Canonized two years ago as the greatest film of all time, topping Sight and Sound’s once-every-decade poll, Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles now celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, originally premiering at Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes in 1975. For those in the U.K. and Ireland, BFI Distribution has now released a new trailer for a theatrical release of the film, which opens on February 7, alongside the major BFI Southbank retrospective season Chantal Akerman: Adventures in Perception, running from February 3 to March 18, while the BFI Blu-ray release Chantal Akerman Collection Volume 1: 1967-1978 arrives February 24.
Here’s the synopsis: “Heralded by Le Monde in January 1976 as “the first masterpiece of the feminine in the history of the cinema”, Chantal Akerman’s landmark second feature, the mesmerising Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles follows the meticulous daily routine of its titular lead over the course of three days. Presented at the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes in 1975, the film brought the then 24-year-old Akerman international recognition. A cornerstone of feminist cinema, Chantal Akerman’s cinematically radical film challenged the status quo when it was originally released and continues to do so today 50 years later.”
“A “love film” for Chantal Akerman’s mother, a Holocaust survivor who could never discuss her past with her daughter. A film about women’s overlooked everyday lives. A film that upends epic cinema. A film about a housewife obsessed with her daily routine to suppress anxiety. A film about psychology but with little emotion. A film made with a mostly female crew, including cinematographer Babette Mangolte and editor Patricia Canino, that transformed European art cinema’s most glamorous star (Delphine Seyrig) into a seemingly unremarkable single mother. But above all, a revolutionary film due to Akerman’s treatment of time and space. To watch Jeanne Dielman is to submit to Akerman’s unrelenting gaze and to be trapped with Jeanne in her domestic space.”
See the new trailer and poster below.
