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Italian quirk-fest After Midnight deals in two kinds of love: traditional boy-girl romance and full-blown cinephilia. On the one hand, it's a m茅nage 脿 trois comedy involving a car thief (Fabio Troiano), his fugitive girlfriend (Francesca Inaudi) and the movie-museum caretaker (Giorgio Pasotti) who befriends her. On the other, it's a jaunty homage to the history of cinema, harking back to the silent era while looking to the digital future. Trouble is, it falls down when it comes to one of the fundamentals of film: telling a decent story.

Such plot as there is kicks in when fast food waitress Amanda (Inaudi) goes on the run after chucking hot oil over her bullying boss' nether regions. She finds sanctuary with Martino (Pasotti) in the picture palace he watches over at night. As mutual affection begins to bloom, Amanda must decide whether it's this shy celluloid obsessive she wants, or her womanising other half (Pasotti).

"REAL ROMANCE BETWEEN FILMMAKER AND MEDIUM"

For a film so hung up on pictures in motion, there's little forward momentum. The central love triangle imitates Francois Truffaut's Jules Et Jim (1961) without seizing its spark. No, the real romance here is between filmmaker and medium. Shooting on high-definition digital video, writer/helmer Davide Ferrario offers a playful primer in the devices (intertitles etc) and stars (Buster Keaton, Laurel and Hardy) of a bygone era. If only the characters' comings and goings were as much fun as the film clips. After Midnight may not put you off cinema, but it won't remind you why you love it.

In Italian with English subtitles.