I love movies set over one night. What wonders and surprises does the night hold? Or chaos and calamity? Then again, maybe a night is just like any other. Loneliness as the sun comes up. Within that uneventful time, there’s still lots to observe. Fleeting moments.
Simone Barbes Or Virtue (1980) is a French arthouse drama set in Montparnasse, which is at this time a mix of street life and subcultures. I had never heard of this movie until Mubi added a recently restored and remastered version to its library. One night divided into three acts, three settings. The character of Simone Barbes (Ingrid Bourgoin) is our main focus. Initially Simone is steely and sarcastic, because she’s working as an usher in a porno theatre. Not selling the tickets in a box like in Bette Gordon’s Variety. But sitting in the threadbare lobby, checking the tickets and directing the men to their respective theatre. There with her friend Martine (Martine Simonet), they sit bored as we hear the sounds of disco music and sexual moaning carrying through from the theatre doors. Customers range from the regulars to the creeps to the eccentrics.
Later, Simone clocks off and heads to a lesbian cabaret bar, waiting for her girlfriend who’s working there to finish their shift. As Simone leans against the bar, chatting to the bartender and other waiters, we hear live music performed on stage, watch a Amazonian themed dance routine performed for the patrons, then a feminist punk rock performance, and all throughout, the small interactions across the dingy space. There could be a clear contrast between the two spaces, one targeted at men and their sexual gratification, and the other for women, emphasising the community experience. But for director Marie-Claude Treilhou, each setting is just another prosaic space with strange characters and small moments.
When we reach the final stretch of Simone’s night, it feels like the first time we see her in close-up and get close to her character. The armour is still there but in a conversation with a stranger (Michel Delahaye), there’s a moment where we see her a bit more clearly. With a running time of 80 minutes, Simone Barbes or Virtue might feel slight. There’s no great drama or epiphany, just observations rendered with both humour and detail, the city night being alert to danger and desire. And yet, it’s a night like any other. It feels more relatable, even within capturing a time and a place, of busy adult movie cinemas and clandestine queer bars.
A low budget independent movie from producer Paul Vecchiali, who used his production company Diagonale, and the debut film from Treilhou, a film critic, who based the story on her experiences working in a similar theatre.
Available to stream on Mubi in a remastered version. Recommended.
VHS Tracking 