Jeanne Dielman, 23, 1080 Commerce Square Brussels

Nothing less than the world's best film of all time — according to over 1,600 critics polled by Sight & Sound Magazine in 2022! Chantal Akerman's monumental film, titled 'Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Brussels', sounds like a tough sell: it lasts over three hours and focuses on the everyday routines of the title character. We see Jeanne in the supermarket as she peels potatoes, cooks for her son, cleans and -- not least -- when men come and buy sex from her. But Akerman's film insists that our everyday routines are essential and are important events.

Akerman herself described the film as a declaration of love for her mother and as a way to give housewife life a cinematic visibility and weight that film history had rarely given it. The sex customers are as (u) important as the dishes from lunch or the silence from the very same lunch. The film is a formalist and feminist masterpiece that slowly and plausibly builds itself up to a climax: Jeanne must break the habits that have become her life and which we have lived through for three hours.

Director: Chantal Akerman
Starring: Delphine Seyrig, Jan Decorte, Henri Storck
Country/year: Belgium, France, 1975
Running time: 201 min.
Formato: DCP
Language: Danish subtitles
Age limit: Allowed for children over 15

Part of the series: Chantal Akerman's fictions
Chantal Akerman was one of the most form-conscious and innovative filmmakers of her generation. Her fiction films range from melodrama and musical to romantic comedy and radically concentrated chamber plays and testify to an incredible curiosity to explore the possibilities of fiction.