The Cinema of Nothing Happens: Chantal Akerman's Jeanne Dielman
Screening and lecture by Erik Viskil.
Doors open: 15:45. Sharp start: 16:00. Please reserve a free seat at the link above. Including food and drink!
We are delighted to invite you to our first screening-lecture of the year...
Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975), 201 mins
Chantal Akerman’s groundbreaking film follows three days in the life of Jeanne Dielman, a mother living with her teenage son in Brussels. Through long, static takes and an unconventional use of duration, Akerman turns everyday routines, such as cooking and cleaning, into a physical experience of time and presence.
At once feminist and anti-illusionist, Jeanne Dielman radically challenges conventional narrative cinema and its representation of women. What traditional cinema leaves out - the pauses, repetitions and “leftovers” of everyday life - becomes central in the film. The result is a work of extraordinary precision and tension, in which only seemingly nothing happens. Jeanne Dielman is both an intimate portrait and a radical investigation into what cinema can show and how it can free our way of looking, while making us experience time.
Jeanne Dielman was ranked the greatest film of all time in the renowned Sight & Sound poll organised by the British Film Institute (BFI) in 2022.
Chantal Akerman (1950-2015)
Chantal Akerman is considered one of the most important and influential European directors of her generation, thanks to her modernity, her visionary treatment of images, time and space, and the reflections that run through her films (on identity, belonging, memory, feminism, gender and sexuality).
Alongside her films, Chantal Akerman has closely blended film and video creation, producing installations from 1995 onwards, exhibited all over the world in major art institutions. A close friend of the written word, she is also the author of several books.
Akerman's filmography numbers some fourty films and has been widely shown and acclaimed throughout the world.
Chantal Akerman (1950-2015)
Chantal Akerman is considered one of the most important and influential European directors of her generation, thanks to her modernity, her visionary treatment of images, time and space, and the reflections that run through her films (on identity, belonging, memory, feminism, gender and sexuality).
Alongside her films, Chantal Akerman has closely blended film and video creation, producing installations from 1995 onwards, exhibited all over the world in major art institutions. A close friend of the written word, she is also the author of several books.
Akerman's filmography numbers some fourty films and has been widely shown and acclaimed throughout the world.
