Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
| Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles | |
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French poster
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| Directed by | Chantal Akerman |
| Produced by | Corinne Jénart Evelyne Paul |
| Written by | Chantal Akerman |
| Starring |
Delphine Seyrig Jan Decorte Jacques Doniol-Valcroze |
| Cinematography | Babette Mangolte |
| Edited by | Patricia Canino |
| Distributed by |
The Criterion Collection (USA DVD) Janus Films (USA) |
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Release date
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Running time
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201 minutes |
| Country | Belgium France |
| Language | French |
| Budget | $120,000 |
Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (French pronunciation: [ʒan dilmɑ̃ vɛ̃ tʁwa ke dy kɔmeʁs mil katʁəvɛ̃ bʁysɛl], "Jeanne Dielman, 23 Commerce Quay, 1080 Brussels") is a 1975 arthouse film by Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman.
Upon its release, The New York Times called it the "first masterpiece of the feminine in the history of the cinema". It has become a cult classic and was named the 19th-greatest film of the 20th century by The Village Voice.
Jeanne Dielman examines a single mother's regimented schedule of cooking, cleaning and mothering over three days. The mother, Jeanne Dielman (whose name is only derived from the title and from a letter she reads to her son), has sex with male clients in her house daily for her and her son's subsistence. Like her other activities, Jeanne's sex work is part of the routine she performs every day by rote and is uneventful. But on the second day, Jeanne's routine begins to unravel subtly, as she drops a newly washed spoon and overcooks the potatoes that she's preparing for dinner. These alterations to Jeanne's existence prepare for the climax on the third day, during which she murders a client.
After establishing herself as a major film director with Je, tu, il, elle (1974), Akerman said that she "felt ready to make a feature with more money" and applied for a grant from the Belgian government for financial support, submitting a script that Jane Clarke described as portraying "a rigorous regimen [constructed] around food ... and routine bought sex in the afternoon". This script would only be the rough basis for Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles because after Akerman received the government grant of $120,000 and began production, she threw the script out and began a new film instead. Akerman also explained that she was able to make a female-centric film because "at that point everybody was talking about women" and that it was "the right time".
Shooting Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles took five weeks and Akerman called it "a love film for my mother. It gives recognition to that kind of woman". Akerman used an all female crew for the film, which she later said "didn't work that well - not because they were women but because I didn't choose them. It was enough just to be a woman to work on my film ... so the shooting was awful". Akerman further explained that "a hierarchy of images" that places a car accident or a kiss "higher in the hierarchy than washing up ... And it's not by accident, but relates to the place of woman in the social hierarchy ... Woman's work comes out of oppression and whatever comes out of oppression is more interesting. You have to be definite. You have to be".
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