Chantal Akerman on JEANNE DIELMAN

In this 2009 interview for the Criterion Collection, filmmaker Chantal Akerman recalls conceiving and making her 1975 masterpiece JEANNE DIELMAN, 23, QUAI DU COMMERCE, 1080 BRUXELLES, and talks about how important it was to have an almost exclusively female crew.

[@AestheticOfTheImage]

This is just about the BEST interview with a director I have ever seen - incredibly fluid and informative - and moving

[@thomasmiles340]

Just the other day, this film knocked "Vertigo" out of the top spot for the greatest film of all time, and knocked "Citizen Cane" down to No. 3, on the Sight and Sound survey, which is conducted every 10 years. Cheers.

[@thomasmiles340]

@@N_Loco_Parenthesis Pauvre cretin ---- Honi soit qui mal y pense!

[@theCarbonFreeze]

A travesty

[@TristanJPDX]

I loved this movie. I think Chantal is a brilliant soul.

[@THERES_BEES_EVERYWHERE]

To turn an everyday chore into a metaphoric action is one thing - to make a 200 minute movie about it is extraordinary. What a fantastic and vastly intelligent mind to have graced the silver screen. RIP

[@trinex3332]

Is call pseudointellectualism. I can explain to you. I don't think you csn understand such a complex subject. When people are duuuuumnb they like to pretend they are smart. They like to try complicated vey simple subjects to sound smart infront of naive people just as yourself.

[@IDontWantThisStupidHandle]

Has "extraordinary" been redefined to mean "pretentious" ?

[@fiarandompenaltygeneratorm5044]

@@trinex3332 Sort of like you just did, eh?

[@theCarbonFreeze]

I thought it was boring

[@Distortationy]

@@theCarbonFreezeyeah thats like kinda the point, I don’t think being a housewife in the 70s was that fun.

[@MasterSokka]

Given her death, the last thirty seconds of this video are so heartbreaking to watch.

[@waynej2608]

Very much so. Fortunately, she left us a rich and varied array of wonderful, unique films to admire, forever.

[@thevoid99]

merci chantal for making this great film. we will miss you.

[@davy_K]

I didn't think I could watch this , never mind in one sitting, but I did. I'm not sure why, though the lead is very easy on the eye and that helps. Maybe that's the point the director makes - she doesn't look like someone who would do that day in day out. Delphine's performance is very understated and you can see her character wilt slightly as time goes one - but I think you have to endure her day to notice it than have a shorter film and have it overplayed. I did notice a dining chair went missing and thought it was a clue but apparently it's a continuity error. I'm glad I watched it and I don't consider it wasted time.

[@ChantalAkermanFilms]

incroyable, magnifique, merci Chantal

[@sfgchannel6285]

She is really queen of arthouse cinema.

[@millsykooksy4863]

I'm obsessed with this movie

[@theCarbonFreeze]

Why?

[@pfranchini]

I can relate with that

[@millsykooksy4863]

@@theCarbonFreeze I don't really know why, I think watching her go about her routine is so hypnotizing.

[@ashishjoshi8148]

No one would dare make a film like this today. Thank God it came out when it did. RIP Chantal Akerman...

[@colinneighbers4741]

Ummm… there are PLENTY of films like this still being made today. Insufferable and immoral female protagonists who do nothing but bore you to death. Girl bossing and sidestepping away from accountability and responsibility are staples of modern “cinema”.

[@bridgeofsand]

​@@colinneighbers4741I'm not sure what world you're living in but I wouldn't like to be there

[@tippngthevelvet]

A genius of Cinema, very sad to hear of your death today. Vale Chantal Akerman (1950-2015).

[@folhaverde8298]

Este filme de Chantal Akerman foi eleito em 2022 o melhor da década pela revista Sigth and Sound, matéria com fonte na BBC no blog Foilha Verde News.

[@luiz4430]

Marguerite Duras got bored?! That's the most ironic thing I've heard today LOL

[@ReticentVeteransFilms]

Thank you Chantal Akerman

[@DanielThePoet22]

This film is remarkable in so many levels, and I Iove how Chantal talks about the importance of women’s position in cinema and about her experiences during the involvement in Jeanne Dielman. Those reasons she elaborate really accept the fact that the film is a minimalistic.

[@studogable]

The BFI critics poll has voted this the greatest film of all time.

[@hpoonis2010]

They must be morons.

[@theCarbonFreeze]

What fools

[@inconnues760]

Tellement géniale et émouvante à la fois

[@Anna-vz5jl]

Brilliant movie 🎥 loved this Film

[@Progger11]

R.I.P. to a cinema genius.

[@Infametheus]

Might have to watch this on Hulu out of respect. RIP.

[@XieYali]

Missing Chantal Akerman...

[@foldsfissures2397]

R.I.P

[@pablomaiese828]

incroyable🤍

[@gabilaooalibag89]

“The idea of Jeanne Dielman came to me one night “: that explains all!

[@parathink]

The reference to the Nouveau Roman now makes so much sense. It was the most successful of the Nouveau Roman but all the others are important in thinking and it's inherent critique of narrative.

[@MrUndersolo]

Interesting how she was the same age as Welles when he made 'Citizen Kane'.

[@TheEgyptianspirit]

Menuda queen

[@Neuroneos]

Funny anecdote with Duras. Wonder what she though of it later on. Christine V. was 10 years after the mentioned screening.

[@musicinflames]

❤😢

[@EsteeWalts]

Dwangneurose...

[@michaelsiebert1874]

vivre sa vie

[@somniansvulpes]

Superbe chose d'entendre parler Chantal Akerman, le cinéma de cette femme est une grande chance pour le cinéma mondial

[@gamekilleuse9185]

!!?? A great chance for cinema ?

