In the night (film 1985)

The main character of the film isEd , an aerospace engineer in Los Angeles , is worried about insomnia . He cannot sleep for weeks. This affects his work and poisons his personal life. The employee , whom he takes to the office, gives him stupid advice to fly to Las Vegas , they say, you still don’t sleep, so at least you will rest at night. No matter how ridiculous the advice may seem, but on the day when Ed finds out about the betrayal of his wife, he decides to follow him. From this moment on, his life changes dramatically. At the airport, in the parking lot, it falls right on the hood to it a girl who begs to immediately take her away, otherwise she will be killed. Diana, this is the name of the girl, also following the advice of the well-wisher, dared to bring several precious stones into the country from Europe . It turned out that these stones are from the scepter of an escaping Iranian shah , they are priceless and there are many who want to get them. The rest of the film is filled with chases and shooting. It really does not get to sleep.

• Jeff Goldblum - Ed Orkin
• Michelle Pfeiffer - Diana
• Dan Aykroyd - Herb, employee Ed
• Bruce McGill - Charlie, Diana's brother
• David Bowie - Colin Morris
• Richard Farnsworth - Jack Caper
• Vera Miles - Joan Kaper
• Irene Papas - the shahina
• Clu Galager - Federal Agent
• Katherine Harold - Christy
• Stacy Pickren - Ellen Orkin

• Director Jack Arnold - a man with a dog in an elevator
• Make-up artist Rick Baker - drug dealer
• French director, producer and screenwriter Roger Vadim - Mr. Millville , French kidnapper
• Screenwriter Carl Gottlieb - FBI Fat Mustachioed Special Agent
• Director, producer and screenwriter Jonathan Demmey - federal agent with glasses
• Director David Cronenberg - Ed's Chief Meeting Room
• screenwriter and director Lawrence Casdan - police detective interrogating Bada german
• writer and screenwriter Jonathan Lynn is a tailor trying on costumes for SAVAC agents
• Director Paul Mazursky - Bad Herman , lover Christie
• Director Daniel Petrie - Director of the Hostage Film
• Didi Pfeiffer , younger sister Michelle Pfeiffer - a prostitute sticking to the main characters
• director and producer Don Siegel - a man who was caught with a woman in a hotel restroom
• screenwriter Waldo Salt is a bum reporting Ed , that the car that he parked in the wrong place, was taken to the penalty parking
• Director Richard Franklin - an aerospace engineer who dines at the same table Herb
• Director Amy Hekerling - Awkward Waitress
• the creator of the Muppets Jim Henson is a man talking on the phone with Bernie , while the characters in the film are looking forward to the end of this conversation
• playwright, screenwriter and director Colin Higgins - actor with a gun on the set of the hostage film
• musician and composer Karl Perkins - Mr. Williams , assistant Hamid Moradi

The director of the film, John Landis, played one of the agents hunting for the main characters. In total, 17 directors appeared on the screen in this film with himself.

Prime Dates

Dates are given in accordance with IMDb ^[3] .

Critical Reaction

The Rotten Tomatoes review drive website , At Night, has a freshness rating of 38%. It is based on 21 recalls of film critics and testifies to a mixed attitude to the film.

Vincent Kenby of The New York Times wrote: “A little ridiculous, largely grotesque“ In the Night, ”one gets the impression it was created not for our vacation, but for our circle of cinematographers from Bel Air to watch each other’s films with them viewing rooms. " However, for the performing skills of the actors of the two leading roles, he saved warm words: “Mr. Goldblum, with his somewhat detached reaction to the anger of others, demonstrates the good work of comic self-control. Miss Pfeiffer, after the last role of cocaine addicted wife Al Pacino in “ Scarface ”, is so beautiful that you may not notice that she has the potential to be a great comedic actress ” ^[4] . Variety echoed in a similar way: “at the same time during the film you make efforts to laugh, and then you strain to be frightened,” while praising Jeff Goldblum’s play, “at the same time, it’s nice to watch him constantly trying to understand that he actually does here ” ^[5] .

A number of critics believed that such a large number of episodic appearances of friends and colleagues of Landis is unnecessary and confusing. Roger Ebert said on the pages of the Chicago Sun-Times : “If I were an agent of one of the stars involved like Goldblum, Michelle Pfeiffer, Richard Farnsworth or Catherine Harold, I think I would protest in front of the office where Landis staged a cinematic masturbation act and my clients lost in the middle of this family meeting ” ^[6] . Opinion of “ Time Out ”: “Countless venerable filmmakers in small roles seem unnecessary, but David Bowie created a wonderful image of an English killer and both leading actors look brilliant: Pfeiffer, for example, presents herself in a glamorous to ridiculous role, sometimes breaking even the best the actress manages to make every inch of her path credible ” ^[7] .

Soviet critics, unfamiliar with the Hollywood elite, and therefore watched the film with an open mind, reacted to the picture much more favorably. Sergei Kudryavtsev in 1990 drew attention: “It is strange that no one paid attention to another. John Landis, like Martin Scorsese with his own film “ After Work, ” appeared at the origins of a whole line of comedies about “ yuppies in danger,” that is, about young urban professionals who suddenly send their work one day or one night and respectable life to hell and go on a risky journey with seductive beauties, getting involved because of them in a real binding ” ^[2] .

The soundtrack for the film was written by Ira Newborn (compositions “Enter Shaheen” and “Century City Chase”). Newborn also performed as a composer of two songs from the soundtrack - Into the Night and My Lucille (both performed by rhythm and blues master B. King and the arranger of the classic song In the Midnight Hour. In addition, the vinyl edition of the soundtrack contained two more songs by Ira Newborn that weren’t in the film: “Don’t Make Me Sorry” (co-author Joe Esposito) performed by Patti La Belle and “Keep It Light” (co-author Reginald “Sonny” Burke) performed by Thelma Houston . The official release of the soundtrack was supplemented by a couple of songs from the film - “Let's Get It On” by Marvin Gay and “I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)” performed by The Four Tops .

The envelope design included a comment by John Landis:

All three songs of the BB King from the soundtrack were released as separate singles ^{[8] [9] [10]} . These same songs formed the basis of the documentary television movie "BB King" Into the Night "", in which, in addition to the maestro, film actors are involved, as well as Eddie Murphy and Steve Martin . The director of this television movie was Jeff Okun, and his assistant was John Landis. In fact, Landis was responsible for the video clips for all three songs, and Okun supplemented King's archive shootings and interviews with him and Landis. Video clips show, among other things, stills from the movie.

• Special Prize at the IFF in Cognac .

• Kudryavtsev S. V. At night // 3500. Book of film reviews . - in 2 volumes. - M .: Pechatny Dvor, 2008 .-- 1424 p. - 3500 copies. - ISBN 978-5-9901318-3-5 .

• In the night on the allmovie website  
• At night on the Rotten Tomatoes website  
• Review of the film on the site "Video Guide"
• Another review of the film on the site "Video Guide"
• Review of the film on the site "Cinema Theater"