Staff Writer Meera Mohanraj considers the legacy of the Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman upon the BFI’s celebration of her work.
The year 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the release of ‘Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles’, Chantal Akerman’s acclaimed portrait of domesticated womanhood. In 2022, it became the first film directed by a woman to be voted the greatest movie of all time in the 2022 Sight and Sound’s critic’s poll. To commemorate the cinematic feats of a radical filmmaker, the BFI is hosting a retrospective season of her work throughout February and March. Here is why you should go.
Belgian-born Akerman is the daughter of Holocaust survivors and has declared ‘Jeanne Dielman’ a tribute to her mother, a woman who approached life and work with unwavering resilience and enduring stoicism. The 201-minute runtime is not to be a deterrent: Akerman’s directorial hand guides us through three days in the life of the titular character with such precise framing that the uncut takes of peeling a potato are enthralling. Whilst overlooked by critics upon its initial release, the film has steadily garnered cult status as the meditation on women as slaves to the capitalist patriarchy has only amplified in resonance.
An icon of feminist cinema, the director’s filmography satisfies every appetite. Her extensive back catalogue includes the pensive 1976 documentary ‘News from Home’. Compiled of long static frames of New York in which life comes in and out of view, the perceptive cinematography is poignantly weaved together by Akerman’s own voice reading letters from her mother. Ten years later, the filmmaker’s repertoire expanded with the release of ‘Golden Eighties’, an effervescent technicolour musical set in a mall that seamlessly satirises commercial culture, showing off Akerman’s range and capacity for shrewd wit. Both films are starkly different yet masterfully managed with an acute awareness for the audience. The director is equally intentional with silences and songs, making each of the movies highly engaging in its own way.
According to an anecdote famous amongst cinephiles, Akerman watched Jean-Luc Godard’s ‘Pierrot le Fou’ at the age of 15 and decided that she wanted to be a filmmaker. Now, a decade since her sudden death in 2015, her own films have become greatly influential for contemporary auteurs, most recently with Payal Kapadia citing ‘News from Home’ as an inspiration for her Cannes-winning success ‘All We Imagine as Light’.
The BFI Southbank is screening several films across the next two months as part of their season ‘Chantal Akerman: Adventures in Perception’. Many of them will be preceded by illuminating presentations: notably, ‘Golden Eighties’ will be introduced by the film’s composer and Akerman’s long-time collaborator, Sonia Wieder-Atherton. These are well worth attending, but for those who can’t make it, the BFI has got you covered. With the upcoming Blu-ray release of ‘Chantal Akerman Collection Volume 1: 1967-1978′ available from 24 February, you can relish her inspiring movies in your own time – you won’t be disappointed.
