Italian writer-director Davide Ferrario’s whimsical rom-com offers up a bizarre love triangle. Martino (Giorgio Pasotti), is a shy janitor at Turin’s Museum of Cinema who spends his night shifts watching Buster Keaton movies and splicing together his own films. When young waitress Amanda (Francesca Inaudi), on the run from the rozzers, takes shelter in the museum, Martino bumps up against her brooding, car-thief boyfriend Angel (Fabio Troiano) who’s expecting her swift return.
Crammed with diverse references, After Midnight is vividly photographed but a little too reliant on an eccentric, anonymous narrator to unfurrow its high brow. Although it lacks real dramatic urgency, it still manages to retain a lateral charm, thanks to plenty of droll humour and Ferrario’s obvious passion for both his misfit characters and cinema history in general.
