Nuit et jour (Night and Day). 1991. Belgium/France. Directed by Chantal Akerman. Screenplay by Akerman, Pascal Bonitzer. 35mm courtesy Royal Film Archive of Belgium — CINEMATEK and Fondation Chantal Akerman. In French; English subtitles. 90 min.
In Chantal Akerman’s erotic tale of Paris by day and by night—a riff on Jules and Jim (or is it Orpheus?)—Julie has two lovers: Jack, for spending hot summer afternoons wrapped up in each other in the blissful solitude of their Parisian apartment; and Joseph, for nighttime wanderings and “snatching hours” in hotel rooms while Jack drives a cab. Childless themselves, they live like children, with not a care in the world. One is slow, the other “hurried by life.” The unfaithful Julie, whether to assuage her guilt or keep from losing herself in another, sets up strict rules of conduct. But as our narrator Akerman reminds us, in dreams begin responsibilities, and with them comes suffering…and perhaps a kind of freedom.