News from Home
1976, Belgium-France-Germany
Her 16mm footage, long takes and elegantly composed shots roaming the city, set to the filmmaker's voice-over as she reads letters from her mother. The text paints an intimate picture of family life, with its catalogue of minor illnesses, domestic routines, betrothals and financial anxieties. The elegiac emotionalism of the writings counterpoints the flat monotone of Akerman’s recitation but also the images of Manhattan as an alien, urban ghost-town, its streets preternaturally empty.
Chantal Akerman was born in Brussels on 6 June 1950. At 15, she discovered Godard’s Pierrot le Fou, inspiring her to pursue filmmaking. She briefly attended the Brussels film school (INSAS) in 1967, leaving to make her first short film, Saute ma ville (1968), a radical expression of cinema. In the early 1970s, she moved to New York, influenced by the experimental films of Jonas Mekas and Michael Snow (La Chambre, Hotel Monterey).
Back in Belgium, she directed Je tu il elle and then Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975), a landmark of feminist cinema, presented at Cannes Directors Fortnight and named the best film of all time by Sight & Sound in 2022. Akerman freely explored genres – fiction, documentary, musical comedy, literary adaptation – over a career spanning fifty films.
She also created video installations from 1995 and authored several books. Akerman passed away in 2015, but her work continues to influence filmmakers worldwide, including Gus Van Sant, Tsai Ming-Liang, Kelly Reichardt, and Céline Sciamma.
Saute ma ville (1968)
Je tu il elle (1974)
Jeanne Dielman, 1080 Brüsszel, Kereskedő utca 23.(1975)
Les Rendez-vous d’Anna (1978)
Director: Chantal Akerman
Cast: Chantal Akerman
Cinematography: Jim Asbell, Babette Mangolte
Screenwriter: Chantal Akerman
Producer: Guy Cavagnac, Alain Dahan, Liliane de Kermadec
Editor: Francine Sandberg
Music: Dominique Dalmasso, Larry Haas
Hungarian Distributor: -
Colour: Colour
Run Time: 89 min
News from Home
1976, Belgium-France-Germany
Her 16mm footage, long takes and elegantly composed shots roaming the city, set to the filmmaker's voice-over as she reads letters from her mother. The text paints an intimate picture of family life, with its catalogue of minor illnesses, domestic routines, betrothals and financial anxieties. The elegiac emotionalism of the writings counterpoints the flat monotone of Akerman’s recitation but also the images of Manhattan as an alien, urban ghost-town, its streets preternaturally empty.
Chantal Akerman was born in Brussels on 6 June 1950. At 15, she discovered Godard’s Pierrot le Fou, inspiring her to pursue filmmaking. She briefly attended the Brussels film school (INSAS) in 1967, leaving to make her first short film, Saute ma ville (1968), a radical expression of cinema. In the early 1970s, she moved to New York, influenced by the experimental films of Jonas Mekas and Michael Snow (La Chambre, Hotel Monterey).
Back in Belgium, she directed Je tu il elle and then Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975), a landmark of feminist cinema, presented at Cannes Directors Fortnight and named the best film of all time by Sight & Sound in 2022. Akerman freely explored genres – fiction, documentary, musical comedy, literary adaptation – over a career spanning fifty films.
She also created video installations from 1995 and authored several books. Akerman passed away in 2015, but her work continues to influence filmmakers worldwide, including Gus Van Sant, Tsai Ming-Liang, Kelly Reichardt, and Céline Sciamma.
Saute ma ville (1968)
Je tu il elle (1974)
Jeanne Dielman, 1080 Brüsszel, Kereskedő utca 23.(1975)
Les Rendez-vous d’Anna (1978)
Director: Chantal Akerman
Cast: Chantal Akerman
Cinematography: Jim Asbell, Babette Mangolte
Screenwriter: Chantal Akerman
Producer: Guy Cavagnac, Alain Dahan, Liliane de Kermadec
Editor: Francine Sandberg
Music: Dominique Dalmasso, Larry Haas
Hungarian Distributor: -
Colour: Colour
Run Time: 89 min