Considered one of the greatest masterpieces in the history of cinema, Jeanne Dielman, directed by Chantal Akerman, is finally coming out in cinemas. One of the most anticipated film events of the year!
Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du commerce, 1080 Brussels is a work like no other, surrounded by a unique aura. It’s a film that was seen very little when it was released (31,000 admissions, in 1976), and became very difficult to see legally for many years (for a question of rights), thus giving it a very rare side, like a hidden treasure… But at the same time, this film directed by the Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman, who died in 2015, is praised, celebrated on all sides by some of the greatest filmmakers in activity (Todd Haynes, Kelly Reichardt, the Dardenne brothers…). Jeanne Dielman was even recently elected best film in the history of cinema! Revered but not found!
A film praised among the greatest filmmakers but which has become… invisible!
Since Wednesday, Jeanne Dielman is back at the cinema, everywhere in France. An event for moviegoers, like, for example, the re-release of La Maman et la putain, by Jean Eustache last year, which, in the end, had attracted more than 30,000 curious people, despite its duration of 3h29 . The opportunity to finally see on the big screen films qualified as masterpieces.
These two films therefore have in common a rarity, a singular aura and an XXL duration… Here, 3h18. The duration of the (very) feature film Jeanne Dielman is in fact an essential element of the film. It is even precisely to see time unfold in this way that makes it an unforgettable film. More than a film, Jeanne Dielman is an experience, which must be felt over its duration.
Jeanne Dielman depicts the daily life of a mother who occasionally engages in prostitution. The film will take the time to show all these everyday facts and gestures. Does Chantal Akerman film banality? Critics will say yes, finding the film endless, boring, even boring. But to think that is to completely miss Chantal Akerman’s directing work…”There is a tension that is created because underground we feel that something is going to happen. It’s like an ancient tragedy, with nothing, almost nothing…“Chantal Akerman described this work of tension like this.
It’s like an ancient tragedy, with nothing, almost nothing…
Very far from a certain current cinema, which escalates special effects, which multiplies the shots, here the special effect is to see Delphine Seyrig in one of the greatest roles of her career, carrying out tasks of the daily. “We needed someone we’re not used to seeing doing the dishes, so it was perfect with Delphine because everything became visible“, summarizes Chantal Akerman. This idea works to the full, creating a certain gap.
Chantal Akerman said a little more, in an interview granted in 1976, about her will behind her ideas for staging: “For me, it was not a question of making a naturalist film, where there is no excess gesture, no parasite, the character becomes the exact reflection of a thousand other Dielmans without really being any of them. And the whole staging goes in the same direction, that’s why, the fixed shots, the stylized division of space, the camera facing the characters (whether the character is from the front or from the back.) The relentlessness meticulous in defining each of the gestures in order, as in hyper-realistic painting, to give an exemplary value to what is shown, to go beyond the anecdote, the subject, and discover the profound truth, if I may say so.“
And to add:I don’t think a man would have approached this theme by showing the daily life of a housewife; he would not have attached himself to the same images, images which are not valued cinematographically or socially, images which most often form part of the ellipses, or are used incidentally to reinforce or advance a narrative. There, not only are they in the film, but they are the film“.
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It should be noted that this release by Jeanne Dielman is the first stage of a larger project around Chantal Akerman. In 2024, Capricci editions will unveil a retrospective in theaters, a DVD/Blu-ray box set, then an exhibition in a Parisian museum. Note also the recent release of a book, still at Capricci, devoted to Delphine Seyrig, DELPHINE SEYRIG, IN CONSTRUCTIONS by Jean-Marc Lalanne.