Cast:
Chantal Akerman (Julie), Niels Arestrup (the driver), and Claire Wauthion (the woman) Producted and Directed by Chantal Akerman (#1994 - Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles)
Review:
“When people ask me if I am a feminist film maker, I reply I am a woman and I also make films.”
I admit, this probably should have been covered first when encountering a film directed by Belgian Chantal Akerman. But, well, the curiosity to watch Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) clearly proved too much. But, here we are anyway with Akerman's debut feature film, made after she had done a handful of short films starting as a teenager (as one does when finding little patience to stay in Belgian film school). The title translates to "I You He She"; the film was written by Chantal Akerman, Eric de Kuyper (a writer / semiologist / art critic / experimental film director) and Paul Paquay, with Akerman later stating that she had written it as a story six years prior that was both personal along with not autobiographical (she was 24 when the film came out, although consider the statement made by her that “the subject is not important”). She called her role in the film (her most noted as an actress, having appeared in a handful of shorts and other films over the years) as "part of that mise en scène" for what you see here.
It is an interesting viewing at 86 minutes, if only because it isn't every day that you get a debut feature with the director also serving our main focus. It probably goes without saying that there is more on the surface than just saying what the film is, which namely involves one woman trying to make due with the place she inhabits, whether that involves eating sugar, re-arranging furniture, or meeting up with certain people from a distance. And yes, that can mean actions with one's hands (off screen) or a scene played at a distance involving two women locked in an embrace together. You just have to let the film breathe on its own without trying to peg it as tedious or only for a certain kind of audience without at least trying to get a grasp for why it is there in the first place. There is more to a film than just seeing someone eat a load of sugar in the same way that there is more than one way to see a woman without clothes. Our one lead is a wanderer that goes through an array of experiences in the attempt to escape solitude, even for only a little while. Consider what you see and hear from the two people that encounter Akerman in the film, where one gets to watch the other shave while the other is almost just only there as an object (or maybe it is the other way around). As a whole, it manages to be diverting in the array of space that one experiences with the show of sexuality that comes from reaching out to the world around them, which is involving in ways that make sense to those who take the time to really see the film beyond the obvious. It has a sort of liberation that only one with the experience of being with and without touch can understand, preferably for those prepared for what they could see and with the patience to let things pass.
Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.
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