers stumble on her mostly buried body. One camper runs to call an ambulance. Cut. Peta is daydreaming at home, gets a phone call, asks, "Where?", and the next thing we know she is at the campsite, before the ambulance. Alone in the tent with her lover, Petra croons over Camille's pale face tenderly. How did this come about? The mind boggles. It takes me back to when I was an usher in the Yiddish theater in Newark. Last scene of the play: a convict is left alone on the stage, strapped into an electric chair. Who then runs into the execution room? His mother! She throws herself on the floor and sobs onto the executionee's knees. I can think of no more reason for Peta to be alone with Camille than I can for Mom to be with her strapped-in son.

By the way, just for the hell of it, what happens to Camille? She's evidently still alive at the end, though suffering from hypothermia. I know the dog survives because under the end credits we see the animal burrow out from under the snow, shake itself off, then perform various doggy gavottes on a field of ice.

Wow, Camille and Petra make a striking couple. Petra is beautiful and sexy in a conventional way, like a model. Her performance isn't bad either. It's competent enough and there is one moment when her employer asks her how she feels about leaving Camille and her face seems washed over with sorrow before she lowers it onto the guy's shoulder.

Camille could be a model too, but not an ordinary one. She looks like a cross between Anouk Aimee and Martin Short. (Maybe a founder effect in the gene pool.) Her features are sharp and angular, where Petra's are soft and pliable looking, but she is very feminine.

I can't comment on their figures. Not enough, in my opinion, is shown of them. There is hardly any nudity. And the sex scenes are all tender and loving and consist of aesthetically correct caresses of fingers across a vast expanse of unidentifiable but still succulent-looking flesh. Nobody moans or talks dirty. Well -- no movie is perfect. I can't understand why this movie received a more restricted rating than a simple R. It's really not much more than a rather sweet soapy love story.

I should mention Henry Czerny as the confused and angry boyfriend of Camille. He has been uniformly good in every movie I've seen him in. He has a distinctive actorish face that could go either way -- into reason and compassion or into the villainy that has been his usual lot.

The movie deserves plaudits for avoiding two traps, however obvious those traps are. It does not bash men and it does not bash religion. Neither potential target does anything to help the situation, not nearly as much as Pure Love does, but both do their limited best.

Plot holes and dialog solecisms ("This morning was an anomaly". Cf: "Last night was a mistake.") aside, the story is nicely presented. The director, Patricia Rozema, takes it at a deliberate pace and decorates the screen with occasional arty images or unexpected phantasmagoria. ("Arty" in a good sense.) When the circus trucks leave town at the end her camera lingers on a poster of a huge eye which may not carry much symbolic weight but effectively grabs the viewer's attention.

I wound up hoping that Camille could be revived without loss of limbs and that she and Petra would somehow make it together, although, as Petra had earlier observed, "Everything turns ordinary after a while." The main impression the movie leaves is that Toronto has some thoroughly rotten winter weather. Any lesbians who think they've got it tough ought to consider the circumstances of the Iroquois. A winter solstice in Canada -- and no De Longhi.

"The world is a den of thieves and night is falling. Soon it will be the hour for robbers and murderers. Evil is breaking its chains and goes through the world like a mad dog... So it shall be. Therefore let us be happy, let us be kind, generous, affectionate and good. Therefore it is necessary, and not in the least shameful, to take pleasures in the little world, good food, gentle smiles, fruit-trees in bloom and waltzes" --excerpted from Fanny & Alexander by Ingmar Bergman.

Camille (Pascale Bussieres), a professor at a Protestant college, is engaged to Martin (Henry Czerny), a sympathetic minister and fellow professor who clearly loves Camille. As "career Christians," they are urged to get married and to become co-chaplains of the New College of Faith. But Camille is vaguely unhappy with Martin and her life, and when her beloved dog dies suddenly, she begins to lose her grip. As she sits weeping to herself in a laundromat, Camille meets Petra (Rachael Crawford), a flamboyant circus performer. Anyone who has ever lost a pet knows how intangibly devastating it can be, and Camille is sincerely shattered. Petra realizes this, tries to offer solace and is so attracted to Camille that she finds a way for them to cross paths again. When they do meet again Petra flirts brazenly with Camille, who is deeply offended, confused, yet curious as well. Petra, who lives in her own paganly decorated trailer, is part of a "modern primitive" circus, not unlike The Jim Rose Circus Sideshow filled with freaks, artists and jolly folk of all ilks. Petra, who is looking to have Camille "under the moonlight with her head thrown back," balks when Camille sheepishly asks if they could just be friends instead ("like Thelma and Louise, but without the guns?"), wanting to take her time. The two do become friends and Petra takes Camille hang gliding even though she has to convince her that the price of adventure is fear. For the first time in her proper and very intellectual life, Camille's desire comes rushing forward. She is shocked to find that she is infatuated with Petra. Soon she believes that she is in love.

