Chantal Akerman

Award won Role or nomination

1. 1950 age 0

   Born

2. 1975 age 25

   CreditJeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles

   CreditJeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxellesdirector

   CreditJeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxellesscreenwriter

3. 2015 age 65

   Died

• JDJacques Doniol-Valcroze1 title
• DSDelphine Seyrig1 title
• JDJan Decorte1 title
• HSHenri Storck1 title
• GCGuy Cavagnac1 title
• BMBabette Mangolte1 title

• When you read a text, you’re on your own time. That is not the case in film. In fact, in film, you’re dominated by my time. But time is different for everyone. Five minutes isn’t the same thing for you as it is for me. And five minutes sometimes seems long, sometimes seems short. Take a specific film, say, D’Est: I imagine the way each viewer experiences time is different. And on my end, when I edit, the timing isn’t done just any way. I draw it out to the point where we have to cut. Or take another example, News from Home: How much time should we take to show this street so that what’s happening is something other than a mere piece of information? So that we can go from the concrete to the abstract and come back to the concrete—or move forward in another way. I’m the one who decides. At times I’ve shot things and I’ve said, "Now this is getting unbearable!" And I’ll cut. For News from Home it’s something else, but I have a hard time explaining it.

  Chantal Akerman, CC BY-SA 4.0

• Everyone thought, for example, that Jeanne Dielman was in real time, but the time was totally recomposed, to give the impression of real time. There I was with Delphine [Seyrig], and I told her, "When you put down the Wiener schnitzels like that, do it more slowly. When you take the sugar, move your arm forward more quickly." Only dealing with externals. When she asked why, I’d say, "Do it, and you’ll see why later." I didn’t want to manipulate her. I showed her afterward and said to her, "You see, I don’t want it to 'look real,' I don’t want it to look natural, but I want people to feel the time that it takes, which is not the time that it really takes." I only saw that after Delphine did it. I hadn’t thought of it before.

  Chantal Akerman, CC BY-SA 4.0

• [On directing Jeanne Dielman aged 25.] It’s not very modest of me, but I’m still so proud I did it at that age.

  Chantal Akerman, CC BY-SA 4.0

• A lot of it came unconsciously. [...] When I wrote it, it ran like a river.

  Chantal Akerman, CC BY-SA 4.0

• Delphine Seyrig complained that there was so much detail she didn’t have to invent anything.

  Chantal Akerman, CC BY-SA 4.0

• [On the isms ("feminism, minimalism, structuralism") present in analysis of Jeanne Dielman.] I don’t think it’s minimalist, [...] I think it’s maximalist. It’s big! And if I did the film now I don’t know that it would be called feminist. It could have been done about a man, too. All those labels are a bit annoying [...] To name something is a way to possess it. I think it makes the film smaller. And O.K., maybe they are right, but they are never right enough.

  Chantal Akerman, CC BY-SA 4.0

Nationalities

Belgium, France

Languages

French

Years active

1968–2015

Notable works

Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles

Education

INSAS