🎬 Into the night... #1: 'Toute une Nuit' (1982)

Dark alleys, people coming and going. You can’t see them, but they’re there. The sun has set, streetlights are on. We’re allowed to commit crimes, to fall in our lovers’ arms, to chase temptation, to enchant one another. To roam the streets endlessly, looking for danger. The mystery of the nocturnal offers us what we can’t have during the day. These films bring you the witching hours. Nightly escapades, midnight mischief. Places you can get lost in. Elevators, for example. Or dusty hotels. Step into the night with this curated selection of films that (mostly) unfold over the course of one night.

TOUTE UNE NUIT
Chantal Akerman | 1982 | Belgium, France | 90’ | EN subtitles

Toute une Nuit is a film consisting of fragments, snippets from the lives of dozens of people during a night in Brussels in the summer. 

A door swings open. A woman throws herself into a man's arms; she is holding her shoes in her hand. A café. A man looks at a woman; he stands up, she does too. Love at first sight. They rush into each other's arms and lose themselves in a dance. A phone rings, a man comes running, out of breath. Grinding music echoes through the feverish night. A girl pulls a man towards her. A woman throws open the door and storms up the stairs. A man grabs a woman. Resistance. Two men separate. A highly emotional woman collapses into a taxi.

In a city, on a hot, tumultuous summer night, men, women, and children, seized by desire, capable of anything, allow themselves to be carried away by their frenzied feelings, sometimes to the point of madness. As long as the night lasts.