But all is not well with the circus. Hounded by creditors, the circus must leave town, threatening to tear the new lovers apart. Meanwhile, part of Camille is still deeply attached to Martin, who is away trying to get a paper of his published in a seminarian journal while Camille and Petra discover each other. When Martin returns from his business trip and begins to figure out what has been happening, his frustration comes a hair's breadth from turning into rage and tries getting through to her that "experimentation" is one thing, but a three year bond is something else entirely. This is a beautiful little film by Patricia Rozema, who also directed the lovely 1987 character study I Heard The Mermaids Singing. Due to a strict Calvinist upbringing Rozema had seen no films before the age of 16, and this film almost serves as a dialogue for her muse, before and after she escaped the doctrines of the church. Pascale Bussieres is wonderful as Camille, who is able to tread that fine line between confusion and curiosity very well. She has an inner beauty that draws not only Petra, but the viewer. There is a calm in her soul that is so very soothing. There is no trace of anger or impatience in her character whatsoever, instead she turns inward and mentally reviews her situation on such a continual basis, always searching for balance, that her trepidatious innocence is the allure that Petra finds so fascinating. With Bussieres' almond eyes, auburn hair and porcelain skin, hers is a very classic sense of beauty that is so dissimilar to Petra's attractiveness (black, sexy, passionate, whimsical) that they make a very complementary match. Petra's initial impetuosity soon smoothes itself out and Camille's reticence begins to ebb as they both realize how much they can learn from each other if they can let their blossoming love develop naturally. There is such a well-measured sense of balance in this film that the love scenes are in turn very highly erotic, as well as touching and moving. Perhaps the most difficult thing a person can ever do is look their partner in the eyes while making passionate love, tell them 'I love you' and have it sound like the most intimate and genuine thing they'll ever hear. Bussieres is able to do this effortlessly. The character of Camille is so very obviously treading into deeper waters than she's ever fathomed before, but she proceeds cautiously enough so that she is able to slowly and wisely understand that the love and understanding she has already been able to appreciate on an intellectual and otherworldly level through the church need not mean that it must be denied to her sensually simply because it's a body of another gender. In fact, the lovemaking she shares with Petra is so unbridled that it unleashes her enough to be able to bring her new- found passion back to her fiancé, which he duly notices and appreciates.

Don't misunderstand me: She does cheat on her fiancé, and in so doing, Martin's anger is perfectly understandable, but by that time the world that Camille has tasted and chooses to be a part of is chosen simply because it is one that is not as blindly judgmental as the church. If anything I would say that the film is too short by half an hour simply because the end is more of an escape than a conclusion, but maybe that's the point. Or perhaps, in the tradition of Traffaut, Rozema plans to follow-up her story with Part Two.

There aren't any "evil" characters in this film, each of the leading roles are characters that are drawn and performed so well that you do end up caring for all of them, so much so that when Martin realizes what has developed between his fiancée and her new girlfriend, the delight you feel for Camille is offset by the empathy you feel for Martin. No matter how painful it is for Martin to lose the love of his life, the film makes it clear that it is much more than just sex with another woman that has persuaded Camille away: It is a way of life that has more to do with living than the cloistered, regimented facades she has grown to endure her entire life. If anything you wonder why Martin doesn't join them, too.

I hope this film gets a general release and finds an audience in the shopping malls because it could very gently and significantly open up conversations across middle America about the relationship between desire and gender.

It's a good movie that has presented emotions and the turmoil very nicely. The characters of Petra (mildly annoying and childlike) and Camille have very different understandings of what is right and what is not but they both feel one same thing. How they both approach this gives a slice of life sort feel. The movie has a strong buildup but falls quite short in the end, like there was some hurry to wrap it all up. What in the world were the makers thinking when they resurrected the dead dog at the end. I'm sure it has some metaphorical meaning, but that is just ridiculous and killed the vibe of this otherwise wonderful movie. That dog sat in the fridge for a few days and woke up the morning after being buried in the snow. Genius!

These women are psychotic. They are selfish, codependent, and obsessed. There are 3 good things about this movie. The performances of the circus troop, the score, and, I agree, the sex scenes.

However, the depiction of lesbian women (or bisexuals) is awful. This is nothing but demeaning. I am ashamed that this is what is shown to the world as an example of what a good relationship is about.

Camille abandons her boyfriend, Martin, and her pet, Bob. (She can't even dig a grave for Bob down into the dirt but only buries him in the snow - more on that below).

These women are self centered and clearly show no caring for the people around them or what they are doing to each other. Petra stalks, shoots arrows through apartment windows and hangs around outside until she, like a child throwing a tantrum is noticed. This is attractive? The woman is Psycho. Camille is no better. She persists in lying to Martin, and placing herself in Petra's path (even after the aforementioned psychotic behavior) and wants to be "friends." Oh, c'mon. The kindest thing would have been to let Petra go on her own way. Really.

One reviewer said, "These are anyone's woman." What? You have to be kidding. These women are astonishingly beautiful, far from the average, and have fantastic jobs - how many people do you know that work for a circus?

OK, now for the piece de resistance: the end. Remember the dead dog, Bob? Guess what? He isn't dead. He resurrects himself at the end to the musical backdrop of Allellujah as Camille drives off with her new love in a circus caravan and leaves her boyfriend and resurrected dog behind. Absolutely ridiculous. I nearly peed myself.

Could this movie have existed without "Desert Hearts" (1985) and "Wings of Desire" (1987)?

"DH" involved a straight-laced female college professor seduced by a free-spirited gay woman, and the romantic lead of "Wings" is a circus trapeze performer. So maybe the film drew inspiration from both. But comparisons distract from this production.

Still, it has a number of good lines, all from the worldly Petra (Rachel Crawford):

'"Animals love you in a way people can't."

"If you wait for what's called for, usually nothing happens."

"Fear is what you pay for adventure."

On the down side, the movie's plot line is predictable. We can tell as early as the laundromat scene that Petra and Camille (Pascale Bussieres) will hook up and have great sex.

Really, how good can a movie be when its most striking element arrives AFTER the credits?

You go, Bob!