Chantal Akerman
Encyclopedia
Chantal Anne Akerman is a Belgian
film director
, artist, and professor of film at the European Graduate School
. Akerman's best-known film, Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
(1975), exemplifies a dedication to the ellipses of conventional narrative cinema.
, Belgium
. Her grandparents and her mother were sent to Auschwitz; only her mother came back. This is a very important factor in her personal experience, and her mother's anxiety is a recurrent theme in her filmography. Akerman claims that, age the age of 15, after viewing Jean-Luc Godard
's Pierrot le fou
(1965), she decided to make movies the same night. At 18 she entered the Institut National Supérieur des Arts du Spectacle et des Techniques de Diffusion, a Belgian film school. During her first term, however, Akerman chose to leave and make Saute ma ville, a thirteen-minute black-and-white picture in 35mm. Akerman partially subsidized Saute ma ville from shares she sold on the Antwerp diamond exchange, procuring its remaining budget through clerical work. In 1971, Saute ma ville premiered at the Oberhausen short-film festival. This same year Akerman moved to New York and remained there until 1972.
At Anthology Film Archives
in New York, Akerman became impressed by the work of Stan Brakhage
, Jonas Mekas
, Michael Snow
, and Andy Warhol
. She states that Snow's La Région Centrale
introduced her to the relationship between film, time and energy.¹ Her 1972 feature Hotel Monterey and shorts La Chambre 1 and La Chambre 2 reveal structural filmmaking's influence through their usage of extended-duration takes. These protracted shots serve to oscillate the films' images between abstraction and figuration. Akerman's films from this period also signify the start of her collaboration with cinematographer Babette Mangolte
.
In 1973, Akerman returned to Belgium and, in 1974, received critical recognition for her feature Je tu il elle. In 1991, she was a member of the jury at the 41st Berlin International Film Festival
.
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
, artist, and professor of film at the European Graduate School
European Graduate School
The European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland is a privately funded graduate school founded by the non-profit European Foundation of Interdisciplinary Studies. Its German name is Europäische Universität für Interdisziplinäre Studien...
. Akerman's best-known film, Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles is a 1975 film by Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman.Upon its release, The New York Times called Jeanne Dielman the "first masterpiece of the feminine in the history of the cinema." Chantal Akerman scholar Ivone Margulies asserts the picture is a...
(1975), exemplifies a dedication to the ellipses of conventional narrative cinema.
Early life
Akerman was born to an observant Jewish family in BrusselsBrussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
. Her grandparents and her mother were sent to Auschwitz; only her mother came back. This is a very important factor in her personal experience, and her mother's anxiety is a recurrent theme in her filmography. Akerman claims that, age the age of 15, after viewing Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....
's Pierrot le fou
Pierrot le fou
Pierrot le fou is a 1965 French film directed by Jean-Luc Godard, starring Anna Karina and Jean-Paul Belmondo. The film is based on Obsession, a novel by Lionel White. It was Jean-Luc Godard's tenth feature film, released between Alphaville and Masculin, féminin...
(1965), she decided to make movies the same night. At 18 she entered the Institut National Supérieur des Arts du Spectacle et des Techniques de Diffusion, a Belgian film school. During her first term, however, Akerman chose to leave and make Saute ma ville, a thirteen-minute black-and-white picture in 35mm. Akerman partially subsidized Saute ma ville from shares she sold on the Antwerp diamond exchange, procuring its remaining budget through clerical work. In 1971, Saute ma ville premiered at the Oberhausen short-film festival. This same year Akerman moved to New York and remained there until 1972.
At Anthology Film Archives
Anthology Film Archives
__notoc__Anthology Film Archives is a film archive and theater located at 32 Second Avenue on the corner of East Second Street in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City devoted to the preservation and exhibition of experimental film. It is the only non-profit organization of its...
in New York, Akerman became impressed by the work of Stan Brakhage
Stan Brakhage
James Stanley Brakhage , better known as Stan Brakhage, was an American non-narrative filmmaker who is considered to be one of the most important figures in 20th century experimental film....
, Jonas Mekas
Jonas Mekas
Jonas Mekas is a Lithuanian-born American filmmaker, writer, and curator who has often been called "the godfather of American avant-garde cinema." His work has been exhibited in museums and festivals across Europe and America.-Biography:...
, Michael Snow
Michael Snow
Michael Snow, CC is a Canadian artist working in painting, sculpture, video, films, photography, holography, drawing, books and music.-Life:...
