Marie Verdi
'Night Shift' really knocked me out. I hesitate to call it a thriller, I suppose psychological drama is the more apt description, but it packs in more tension and suspense than 90% of today's Hollywood thrillers. I was hooked from the outset, and the film held me in its grip until the closing scene. Refreshingly set in a blue collar background, something Hollywood very rarely (if ever!) does anymore, it's a simple story of a nice guy/family man Pierre (Gerald Laroche) who moves to a new section of the factory he works at and begins the night shift.
June 1946: Stalin invites Russian emigres to return to the motherland. It's a trap: when a ship-load from France arrives in Odessa, only a physician and his family are spared execution or prison. He and his French wife (her passport ripped up) are sent to Kiev. She wants to return to France immediately; he knows that they are captives and must watch every step.
Henri is a lonely, isolated young man who lets no one get close to him. He meets a street hustler and comes out of his shell, going 180 degrees into gay obsession. Though he has yet to physically approach the object of his affection, Henri builds up so much unrequited lust that it explodes with horrible results.
A woman leaves her husband and marries another man without divorcing the first.
