Plot Summary

Claire Denis' Friday Night, a fantasy that follows a woman into a one-night stand, is an adaptation of the popular novel by Emmanuelle Bernheim who also cowrote the story with Denis. Dreamy and confused, the film begins as Laure is packing up her Paris apartment and preparing to move. The chaos of this situation leads directly into the next, as Laure gets in her car and begins to drive across town to a dinner party, only to become stuck in a massive traffic jam. As radio reports continue to stress the drastic and unbreakable gridlock that has Paris literally locked in the streets, a rainstorm blurs Laure's vision. Suddenly, a stranger approaches on foot, and she offers him a ride. But they're not going anywhere, just smoking, and sitting idle. Eventually Laure calls her friends and cancels on the dinner party, leaving her Friday night wide open to follow whatever path it may take. A master at building tension and suspense, Denis creates so much chemistry between Laure and her fantasy man that viewers may await a turn to violence or something shockingly unexpected. However, that nervous and mysterious feeling just builds as the ambiguous story of Friday Night continues and a seemingly banal situation--a traffic jam on a rainy Friday--becomes a magical adventure.