Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1976)

"Akerman's cinema focuses our attention on her smallest gestures, gestures that reveal character but would be lost in a more flamboyant film: a knife that almost slips when a potato is peeled, a light turned off unnecessarily, a facial expression of disquiet or of frustration, the curious act of making coffee in a thermos in the morning for drinking at lunchtime. The effect of such details, repeated and ritualized, is cumulative. Slowly the portrait is pieced together." Jayne Loader

• Category

  Film & Animation

[DonFarshido]

Heartbreaking in the most quiet and unforced way imaginable... These two women (actress and director) have the guts to show things without underlining them in red.

[m hampton]

I was at that particular screening. And it is on my list of the best movies of all time.

[Threethumb]

Are you serious? Non-existent messages? The message is clearly there.

[DonFarshido]

What kind of a message does this film convey via its premise? That housework plus prostitution is worse than working in a coal mine? How big of an idiot you and your ilk are, who feel offended whenever and whereever they smell a taint of feminism. It is not about "technical" aspects, it is about the actual experience of watching the film. If you don't give a damn about it because you don't care about the leading character, fine. But don't criticize non-existent messages.

[JBTechCon]

My favorite part was at 1:17

[musgrave68]

creeping ennui and bottled up alienation extemporaneously articulated via an "unceremonious" fatal post-coital stabbing...devastating beyond words...

[Debra Kelley]

This trail of comments amazes me... I just opened a notice that I'd received a response to a 5-yr-old post. This film will never die. In all her bonne femme efficiency, serenity, and simplicity, Jeanne Dielman is

Maman as housewife: simpleton, innocent, whore, devoted mother, cold blooded killer. It does not deceive, but observes without comment. Difficult to accomplish. Boring? This is a suspense thriller for poets of the banal.

[Threethumb]

This is like saying the technical aspect is the only valid criterion upon which one can judge "Triumph of the Will". When the film is conveying a message through its premise, there's nothing wrong with criticizing its message via the premise.

[DonFarshido]

Further, to blame a film because it deals with a woman doing her daily repetitive housework (and you fail to mention, prostitution) instead of a man working in a coal mine is a very weird kind of criticism. If someone would hypothetically state "housework is boring", would he also say that "working in a mine is better"? Or does that person not have any right to complain since working in a mine is worse? You should not attack a film on the basis of its premise or the character it portrays.

[DonFarshido]

Your point is nonsensical and mind-numbingly banal. First of all, the point of this movie, if one can state it, is certainly not the statement "housework is boring", which is a generalized slogan consisting of three words only. The three hours of this film are not explicitly forcing such a statement, but try to create a form of understanding towards the inner life of a woman who is abandoned by society and doesn't quite understand what she is working for, and they do so in a very rhythmic way.

[amt253]

Thanks for that extra level of insight on gender in France. It helps.

[slobomotion]

I'm in France & the bonus tracks on the DVD are just fabulous. At one point, the main actress is having words w a member of the nearly-all-female crew & tells her off, saying, "You're never going to be involved w another project such as this one, get it together!" sort of thing. She was right. The way this film was made was also unusually interesting. There were some sets but a lot was really done in an apt & it was a huge challenge. Years ago in the States I wouldn't have liked this movie!