In 2022, the British film magazine “Sight and Sound” published a list of the best of all time, causing quite a stir among movie lovers. The biggest surprise was caused by Chantal Akerman’s production entitled “Jeanne Dielman, Boulevard Handlowy, 2080 Brussels”, which was at the very top of the ranking. The film has just been released on the New Horizons VOD platform.
Chantal Akerman’s film hailed as the best film of 2022. The plot of “Jeanne Dielman” has a deeper meaning
“Jeanne Dielman, Bulwar Handlowy, 2080 Brussels” is a drama from 1975 lasting over 3 hours, the plot of which focuses on the fate of the title character. Jeanne is a single mother raising her teenage son. Every day she cooks, cleans and does laundry, while also facing more or less obvious problems. This seemingly boring story about everyday life, however, has a deeper meaning – the woman hides a shameful secret. To supplement the household budget, he engages in prostitution and hides the money he receives from the services he provides in a soup bowl.
Her productions are classics of feminist cinema. Akerman had no sense of mission
Chantal Akerman had several titles to her credit, and although they did not achieve commercial success, they became a permanent part of cinematography. She was secretive, and she created film heroines in her own image. For many years she felt inadequate to the reality around her. First, she struggled with exclusion due to her origins, then due to the fact that she was homosexual.
When making the film “Jeanne Dielman, Boulevard Handlowy, 2080 Brussels” she was only 25 years old. In interviews, she emphasized that it was a kind of “love letter to her mother”, who was of Polish Jewish origin and survived the cruel times of the Holocaust. – I have a reputation for being difficult, and that’s because I’m interested in everyday life and I want to show it – . The British Film Institute argues that with this title “Akerman transformed cinema (…) into a liberating force”, but the director had a different opinion on this matter. – When people ask me if I am a feminist director, I answer that I am a woman and I make films, she said.
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
