With this premiere of two rarely screened films by Chantal Akerman, both from 1982, To Save and Project continues its celebration of the Royal Cinematheque of Belgium in its years-long effort to restore all of Akerman’s theatrical work.
Toute une nuit (All Night Long). 1982. Belgium. Written and directed by Chantal Akerman. With Aurore Clément, Tchéky Karyo, Angelo Abazoglou. North American premiere. In French; English subtitles. 90 min.
Chantal Akerman called this her riff on Madame Bovary, setting adolescent fantasies of romance against the stark realities of adult disillusionment during a one-night stand in “incestuous Brussels.” The arc of love is the form of the film itself, as professional and nonprofessional actors (including many of Akerman’s friends) enact timeworn patterns of amorous seduction, repetition, and rejection in a series of fleeting nocturnal encounters. And in this strange and hypnotic way, All Night Long is a dress rehearsal for the musical comedy Akerman was also completing at the time, Golden Eighties.
4K digital restoration by CINEMATEK—The Royal Belgian Film Archive & Fondation Chantal Akerman, under the supervision of cinematographer Caroline Champetier, with the support of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation and the Brussels-Capital Region; courtesy Janus Films.
Hôtel des Acacias. 1982. Belgium/France/Netherlands/Canada. Written and directed by the students of INSAS (Yves Hanchar, Pierre Charles Rochette, François Vanderveken, Isabelle Willems) under the supervision of Chantal Akerman and Michèle Blondeel. North American premiere. In French; English subtitles. 42 min.
By all accounts, Chantal Akerman was an extraordinary teacher. Hôtel des Acacias, another forerunner to her musical comedy Golden Eighties (1982), is the product of a workshop she and the writer-actress Michèle Blondeel conducted with students at the Brussels film school, inviting them through a series of staged amatory escapades at a hotel to contemplate the fickleness of love.
Digital restoration by Thaïs Play David at INSAS in collaboration with CINEMATEK—The Royal Belgian Film Archive; courtesy CINEMATEK & Fondation Chantal Akerman.
Program 132 min.