One dimension of the long take in Chantal Akerman's films is rarely cited for its own sake: that the long take records “real time,” that it inscribes and sublimates the banality of an everyday action by respecting its duration, that it bears witness to a waiting become infinite, one open to various historical dimensions, that it portrays faces and bodies in the fragile persistence of an emotion. All of this is accurate, but is of somewhat secondary importance next to the primary relation the image establishes; whether she is filming people or things, alienating interiors or deserted landscapes, Akerman uses duration to summon the viewer to an aesthetic relation. This article discusses the following Akerman films in light of the filmmaker's use of the long take: Portrait d'une jeune fille de la fin des années 60 à Bruxelles (1994), Toute une nuit (1982), Un divan à New York (1996), Nuit et jour (1991), La Captive (2000), News from Home (1977), Là-bas (2006), La folie Almayer (2011), No Home Movie (2015), Je tu il elle (1974), L'Homme à la valise (2004), Le Déménagement (1992), D'Est (1993), and Les rendez-vous d'Anna (1978).
Order and disorder in everyday action: the roles of contention scheduling and supervisory attention
