Reflective to its drawn-out title, writer and director Chantal Akerman takes advantage of every second of her 201-minute piece to understand the meticulously ordered world of its titular character, Jeanne Dielman. The striking ‘real-time’ performance delivered by Delphine Seyrig is supported by Ackerman’s wide and static shots to disrupt the audience’s expectations of pace and narrative importance as we devote our attention completely to a quiet yet intense unravelling of the everyday life.
Jeanne takes to her routine with a hypnotic precision which is particularly effective through her preparation of food. As we watch her peeling every inch of each a potato, one by one, nothing is left to our imagination. The fixed camera helps employ and restrict our focus as we are unable to escape the frame until she has finished, sometimes even lingering after she leaves. Throughout these sequences the audience experience with Jeanne, the significant emotional weight of time passing. Moreover, her completely expressionless face suggests that this rigorous routine is a distraction from the evident emptiness we see and feel on-screen. Unable to skip a step within these practices creates an almost horror-like quality to her work as we begin to anticipate the potential for something that might slip out of her control.
This air of uneasiness is amplified by the film’s limited dialogue. Eating dinner with her son, Sylvain (Jan Decorte), she shares ‘I added less water than last week. Maybe that’s why it’s better’ which brutally punctuates their unintermitted slurping. Without even a responsive look, these words are left lingering between their placemats with an incredible power, emphasising how painfully repetitive and unrewarding her world is. And so, she must keep to her orderly schedule, wasting no time after her last slurp to clear the table, busy herself in the kitchen and bring out the main course.
She also folds her time as a sex worker seamlessly into her schedule as it is treated with the same lack of sensationalism as making mashed potatoes. The preparation for her guest is deliberate: she calmly removes her apron, set the potatoes to simmer, and receives him at the door. And after he leaves, she is back in the kitchen, impeccably dressed to put the potatoes back on the boil. Once again, the intense regularity is a seemingly desperate attempt to brush over her reality.
Thus, it is almost startling when she is stopped in her tracks by a closed cobbler shop or leaves a café absentmindedly before even sipping her coffee, because her seat is taken. Cracks begin to appear within her assuredness. The previously safe confinement of her home is disrupted too, as her son finally finds his voice but only to draw attention to her malfunctions. Remarking on her forgetfulness and messy hair, the steady pace is jolted and it becomes increasingly difficult for Jeanne to rediscover her rhythm within the comfort of her distraction. Ultimately, this spirals towards an unnerving conclusion which leaves us still uncomfortably lingering in-frame, post-credits and slowly remembering our capacity to get up and go.
Hailed by Le Monde in 1976 as “the first masterpiece of the feminine in the history of cinema” and voted Sight and Sound’s Greatest Film of All Time in 2022—the first such recognition for a film by a female director—Akerman’s work remains a radical statement on time, space, and the overlooked labour of women. It is a film that will persist your mind for new interpretations and understandings weeks after watching. Something completely worth an audience’s investment of time.
Review by Olivia Kiakides
Featured Image: Jeanne Dielman (1975) Collections Cinematek (c) Fondation Chantal Akerman
Sight and Sound Greatest Film of All Time Critics’ Poll winner 2022
Opening in cinemas across the UK on 7 February 2025 as part of the BFI’s major Chantal Akerman BFI Southbank season running throughout February and March 2025.
BFI Distribution re-releases a 2K restoration of Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, in UK cinemas on 7 February 2025 coinciding with a (near) complete retrospective season of Chantal Akerman’s films at BFI Southbank throughout February and March.
A UK cinema touring package of further Akerman titles including Je tu il elle (1974), News from Home (1976), Les Rendez-vous d’Anna (1978), Golden Eighties (1986), and La Captive (2000) will also screen at partner venues across the UK, including Ciné Lumière, Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) and Glasgow Film Theatre.
For more information visit Chantal Akerman: Adventures in Perception | BFI Southbank
Read Olivia’s latest Review: Kew Gardens invites visitors for their annual spellbinding light display in ‘Christmas at Kew’, until 6 January 2025 – Abundant Art
