Night Across the Street

Night Across the Street is a 2012 Chilean postmodern drama film directed by Raúl Ruiz. It was screened in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, as well as at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival, the 2012 New York Film Festival and the 2013 Hong Kong International Film Festival. Plot In his final completed film, Ruiz explores the concept of death. The film delves into three dimensions of time, which Ruiz masterfully plays with throughout. For a better understanding, time as a dimension can be further explained here. The film starts with Don Celso (Sergio Hernández) attending a class by Jean Giono (Christian Vadim) on language use. During the session, an alarm goes off in Don Celso's pocket reminding him to take his medicine. Don Celso and Giono discuss the passage of time in life, which is a theme throughout the movie. Don Celso suggests time is like marbles and can be worn as a necklace, which relates to his exploration of different fantasies as his current self or child-self. This sequence delves into Don Celso's relationship with time. In the present time, Don Celso works in an office where they write poetry. He's shown at his desk, lost in thought, moving his hands like puppets. His coworker notices this is unusual behavior for him, but we understand he's reenacting his conversation with Jean Giono from the previous sequence. Don Celso is snapped back to reality when his boss interrupts him. We find out he's retiring in a few days and will have a retirement party the next day.