Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles

xx ENCOUNTER WITH CHANTAL AKERMAN

Belgium/France / 1975 / 201'
Film

One of the most important thematic and formal milestones in the history of film chronicles three days in the life of a housewife who also works at as a prostitute at home. The camera is focused on Jeanne the same way she is focused on the housework, capturing every moment of her daily routine: dressing, washing dishes, making meatloaf… By slowing down the pace she makes the viewer watch empty time intervals and spaces that film normally skips. With atypical representations of time and space, static, frontal compositions that depict life in real time, Chantal Akerman argues that rigidly structured everyday life provides a guarantee for an untroubled life, thus home as a place of sexual repression and financial exploitation.

In French with English subtitles.

Tickets: € 4 (ticket is valid also for the film Blow Up My Town)

Organisation: Slovenian Cinematheque and City of Women.
The screenings were made possible by Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique, for which we are most grateful.