All Night Long

A hot summer night in Brussels. A woman packs a bag and leaves the house. A man sits in a bar waiting for someone. A couple embrace in the street and separate. Someone else picks up the telephone and puts it down. More than twenty people are watched over the course of the film; none is named, none of their stories is told, and there is almost no speech. When morning comes some of them go back and some do not. Chantal Akerman builds repetition in place of narrative: doors, staircases, empty streets, and the same movement made by different people. Sound is at the front; footsteps, a door, music from a distance. The feeling comes not from dialogue but from gesture and timing. Aurore Clément is among the recognisable names in the cast. The film counts as one of the most accessible of Akerman's structural experiments. Who it's for: Viewers who like Chantal Akerman, experimental narrative, and films set at night. Who it's not for: There are no characters, no story, and the repetition is deliberate. The film offers no route in for a viewer wanting to connect.