Every day, AlloCiné recommends a film to (re)watch on TV. Tonight: Vincent Macaigne and Pio Marmai at the heart of drug trafficking.
With Médecin de nuit, his third feature film, Elie Wajeman continues to explore the themes he had already explored in his first two films, Alyah and Les Anarchistes.
Here, moral ambiguity, the boundary between legality and illicitness are approached through Mikaël’s chaotic life. Between his care for patients in difficult neighborhoods and drug addicts, the latter is also torn between his wife and his mistress, while being drawn into a dangerous drug trade.
Influenced by American thrillers of the 1970s such as Mean Streets, Le Flambeur or Le Parrain, Elie Wajeman takes the codes of film noir and modernizes them to paint a relevant portrait of Paris by night in the 2020s. popular districts of the French capital, where solitude is everywhere.
Intense (it lasts 1 hour 22), night doctor also plays with its time unit (Mikael only has one night to regain control) to create a harsh tension, on edge, carried throughout by its protagonist. Abandoning the lunar characters to which he subscribed, Vincent Macaigne reveals himself in a more serious register. A masterful performance that earned him a nomination for the César for Best Actor.
Find our AlloCiné ranking of the best French thrillers of the 2020s.
night doctor by Elie Wajeman with Vincent Macaigne, Pio Marmaï, Sara Giraudeau…
Tonight on Arte at 8:55 p.m.