A feminist masterpiece of incredible modernity, a must-see.
Cinema events are coming one after the other on French television, and we can say thank you to the public service. After the broadcast of Napoleon seen by Abel Gance in restored version on France 5 (available in replay for a few more weeks), it is Arte which delights with Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Brussels. A very important film directed by the Franco-Belgian Chantal Akerman, released in 1975.
This feminist and avant-garde manifesto remained for a long time an elitist masterpiece, ignored by the general public unlike the imposing Citizen Kane, Cold sweats and others Godfather. Until Sight and Sound, the prestigious review of the British Film Institute, propels it to the top of its ranking of the best films of all time in 2022.
Remember that this ranking, updated every ten years, is the result of a survey carried out among a very large panel of film critics and directors, including Martin Scorsese, Oliver Stone, Ali Abbasi, Alice Rohrwacher, Lynne Ramsay, Pawel Pawlikowski, Ruben Östlund, Gaspar Noé… And that he has long put in his mind the aforementioned films of Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock.
This surprising choice (Jeanne Dielman was 37th in 2012) raised quite a few eyebrows, and earned some mockery and rants in the world of cinema. Paul Schrader, member of the voters, even going so far as to denounce the “woke reevaluation” from the film by Chantal Akerman. A feeling supported by the irruption of another feminist film, Portrait of the girl on firein 30th place in the ranking.
This reconsideration of Jeanne Dielman is symptomatic of a contemporary cinephilia which intends to question and put into perspective the place of female directors in the history of cinema. And despite the ridicule, this coronation had the merit of giving a precious spotlight to the film, which was released last year in cinemas in a restored version and which can now be seen for free on Arte. Broadcast this Wednesday evening on the air, it is already available for streaming on the channel's website as well as on YouTube (video at the end of the article), for a few months.
Let's put aside the somewhat sterile debate on its place in the list of the best films of all time, but let's dare to say it: you must have seen Jeanne Dielman at least once in his life. And 50 years later, the patina of time makes the incredible modernity of the feature film by Chantal Akerman, 25 years old at the time, even more vivid.
For 3 hours and 20 minutes, the filmmaker takes us through three days in the life of a widow who prostitutes herself to raise her son. She films actress Delphine Seyrig in a routine, almost prison-like daily life, between endless sequences of potato peeling and client visits staged with terrifying coldness. This is Jeanne Dielman's life, measured to the millimeter, where the cooking time of potatoes is modeled on that of a pass.
Jeanne Dielman is a deeply and intentionally boring film. And that is its strength (and its main fault for its detractors). Akerman locks the viewer in the cramped space of his protagonist's Brussels apartment and overuses fixed shots to better suffocate him. We constantly sense that a disruption is possible and therefore that an irreversible catastrophe will destroy everything… An unplugged horror film where evil remains invisible and the tension muted!
“It requires a lot of patience, but I think it's something that's both great and hard to see.“, summarizes Sofia Coppola. You have been warned. Know how to understand and dare to confront Jeanne Dielman. You will not come out unscathed.
Arte is offering a Chantal Akerman cycle composed of six films (including Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Brussels), all visible in streaming on the channel's website
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