AFS Essentials Presents: Le Vent de la Nuit

Tonight, AFS continues their amazing Phillipe Garrel retrospective with 1999's La Vent de La Nuit (The Wind of the Night), starring the timeless Catherine Deneuve as Hélene, a hot (duh) rich lady driven to distraction by her much younger art-student lover, Paul. Does he really love her for who she is, or is he simply attracted to her cash flow and connections? Their shaky love affair grows even more complicated when art boy chances upon a possible career-climbing opportunity in meeting Serge, a famous radical artist still carrying some serious baggage from the '60s.

If you've ever succumbed to obsessive love and its attendant crazy clinginess, or if you've ever dated, um, an "artist" only to marvel at their capacity for self-involvement, now's your chance to see your neuroses validated (stylishly and in French!) by the ineffable, immortal Ms. Deneuve. Also, the film is scored by John Cale, onetime bandmate of Phillippe Garrel's longtime lover Nico. So, just to recap: While American culture spawns the clownish tanorexic cougars of Real Housewives of Orange County, France gives us classy, icy blondes set to soundtracks by Velvet Undergound members. Sigh.