, and Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
. She states that Snow's La Région Centrale
La region centrale
La Région centrale is a 1971 experimental Canadian film directed by Michael Snow. The film is 180 minutes long and was shot in Canadian mountains over a period of 24 hours, using a robotic arm and consists entirely of preprogrammed movements. The robotic arm never moves in exactly the same way...
introduced her to the relationship between film, time and energy.¹ Her 1972 feature Hotel Monterey and shorts La Chambre 1 and La Chambre 2 reveal structural filmmaking's influence through their usage of extended-duration takes. These protracted shots serve to oscillate the films' images between abstraction and figuration. Akerman's films from this period also signify the start of her collaboration with cinematographer Babette Mangolte
Babette Mangolte
-Biography:Mangolte was born and raised in France and moved to New York City in 1970. She was the first woman accepted to L'Ecole Nationale de la Photographie et de la Cinematographie, graduating in 1966...
.
In 1973, Akerman returned to Belgium and, in 1974, received critical recognition for her feature Je tu il elle. In 1991, she was a member of the jury at the 41st Berlin International Film Festival
41st Berlin International Film Festival
The 41st annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from February 15 to 26, 1991.-Jury:* Volker Schlöndorff * Chantal Akerman* Laurie Anderson* José Luis Borau* Judith Godrèche* Yuri Klepikov* Renate Krößner* Gillo Pontecorvo...
.
Identity aesthetics
According to the book Images in the Dark by Raymond Murray, Akerman refused to have her work ghettoized, and she denied the New York Gay Film Festival the right to screen Je tu il elle. "I will never permit a film of mine to be shown in a gay film festival."Filmography
| Year | Title | Length | Notes | English |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1968 | Saute ma ville | 13 minutes | Blow up My Town | |
| 1971 | L'enfant aimé ou Je joue à être une femme mariée | 35 minutes | The Beloved Child, or I Play at Being a Married Woman | |
| 1972 | Hotel Monterey | 65 minutes | ||
| 1972 | La Chambre 1 | 11 minutes | The Room, 1 | |
| 1972 | La Chambre 2 | 11 minutes | The Room, 2 | |
| 1973 | Le 15/8 | 42 minutes | co-directed by Samy Szlingerbaum Samy Szlingerbaum Samy Szlingerbaum was a Belgian screenwriter, actor and film director.Szlingerbaum began his career as a director by co-directing the 1973 film Le 15/8 with Chantal Akerman. Then in 1980 he wrote and directed Brussels Transit, a feature film in Yiddish which tells of his parents moving to Brussels... |
|
| 1973 | Hanging Out Yonkers | 90 minutes | unfinished | |
| 1974 | Je tu il elle | 90 minutes | I... You... He... She... | |
| 1975 | Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles is a 1975 film by Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman.Upon its release, The New York Times called Jeanne Dielman the "first masterpiece of the feminine in the history of the cinema." Chantal Akerman scholar Ivone Margulies asserts the picture is a... |
201 minutes | ||
| 1976 | News from Home News from Home News from Home is a 1977 documentary film directed by Chantal Akerman. The film consists of long takes of locations in New York City, set to Akerman's voice-over as she reads letters her mother sent her between 1971 and 1973, when the director lived in the city.-Production:In November 1971 at the... |
85 minutes | ||
| 1978 | Les Rendez-vous d'Anna | 127 minutes | Meetings with Anna | |
| 1980 | Dis-moi | 127 minutes | Tell Me | |
| 1982 | Toute une nuit | 89 minutes | All Night Long | |
| 1983 | Les Années 80 | 82 minutes | The Eighties | |
| 1983 | Un jour Pina à demandé | 57 minutes | One Day Pina Asked Me | |
| 1983 | L'homme à la valise | 60 minutes | The Man With the Suitcase | |
| 1984 | J'ai faim, j'ai froid | 12 minutes | segment for Paris vu par, 20 ans après | I'm Hungry, I'm Cold |
| 1984 | New York, New York bis | 8 minutes | lost | |
| 1984 | Lettre d'un cinéaste | 8 minutes | Letter from a Filmmaker | |
| 1986 | Golden Eighties | 96 minutes | Window Shopping | |
| 1986 | La paresse | 14 minutes | segment for Seven Women, Seven Sins | Sloth |
| 1986 | Le marteau | 4 minutes | The Hammer | |
| 1986 | Letters Home | 104 minutes | ||
| 1986 | Mallet-Stevens | 7 minutes | ||
