Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles [RSC Film Club 52]

[LimeGreenLegend 4,287]

Our first film of 2023 is the winner of the latest once-a-decade Sight and Sound poll to determine the greatest film of all time, Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles by Chantal Akerman.  

The film stars Delphine Seyrig as the titular Jeanne Dielman, a middle aged widow who lives a quiet, orderly life with her teenage son Sylvain (Jan Decorte), while also entertaining the occasional gentleman caller for some extra money.  The film follows her over three days where you can watch her slowly unravel in the most subtle way.  

This isn't a film that everyone will enjoy, being nearly three and a half hours long and consisting of minutes long static shots of Jeanne performing banal everyday tasks like cooking and cleaning, but if you give it a chance you'll find the most complete and compelling portrait of a woman ever committed to film.

i overcooked the potatoes

[djw180 6,990]

I was unsure if I would enjoy this. I don't mind a really long film in principle, and this is over 3 hours long. But from what I knew about this before hand; i.e. it featuring mainly just one character and set mainly in one location, I wasn't sure it would be for me. But I enjoyed it and never found it boring. I really liked the slow pace and attention to detail. It gave me time to think about what had just happened, what might happen next and why.

Delphine Seyrig is brilliant in the lead role. The way she portrays the very gradual, subtle changes in Jeane Dielman's mundane life is quite amazing, and the director clearly must share the praise of that too. The whole film takes place over 3 days in Jeane's life and most of the scenes are of quite mundane things. I don't know how you make watching someone peel potatoes entertaining, but they achieved exactly that.

I wouldn't personally say this is the greatest film ever made, but it is certainly very, very good.

10/10