[@zannedaglio]

The British Film Institute's "Best Film of All time" 2022. First time a female director has won (likely bc more women now comprise the selection committee).

[@marknewbold2583]

No because it's a great film

[@trinex3332]

Leftis agenda. The movie is terribl3

[@theCarbonFreeze]

​@@marknewbold2583I mean, it could be both. Theres lots of "great films" that dont even make the list.

[@DavideGobbicchi]

I cant help but think that this movie was chosen for political reasons....and while I do appreciate the topic, I dont think a topic in itself should give a movie so much status. A movie matters for the universal message it conveys and the way it does it, not the specific topic of the time. Politicizing art is the bdst and fastest way to kill it.

[@theCarbonFreeze]

I agree 100%. Its trendy nowadays to virtue signal about DEI/identity politics and "strong women" in media. I strongly believe the choice was born from that. If it were the same exact film but starring/directed by a man, it wouldnt even be on the list. Its just a bunch of bland static shots and tedious sequences. I absolutely get the point, oh boohoo the oppressed housewife, oh the dreary monotony of modern life, but 3.5 hours of it is just excessive. Im glad it exists if for no other reason to prove that film can be anything, tell any kind of story, but i never want to see it again and it sure as hell isnt #1

[@dees9478]

Holy shit, it could have been chosen for several reasons, and yes, politics is one of them. Are you that dense? Have you seen what passes for "cinema" these days? All this unpretentious garbage that treats humans like infantile P'sOS? Cinema IS politics. Everything about cinema is politics, mainly because the bourgeois class forces it to be that way by producing bull shit escapist entertainment every chance they get, keeping the masses in subjection to the status quo. Akerman was 25 when she made this film. When I was 25 I was an idiot. She's pretty genuis for stepping out of line and using cinema to show us how weak our perceptions of women were/are. Were still catching up to this MF'ing film.

[@andreasesser4641]

This movie is very important. If you want to find out if somebody is a pretentious douche, you just have to ask them if they like this movie. And if they do, you don't need to waste your time with them anymore.

[@theCarbonFreeze]

Harsh but true. Its perhaps a story that deserved to be told but certainly that doesn't equal "best ever" status. I could understand someone saying they liked it or respect it, but anyone honestly defending its #1 spot is either a pretentious film buff parroting the new party line to seem smart or a feminist pushing an agenda. Ill absolutely die on that hill

[@sergevandenplas8035]

Je la trouve très mal dans sa peau dans cet interview. Fumant trop, buvant trop probablement, sa voix cassée le prouve. Ca me fait beaucoup de peine de la voir comme ça. Elle me donne l'impression d'être un oiseau pour le chat, déjà. En fait, toute sa mimique, ses tics et ses gestes me font penser à mon père qui a choisi la même sortie de scène. Tout le monde n'a pas la chance d'être insouciante(e), hélas. Mais vraiment, quelle idée de prendre la vie tellement au sérieux que l'on veuille en finir, ca n'a aucun sens.

[@tomc8888]

I get what Akerman was trying to do, and I agree that people - and women particularly - are boxed in and ultimately ground down and destroyed by the routines and roles they've been consigned to. I also don't doubt how much she invested emotionally into this. Problem is, Akerman made a film that was at least twice as long as as it should have been and is a turgid, bloated exercise. Jeanne Dielman is the cinematic equivalent of a doorstop. What empathy I might have had for the lead character was ground out of me by Akerman's choice where she seemed to say, "if she's living a boring existence, I'll make you experience that in excruciating detail". YMMV, but by the end when Mme. Dielman finally commits her shocking act... even that is dull and lacked any real resonance. Ultimately, Jeanne Dielman is a failed experiment, and it's not even an interesting one. Greatest film ever? Not by a long shot, and a list of 100 better films than Jeanne Dielman comprised of films that that didn't make either Sight and Sound list would probably be easy to come up with.

[@marknewbold2583]

You're completely wrong

[@irubysee]

it's a long and difficult watch, i struggled through it because i thought that months later, it would stick in my mind due to the sheer length of these repetitive actions. and it did! i think about the film a lot...that's powerful

[@theCarbonFreeze]

​​@@marknewbold2583 Ok so tell him why. If the movie's so brilliant, then it should be easy to match his sincere negative review with a modest 3-paragraph rebuttal, right? Otherwise youre just a pretentious film student (or feminist with an agenda) parroting what youve been told to say by a bunch of snobby critics. (For the record, this is coming from a huge fan of classic and foreign cinema. Vertigo and Dolci Inganni are my two fave films and I think Jeanne Dielman is the epitome of pretentious drivel. I wouldnt mind JD if not for the recent, unwarranted "best film ever" accolades.)

[@nihaalsandim9986]

I want my 3 hours and 21 mins back you hack

[@dees9478]

Sorry, you ain't getting shit back. Suffer, you cu nt.

[@GoblinGirl]

Best film ever made my ass! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 It was picked strictly for political reasons.

[@gabilaooalibag89]

At last, a comment with common sense

[@marknewbold2583]

Cry more

[@theCarbonFreeze]

​@@marknewbold2583 All your replies are hostile and juvenile. Why dont you explain what we're missing? Enlighten us please

[@TrueNativeScot]

Jew makes an extremely boring film and thinks it's the bees knees

[@stephenfrost6801]

This movie is yet another piece in the Judeo-Bolshevist revolutionary project to destroy Christian society and yet Whites fall over backwards to praise it. Thankfully the scales are starting to fall from the eyes of the truly awake. I salute you.

[@theCarbonFreeze]

Was she jewish?

[@c.d.cabascangosanchez3687]

TRUMPTARD.