Jeanne Dielman, 23 Commerce Quay, 1080 Brussels

Synopsis

In January 1976 Le Monde heralded Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman 23, quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles as “the first masterpiece in the feminine in the history of the cinema”. The unconventional style (frontally centred images, elliptical and disjunctive editing) and subject (a woman’s alienation from her daily routine as a housewife and involvement in a discrete form of prostitution that leads her to murder) made the film a powerful sign of a decade when feminism erupted into the arena of politics and film.

Director Biography

A Belgian filmmaker born in Brussels, Chantal Akerman studied at INSAS (Institut supérieur des Arts, du Spectacle et des Techniques de Diffusion) before emigrating to New York. She has made documentaries such as Hôtel Monterey (1972), News From Home (1977) and Down There (2006) nominated for a César as well as fiction films including Jeanne Dielmann 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975), A Couch in New York (1996), The Captive (2000) and Almayer’s Folly (2011).