“Jeanne Dilman, Commerce Embankment 23, Brussels 1080” ( French Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles ) is an art house film by the Belgian director Chantal Ackerman , released in 1975. The film is distinguished by an innovative cinema language: ascetic, monotonous, in real time, fixing the everyday life of the heroine. “Jeanne Dilman, Commerce Embankment 23, Brussels 1080” is included in various lists of the best films in history and is also considered a feminist programming statement [1] .
| Jeanne Dilman, Promenade 23, Brussels 1080 | |
|---|---|
| Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles | |
| Genre | and |
| Producer | Chantal Ackerman |
| Producer | Corinne Genard, Evelyn Paul |
| Author script | Chantal Ackerman |
| In the main cast | Dolphin seyrig Jean Decor Henri Stork Jacques Doniol-Valcroze Yves Bical |
| Operator | Babette Mangolt |
| Film company | Paradise films Unité trois |
| Duration | 201 minutes |
| A country |  Belgium  France |
| Tongue | French |
| Year | 1975 |
| IMDb | |
Content
Story
Zhanna Dilman is a widow and single mother living in an apartment whose address is in the title of the film. The film shows three consecutive days of her life. She makes a bed, collects her teenage son at school, prepares food, goes to the store for shopping, drinks coffee, does the dishes, has dinner with her son in the evening. In the afternoon, she engages in prostitution - she receives clients at home and thereby provides herself and her son. Sex with the client is allotted to the time it takes for potatoes to cook. On the second day, in the prescribed manner, failures begin: she drops the just washed spoon and forgets about the potatoes left on the stove and digests it, delaying the preparation of dinner. On the third day - the viewer sees for the first time how Jeanne has sex with a client, experiencing an orgasm - she, dressed, scissors stabs the client.
Cast
- Dolphin Seyrig - Jeanne Dilman
- Jean Decor - Sylvain Dilman
- Henri Stork - First Client
- Jacques Doniol-Valcroze - second client
- Yves Bical - third client
Artistic Features
The compositional center of the film is the figure of the main character Zhanna Dilman, who is almost always in the frame. The camera documents in real time its daily activities (washing, cleaning shoes, washing dishes, cooking), brought to automatism. The film was shot in an extremely avaricious manner: in each long shot the camera is static and is located frontally, at the level of the low Ackerman’s eyes, throughout the film visual effects, music, even the usual “eight” shooting are not used [2] . Separately noting the work of the cameraman, J. Hoberman calls “Jeanne Dilman” one of the standards of formalism in cinema [3] .
Due to the extreme detail of everyday life, the viewer himself begins to notice that something goes wrong when Jeanne puts the bill in the tureen and then does not close the lid, and he himself begins to prepare for a tragic outcome when the overcooked card destroys her usual rhythm of life [2] . Hoberman compares “Jeanne Dilman” with Hitchcock films, noting that if for Hitchcock horror in the everyday is just the decoration and plot, then Ackerman, and on social material, only leaves that feeling in the film [3] . Manola Dargis calls “Jeanne Dilman” “an everyday horror film” [4] .
Influence and significance
Key figures that influenced Ackerman were Michael Snow and Andy Warhol . J. Hoberman among the possible predecessors of “Joan of Dylman” also names European directors Jean-Marie Straub and Daniel Uye and Helmut Costard [3] . In turn, the film Ackerman had a tremendous impact on the entire subsequent cinema, exploring the passage of time: Pedro Costa , Apichatpong Virasetakul , Jia Zhangke , Gus van Sent [2] [5] .
“Jeanne Dilman, Promenade 23, Brussels 1080” is included in the most authoritative lists of the best films of all time [5] . So, in a survey of film critics conducted by Sight & Sound magazine, the picture divides 35-38 places [6] , and in a criticism poll of The Village Voice in 2001, it ranks 19th in the list of best films of the 20th century [7] .
Although Ackerman has always opposed the definition of his films as feminist, Zhanna Dilman is seen as a key work for feminism, revolutionary in its attention to the everyday life and social role of women and the rejection of the traditional “ voyeuristic ” view of the heroine [3] [1 ] ] .
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 Plakhov, A.S. Injured life . Kommersant (October 7, 2015). Date of treatment June 26, 2016.
- ↑ 1 2 3 Margulies, I. A Matter of Time: Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles . Criterion Collection (August 18, 2009). Date of treatment June 26, 2016.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 Hoberman, J. Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles // The Village Voice Film Guide: 50 Years of Movies from Classics to Cult Hits / Lim, D .. - John Wiley & Sons, 2010. - P. 143-147. - 336 p. - ISBN 9781118040799 .
- ↑ Dargis, M. The Art of Slow . The New York Times (August 20, 2015). Date of treatment June 26, 2016.
- ↑ 1 2 Lim, D. Then as Now, the Terrors of the Routine . The New York Times (January 18, 2009). Date of treatment June 26, 2016.
- ↑ Christie, I. The 50 Greatest Films of All Time . Sight & Sound (2012). Date of treatment June 26, 2016.
- ↑ 100 Best Films of the 20th Century . The Village Voice . filmsite.org (2001). Date of treatment June 26, 2016.
Links
- " Jeanne Dilman, Commerce Embankment 23, Brussels 1080 ” on the Internet Movie Database