Chantal Akerman
February 20, 2008
From here: “Geboren am 6. Juni 1950 in Brüssel. Besuch eines Lyceums in Brüssel. Mit 15 Jahren sieht sie den Film “Pierrot le Fou” von Jean-Luc Godard und wird angeregt, selbst Filme zu drehen. Für vier Monate besucht sie die Film-Hochschule in Brüssel (INSAS). Nach eigenen Aussagen hat sie dort keine Anregungen erhalten. 1971 längerer New-York Aufenthalt und Beschäftigung mit den Filmen von Stan Brakhage, Michael Snow und Jonas Mekas. Seit 1968 dreht sie Filme.” Below a picture of her taken from her filmed autobiography.
Dear Umberta,
I told you a bit some weeks ago about a film inspired by “La Prisonnière” of Marcel Proust. It is La Captive (die Gefangene, 1999) by Chantal Akerman, jewish and homosexual like Proust. Very very beautiful film about jealousy inter alia. Any film of Chantal Akerman is interesting, but I particularly liked “Demain on déménage” (morgen ziehen wir um) — she’s a bit obsessed with migration — and “Jeanne Dielman” (1975) an incredible experimental film about an efficient homemaker and also a discreet one-client-per-day fille de joie marvelously performed by one of most beautiful voices of French cinema, Delphine Seyrig. One can see her peeling the potatoes here. She also published a not very well known small autobiographical novel, “Une famille à Bruxelles”, Edition L’Arche, 1998, of course not translated in german. The picture below is taken from La Captive.
