Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
1975
Film, 03:45:00.
Materials:
Jeanne Dielman is a widow, mother and part-time prostitute who lives in a small apartment in Brussels. Her life is determined by routine: preparing meals, cleaning, shopping, receiving clients, and evenings with her teenage son - until cracks begin to appear. The film starts in the kitchen, late on a Tuesday afternoon, and ends two days later at the beginning of the evening: in the meantime, Jeanne has killed a man. She sits in her usual place in the dark. Outside, a neon sign flashes.
Chantal Akerman called Jeanne Dielman "a love film for my mother", in recognition of the type of woman who is trapped in the kind of petty bourgeois life from which she herself knew to escape.
In the mid 1970s, the filmmaker broke through internationally with this minimalist drama. It was chosen as the greatest movie of the 20th century by several newspapers, one of which was the New York publication The Village Voice.