"When Night Is Falling" A Film Review by Linda Lopez McAlister on "The Women's Show" WMNF-FM 88.5, Tampa, FL December 9, 1995 Patricia Rozema is the Canadian filmmaker responsible for one of my all- time favorite feminist films "I've Heard the Mermaids Singing." So I was thrilled to know that another feature written and directed by her, "When Night Is Falling," was opening here in Philadelphia. (Some of you in Tampa had one chance to see it this Fall during the Pride Film Festival). The title (and, indeed, the film) was inspired by the closing line from Ingmar Bergman's "Fanny and Alexander" that says when night is falling and evil is all around "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." Camille (played by Pascale Bussieres), however, teaches at a fundamentalist Christian college in Toronto, where such an attitude would be considered shameful, indeed. Although certain pleasures, such as Camille's long-standing affair with her colleague Mark (played by Henry Czerny), are at least tolerable to the administration as long as they lead to marriage, and soon, no other expressions of sexuality are allowable in this denomination that claims to "love the sinner but not the sin" but finds it very hard to do in practice. That Camille may not fit entirely comfortably in this atmosphere is made clear in the opening sequences of the film where the camera pans from Mark's class to her own. He is telling students how uncomfortable human beings are in a world devoid of absolutes and how they long for certainties, while Camille, who teaches mythology, ends her class by telling her students that human beings have an insatiable need for change. When Camille discovers that her pet dog, Bob, has died and she realizes she loved him more than people she's supposed to love (as in Mark) she is distraught and confused and she places his lifeless body in her refrigerator. She cannot help grieving even in public places such as a Laundromat where one of the other customers (Petra Soft played by Rachel Crawford) comforts her tenderly (and switches their laundry so that they will meet again). When Camille discovers that she has Petra's rather amazing-looking clothes she tracks her down and discovers that she is a performer in a kind of avant garde circus. Entering the portals of this place for Camille is literally like entering another world, one of fantasy, color, bodies, music, sensuality. Petra is rehearsing a kind of magic lantern act in which her shadow is seen on a screen bouncing circles of light off various body parts. When Petra confesses that she had purposely exchanged their clothing so she would see Camille again because she is attracted to her, Camille at first runs away. When Petra persists by shooting an arrow with a note and a picture into Camille's window, Camille allows her own feelings of attraction to surface briefly. Then returning to the circus to tell Petra that the kiss they shared had been an aberration, she goes along wit Petra hang gliding over the city. Terrified and uncomfortable at first, by the time it's over she's exhilarated and thrilled by the fact that she did it, foreshadowing how she'll feel shortly when Mark leaves town to give an out-of-town lecture and Camille is drawn once again to the circus and, ultimately, into Petra's loving arms. Students of feminist filmmaking will not be able to shake the idea that, besides Bergman, another inspiration for this film is the acrobat sequence in Laura Mulvey's "Riddles of the Sphinx." Petra and Camille make love to images of women doing acrobatic turns accompanied by music that unmistakable echoes Mulvey's images and their emotional tone, as well, namely a feeling of freedom, strength, and joyousness. Though it's not clear sailing from there on out and whether or not there can be a happy ending for Camille remains in question until the conclusion of the film. Patricia Rozema has made a very textured and intricate film that draws connections and contrasts everywhere, using numerous jump cuts to good effect. Though the bifurcation between the world of the senses and pleasure represented by the circus and that of repression represented by the College of Faith is a sharp one, there is no demonization here and many indications that the membrane between them is a permeable one. The most "Christian" gesture of kindness in the film is that of Tory, a circus person, toward Mark in his moment of despair. "When Night Is Falling" is compelling filmmaking, well enough acted, and a welcome addition to the catalogue of lesbian films. Stick around until the end of the credits to see the culmination of the Christian theme of the film, a resurrection after three days. For the Women's Show this is Linda Lopez McAlister on Women and Film. Copyright 1995. All rights reserved. Please do not reprint or reproduce this review without the permission of the author: mcaliste@chuma.cas.usf.edu.