Contents
Chantal Akerman
Directing Jeanne Dielman, the film that topped Sight and Sound’s 2022 critics’ poll.
Je Tu Il Elle · Jeanne Dielman
- Born
- 6 June 1950
- Birthplace
- Brussels, Belgium
- Died
- 5 October 2015
More people
Chantal Akerman
Chantal Akerman made domestic routines, distance and the passage of time into demanding, influential cinema.
Early life
Brussels family
Grew up with Polish-Jewish parents; her mother survived Auschwitz.
Early inspiration
Seeing Jean-Luc Godard's Pierrot le fou encouraged her to make films.
Career
- 1968
First short
Made Saute ma ville after briefly attending film school.
- 1970s
New York experiments
Encountered avant-garde filmmaking before making her major Belgian features.
- 1975
Jeanne Dielman
Built a feature around several days of repetitive domestic labour.
- 1990s–2010s
Across forms
Continued with documentaries, fiction, writing and gallery installations.
Selected work
Je Tu Il Elle
A sparse film about solitude, travel and intimacy.
Jeanne Dielman
Tiny changes disrupt a woman's highly ordered domestic routine.
No Home Movie
Conversations with her mother explore memory and separation.
Beyond work
Family memory
Her mother's life and the Holocaust recur throughout her work.
Teaching
Taught film at the City College of New York.
Sources & photo credit
Life, career and references ↗British Film Institute: film and context ↗Photo: Mario De Munck. CC BY-SA 4.0 · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.
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