| 1989 | Histoires d'Amérique American Stories, Food, Family and Philosophy American Stories, Food, Family and Philosophy is a 1989 Belgian drama film directed by Chantal Akerman. It was entered into the 39th Berlin International Film Festival.-Cast:* Mark Amitin* Eszter Balint* Stephan Balint* Kirk Baltz* George Bartenieff... |
92 minutes | Entered into the 39th Berlin International Film Festival 39th Berlin International Film Festival The 39th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from February 10 to 21, 1989.-Jury:* Rolf Liebermann * Leslie Caron* Chen Kaige* Vadim Glowna* Randa Haines* Vladimir Ignatovski* Adrian Kutter* Francisco Rabal... |
Food, Family, and Philosophy |
| 1989 | Les trois dernières sonates de Franz Schubert | 49 minutes | Franz Schubert's Last Three Sonatas | |
| 1989 | Trois strophes sur le nom de Sacher | 12 minutes | Three Stanzas on the Name Sacher | |
| 1991 | Nuit et jour | 90 minutes | Night and Day | |
| 1992 | Le déménagement | 42 minutes | Moving In | |
| 1992 | Contre l'oubli | 110 minutes | Akerman directed one short segment | Against Oblivion |
| 1993 | D'Est | 107 minutes | From the East | |
| 1993 | Portrait d'une jeune fille de la fin des années 60 à Bruxelles | 60 minutes | Portrait of a Young Girl at the End of the 1960s in Brussels | |
| 1996 | Un divan à New York | 108 minutes | A Couch in New York | |
| 1997 | Chantal Akerman par Chantal Akerman | 64 minutes | ||
| 1999 | Sud | 71 minutes | South | |
| 2000 | La Captive La Captive La Captive is a 2000 drama filmdirected by Chantal Akerman. It features Olivia Bonamy, Sylvie Testud and Stanislas Merhar. This French language film is loosely based on Marcel Proust's novel La Prisonnière. It the story of a wealthy man, Simon , who holds his romantic interest Ariane captive in a... |
118 minutes | Collaboration with Eric de Kuyper Eric de Kuyper Eric de Kuyper is a Flemish-Belgian and Dutch writer, semiotician, art critic, and experimental film director. Fictionalized autobiographical novels, written in the 3rd-person, account for most of his creative work. His academic writing encompasses reviews, essays, articles, and books on... |
The Captive |
| 2002 | De l'autre côté | 103 minutes | From the Other Side | |
| 2004 | Demain on déménage | 110 minutes | Collaboration with Eric de Kuyper Eric de Kuyper Eric de Kuyper is a Flemish-Belgian and Dutch writer, semiotician, art critic, and experimental film director. Fictionalized autobiographical novels, written in the 3rd-person, account for most of his creative work. His academic writing encompasses reviews, essays, articles, and books on... |
Tomorrow We Move |
| 2006 | Là-bas Là-Bas Là-Bas is a novel by the French writer Joris-Karl Huysmans, first published in 1891. It is Huysmans' most famous work after À rebours. Là-Bas deals with the subject of Satanism in contemporary France, and the novel stirred a certain amount of controversy on its first appearance... |
78 minutes | ||
| 2007 | Tombée de nuit sur Shangaï | 60 minutes | segment for O Estado do Mundo | |
| 2011 | La Folie Almayer Almayer's Folly (film) Almayer's Folly is an upcoming film directed by Chantal Akerman, starring Stanislas Merhar, Aurora Marion and Marc Barbé. It is an adaptation of Joseph Conrad's 1895 debut novel Almayer's Folly, and tells the story of a Dutchman searching for pirate treasure in Malaysia. The setting has been... |
Almayer's Folly |
Further reading
- Sultan, Terrie (ed.) Chantal Akerman: Moving through Time and Space. Houston, Tex.: Blaffer Gallery, the Art Museum of the University of Houston ; New York, N.Y.: Distributed by D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, 2008.
External links
- Chantal Akerman Faculty Page at European Graduate SchoolEuropean Graduate SchoolThe European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland is a privately funded graduate school founded by the non-profit European Foundation of Interdisciplinary Studies. Its German name is Europäische Universität für Interdisziplinäre Studien...
(Biography, bibliography and articles) - http://www.paradisefilms.be
- Artist's page in Artfacts.Net with actual major exhibitions.
- Interview with Chantal Akerman
- Screens of Film, Video, Memory, and Smoke by Ana Balona de Oliveira in FillipFillipFillip is a Vancouver-based contemporary art publishing organization formed in 2004. It publishes a magazine as well as books of critical writing...