Rating: R | Runtime: 111 minutes
Release Date: May 4th, 2022 (France) / June 30th, 2023 (USA)
Studio: Pyramide Distribution / Kimstim Films
Director(s): Mikhaël Hers
Writer(s): Mikhaël Hers, Maud Ameline & Mariette Désert

We were magnificent strangers.

While I cannot speak to the politics and obvious French-ness of the 1980s Paris period-specific setting, Mikhaël Hers’ The Passengers of the Night succeeds on its relatable tale of complicated love, purpose, and evolution alone. Co-written by Maud Ameline and Mariette Désert, the filmmakers introduce lead character Elisabeth (Charlotte Gainsbourg) at her lowest.

Her husband has left her to raise and house their teenage son Mathias (Quito Rayon Richter) and college-aged daughter Judith (Megan Northam) without providing any financial support. So, Elisabeth must find a job to sustain their current apartment and lives—something she hasn’t had to do since their births. With no work history or obvious training beyond a psychology degree (computer use is a nonstarter since she doesn’t understand the concept of saving files), she has no clue where to start.

Enter late night radio host Vanda (Emmanuelle Béart). Elisabeth has listened to her show as an insomniac for years, so she takes the opportunity to write a letter doubling as both a personal message like those read on air every night and an unsolicited application. What follows is a job as the new switchboard operator—menial on the surface, but profound in its impact.

Vanda takes a chance on her and Elisabeth enters a world that supplies purpose and power. She even decides to pay it forward by inviting a young, unhoused woman (Noée Abita’s Talulah) to live in their spare room. Add Judith’s political radicalization in school and Mathias’ burgeoning hormones and the potential to upset this already fragile apple cart seems inevitable. That danger exists circa 1984 when this quartet first comes together and it remains in 1988 once they fatefully cross paths again.

The film is a character study through and through. Elisabeth and Mathias become our main focal points—lovelorn and vulnerable souls trying to find romance despite being too sensitive for their own good. Talulah becomes a lightning rod that sparks their desire to flip the cautious scripts they adhered to in the past. Elisabeth gives her trust. Mathias gives her love.

And Hers makes certain his film exposes what those acts do to them as individuals rather than as co-dependent halves reliant upon this eighteen-year-old newcomer’s whims. Their wants won’t therefore always be satiated. Nor will their hopes always find fruition. But they’ll both become better people in the attempt and that’s what matters. Because this is but one chapter in their lives. A passage of upheaval and rebirth to discover that pursuing happiness on their terms is enough to know it will eventually be found.

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Charlotte Gainsbourg in PASSENGERS OF THE NIGHT; courtesy of KimStim.