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Chantal Akerman
Director / Screenwriter / Actress
1950 -
Born June 6, Brussels, Belgium
Key Production Countries: Belgium, France 
Key Genres: Drama, Avant-garde/Experimental, Feminist Film
Key Collaborators: Claire Atherton (Editor), Aurore Clement (Leading Character Player), Raymond Fromont (Cinematographer), Delphine Seyrig (Leading Player), Alain Dahan (Producer), Babette Mangolte (Cinematographer), Francine Sandberg (Editor), Philippe Graff (Production Designer), Christian Marti (Production Designer)

Highly Recommended: Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)*
Recommended: News from Home (1976), Portrait of a Young Girl at the End of the 1960s in Brussels [TV] (1994)
Worth a Look: Je, tu, il, elle (1974), Les Rendez-vous d'Anna (1978), Toute une nuit (1982), Les Annees 80 (1983), D'Est (1993), La Captive (2000), From the Other Side (2002)
Approach with Caution: Golden Eighties (1986)
Duds: A Couch in New York (1996)
* Listed in TSPDT's 1,000 Greatest Films section.

 
 
 
Links: [ Amazon ] [ IMDB ] [ TCMDB ] [ All-Movie Guide ] [ Film Reference ] [ Wikipedia ] [ Strictly Film School ] [ European Graduate School Faculty Page ] [ GLBTQ Biography ] [ Moving Image Source Article (2008) ] [ A.V. Club Interview (2010) ] [ Frieze Magazine Article (2010) ] [ The Criterion Collection ]
Books: [ Chantal Akerman (French Film Directors) ] [ Chantal Akerman: Moving Through Time and Space ] [ Identity and Memory: The Films of Chantal Akerman ] [ Nothing Happens: Chantal Akerman's Hyperrealist Everyday ]
 
Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)Je, tu, elle (1974)Les Rendez-vous d'Anna (1978)D'Est (1993)
 
     
  "At the age of fifteen Chantal Akerman saw Godard's Pierrot le fou and realized that filmmaking could be experimental and personal. She dropped in and out of film school and has since created short and feature films for viewers who appreciate the opportunity her works provide to think about sounds and images. Her films are often shot in real time, and in space that is part of the characters' identity." - Lillian Schiff (The St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia, 1998)  
     
  "Belgian-born director who makes long, often tedious, but sometimes hypnotically watchable arthouse films in which the camera's concentration on scenes for a long period of time can turn the viewer's pleasure into discomfort, interest into boredom or disinterest into perception. A unique film-maker, she continues to alternately baffle and fascinate her audiences." - David Quinlan (Quinlan's Film Directors, 1999)  
     
  "Independent filmmaker noted for her minimalist narratives and static visual style...Her films, often dramatically vague and nearly plotless, typically seek to explore human emotion and character through unorthodox cinematic means. Although she is admired by serious critics, her films are barely accessible to general audiences." - (The MacMillan International Film Encyclopedia, 1994)  
     
 
Please note that the rating given for this director (see top-right) is based only on the films we have seen (listed above). Films by this director that we haven't seen include Saute ma ville (1968), La Chambre (1972), Hôtel Monterey (1972), Night and Day (1991) and Tomorrow We Move (2004).
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"Arguably the most important European director of the 1970s and 1980s, Chantal Akerman has a spare visual style that is matched only by the uncompromising ferocity of her individual vision as a filmmaker. Her upbringing was anything but privileged and this hardscrabble beginning encouraged Akerman to have compassion for the disenfranchised, a theme that runs through all her work... Although Akerman's films seldom play outside the festival circuit, her dry, acerbic vision of human existence has proven deeply influential for a younger generation of feminist filmmakers." - Wheeler Winston Dixon, 501 Movie Directors: A Comprehensive Guide to the Greatest Filmmakers

 
 
Top 250 Directors  
100 Essential Directors (Pop Matters)
501 Movie Directors: A Comprehensive Guide to the Greatest Filmmakers
 
See Also
Marguerite Duras (external link)
Philippe Garrel
Jean-Luc Godard
Richard Linklater
Alain Resnais
Jacques Rivette
Eric Rohmer
Agnès Varda
 
 
 
         
         

 

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