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Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles

France, Belgium

1975

201 Min
Color
1.66:1
French
  • Currently 4.4/5 Stars.
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DIR Chantal Akerman

PROD Evelyn Paul

DP Babette Mangolte

CAST Delphine Seyrig, Jan Decorte, Henri Storck, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, Yves Bical

ED Patricia Canino

SOUND Benie Deswarte, Francoise Van Thienen

Cannes (Quinzaine des Réalisateurs), Berlinale (Forum)

Synopsis

A singular work in film history, Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles brilliantly evokes, with meticulous detail and a sense of impending doom, the daily domestic routine of a middle-aged widow—whose chores include making the beds, cooking dinner for her grown son, and turning the occasional trick—just as it begins to break down. In its enormous spareness, Akerman’s film seems simple, but it encompasses an entire world. Whether seen as an exacting character portrait or one of cinema’s most hypnotic and complete depictions of space and time, Jeanne Dielman is an astonishing, compelling movie experiment, one that has been analyzed and argued over for decades, and is finally making its long-awaited DVD debut. —The Criterion Collection

Director

Original

Chantal Akerman

Dubbed by the Village Voice as “arguably the most important European director of her generation,” Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman is known for making innovative films that have often earned comparison to those of Jean-Luc Godard or Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Although she rejects the label of “feminist filmmaker,” Akerman has become a guiding light in making films about the real issues faced by women, employing an experimental, deeply personal approach to her subjects.

A disciple of Godard (who first inspired the then-15-year-old Akerman with his Pierre le fou), Akerman attended Brussels’ INSAS film school and the Universite Internationale du Paris. She demonstrated her devotion to Godard with her first amateur short subject, 1968’s Saute Ma Ville (Blow up My Town), which three years after its completion was entered in the Oberhausen Festival. Working on the fringes of show business in New York in the early ’70s, Akerman became an enthusiastic participant in the avant garde film… read more

Wall

Displaying 4 of 44 wall posts.

Jordan Ghetler

3Mar12

one of the greatest things i've ever seen.

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T. J. Harman

1Mar12

I love every second of this movie (I admit I'm a pretenscious fuck so beware). Delphine Seyrig is one of my fave actresses. If I was a rich, wackjob excentric I'd have this film playing on a wall in my mansion on a loop at all times.

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DeJardinblum

1Feb12

A child of a Holocaust survivor, Akerman lovingly reconstitutes the absent mother and joins her in an entombment of ritual anxiety and control, allowing her own aggression to recede to the focal point of a passionate witness, where she, herself childless, is allowed to communicate something she has learned, which would otherwise be lost. Great precursor to her masterful "Meetings with Anna."

Seen Said likes this

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Ursulino

29Jan12

Ok, I just watched, and... I am really stunned and speechless... And a little afraid too...

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Fans

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Articles

Our roundup of essays and articles on this film.
W184

"Jeanne Dielman": Solitude's a Fortress?

By Ryland Walker Knight on November 9, 2009

Famously termed "shallow box cinema" by Manny Farber in his final missive of film criticism, Chantal Akerman's Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du

read article
W184

You Say Potato: The Surprising Harvest of Criterion's "Jeanne Dielman" Cooking Video Contest

By Glenn Kenny on October 1, 2009

I'm not sure you're all that interested to know this, but I was a judge of one of the very first home video contests ever. Actually, no, I wasn

read article
W184

The Auteurs Daily: Women

By David Hudson on August 23, 2009

  This week's New York Times Magazine is a special issue devoted to an argument: "Women's Rights are the Cause of Our Time." On Tuesday

read article

Lists

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Reviews

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Jean Genie let yourself go! - 4 stars

By lolo341 on November 26, 2011

A widowed housewife, Jeanne Dielman leads an incredibly lonely existence. She cares for her teenage son, but their interactions betray an inability to truly connect. She has built a fastidious routine…  read review

Untitled

By Hideous Bitch Princes​s on November 11, 2009

Chantal Akerman doesn’t make ordinary films, she makes extra ordinary wastes of time.

Is this really what makes a good film? An analysis of life’s emptiness performed through a series of scenes…  read review

Untitled

By Johnny DuBiel on October 10, 2009

I’m ecstatic about Criterion’s release of this classic, a film I’ve been dying to see for years. Up there with antyhing Bresson tor Ozu ever made. One could call it a minimalist masterpiece, but…  read review

Untitled

By Lefteri​s Becerra on August 30, 2009

interesante y sin duda polémica… el uso de la luz y el encuadre, amén del silencio y la actuación… uno se pregunta cuánto tiempo es el justo para dedicarle a una película pero también al leer las reseñas…  read review

Forum

Displaying 6 discussion topics.

Quiet film, noisy roommates

6 posts by 5 people about 1 year ago

Anyone keeping up with Criterion's video contest

4 posts by 4 people over 2 years ago

Just got this...

2 posts by 2 people over 2 years ago

Jeanne Dielman - on dvd anyone ?

3 posts by 3 people over 3 years ago