Written and directed by Annick Blanc, Jour de chasse is engaging from the start, where Nina is stranded on a highway and, seemingly with no other choice, decides to join a group of hunters in an isolated cabin. Tension is a sensation not only felt from minute one, but also something on the rise as the story goes on. Nina, surrounded by a group of men she barely knows, illustrates the dichotomy of a new found otherness, someone who, at first sight, doesn't belong. A difference that shouldn't be mistaken by unwillingness, for it is clear that in order to accept and welcome her in the group, a rite of initiation has to be passed.
Jour de chasse evokes individuality, be that proper individuality, that of an individual, or a group's, their collective identity, and how it can serve as a mechanism of continuing with one's life no matter what is happening around. A device furthering hedonism while occluding exogenic realities. This is not the only, at least from a collectively-inclined point of view, pessimistic statement the movie is interested in communicating, social proof is also thematically present. Coined by Robert Cialdini in his 1984 book "Influence: Science and Practice," social proof is a psychological and social phenomenon in which individuals are influenced by others, resulting in their imitating others' behaviors in order to conform. In the context of the movie, as mentioned before, there is a clear escalation of tension, some of it by the unspoken assumed potentiality of something bad happening to Nina, and some by how the situation quickly escalates, leading to unforeseen consequences. Social proof might be the reason behind events as such. The perceived limitlessness of some situations, even when divorced from social normativity, presents a gap difficult to tread, but certainly a possibility in any given situation.
It is clear Jour de chasse is also interested in gender in its depiction of masculinity as something toxic. A toxicity articulated in the overt "manliness" of this group of men and the bachelor party they are having where Nina is also part of. It is unclear what Annick Blanc's intentions are since, by not including other portrayals of gender and resorting to an apparently meta unidimensionality, she fails in exploring the theme enough and instead relies on a caricaturized, cliched portrayal of gender as something, and in doing so mistakenly, not performative but intrinsic. There are, however, moments where the movie contests this idea and seems that it doesn't sustain itself. But ultimately, it feels to be the equivalent of having a debate where your opponent is not present. Something that is better explored in Femme (2023), by Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping, and Yorgos Lanthimos' Poor Things (2023).
The situation where the protagonist is, and then where the rest of the characters are, can be looked at as individuals thrown into uncharted territories. In this sense, the movie bears a close resemblance to Ruben Östlund's Triangle of Sadness from 2022. But this is not the only thing in common, there is also power dynamics and their displacement. This is effectively done since it is not only interesting to see but also something that comes completely unexpected.
