Sadly Over-hyped

I gave it a 7.5 out of 10

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

I watched this film forty years after it was made, in a theater in downtown New York City that plays only art films. Still, I was impressed by the audience's rapt attention over the 3 and 1/2 hours of the film. I too was sitting fascinated the entire time. We seemed to understand that a part of the experience of watching it was familiarizing ourselves with the details of the dignified Jeanne's existence. Every piece of furniture in her apartment is viewed over and over, and her daily routine is so minutely reviewed that it is imprinted in the mind; so, any tiny deviation jumps out as a sinister departure portending -- what? You wait worriedly to find out what it could mean. Mostly you feel a great sadness for someone who is clearly desperate to make ends meet financially, so she and her child will be okay. You see a perfectionist at work as she proceeds through the day, as though the great care she is taking shining and folding and washing will somehow result in safety for her and the child. There is a spirituality in this, and it begins to take hold of you, and you fervently hope for her survival.

As we see Jeanne, doing her daily chores, there is a hypnotic effect on us. We are transfixed by her grace. We observe her for three days of her life. At the end of the first day, it is clear that she wants to be in control of everything she does. She cannot let go of the authority she has over her own life.The movie was released in 1975 at the Cannes Film Festival. After making a series of short films, it was the first full length feature of Chantal Akerman. As a quintessential piece of feminism, the movie is as moving as it was four decades ago. Delphine Seyrig, playing Jeanne Dielman, gives a performance of a lifetime. Her expressions convey things that many conversations cannot. As she gets lost due to things spiraling out of her control, her face shows a growing sad desperation.The camera never moves. It remains stationary at various positions as we watch Jeanne doing her daily chores. As well as being used as an objective observer, the camera also functions as a door into the mind of Jeanne. The camera position is especially significant when her client comes in the afternoon. We see the door of her room from of a dark corridor to signify her disdain for the sex she has in that room. She keeps the money from the client in a bowl of the table. When her son comes, the tablecloth is spread on the other side and the camera only shows that part of the table as if Jeanne wants to block the source of her income from her son. Observing her perfection, we are sure as viewers that she can earn money from some other way if she wants. But why does she not? Jeane herself answers it. When Jeanne's son tells her, "If I were a woman, I wouldn't be able to sleep with someone I didn't love". She replies, "You don't know.You are not a woman. " She was made to marry her husband by her aunts for money even though he was ugly. So in a way she was made to sleep with someone she did not love for money. She does the same after his death. How is one thing noble and the other immoral?A lot has been said about the camera and Jeanne's activities, but who is she? Though she does work of household like other women do, there is a big difference between them and her. She wants to be the master of her life. But after her spoon drops off, and her potatoes get overcooked, she is unable to get in control of things. The next day she is not able to find buttons for a jacket. The coffee tastes sour.. The place where she sits in the cafe is taken and the waitress she knows has ended her shift. All these things go contrary to her desires. After the unexpected orgasm during another of her daily routine, she ends up doing something very drastic. But the question arises, what does the director want to convey with this? Though, there is no definite answer for this (the beauty of the movie lies in that), for me Jeanne Dielman is the perfect feminist. After her husband's death, she has done everything to be in full control of her destiny. In the end, Jeanne Dielman rebels against the society in which she does not have full control over her actions. It is a metaphor for the lack of control women have on their life because of men.One more subtle thing that is very prominent throughout the movie is the presence of women in almost every shop Jeanne visits. The only places where men are present, are places where you need to have some skill. In contrast women are present at places where mundane things have to be done (like bringing a cup of coffee, finding buttons, wool or groceries) to reflect the lack of importance given to women in the society.The movie has the touch of Yasujirô Ozu, the depth of Andrei Tarkovsky. There are some painful scenes that stay unforgettable (like that old woman trying to get the attention of the attendant to get her work done without screaming out loud like men do). Few movies linger on your mind for days and selected few linger on for years. This definitely belongs to the latter.Check out my blog at: http://djslim7.wordpress.com/

A compelling portrait of emotional alienation that is reminiscent of Polanski's "Repulsion." Jeanne (Delphine Seyrig) seems a domestic goddess -- carefully planning each well-balanced meal, doting on her only child, and keeping a pin-neat apartment. But she's robotic with people -- seemingly just tolerating their invitations and chatter and never saying much more to her son than "Did you wash your hands?" before breakfast.Despite appearances, the perfectly put-together widow ekes out a living by turning tricks each afternoon in her bedroom, and then scrupulously scrubbing herself after each encounter. With each successive john, we see a little more of how Jeanne feels about her hidden occupation, till after a third encounter we are left with no illusions at all.Does Sylvain suspect how his mother earns a franc? As the 3.5-hour film inches along, seemingly in real time, one's theory on this question may evolve.In all, this film drives home the psychological truth that the more perfect a person may look, the more disorder she may be hiding below the surface.This is a devastating portrait of the high cost of keeping up appearances.(I was saddened to read on Wikipedia that Mlle. Seyrig, who played the opalesque heroine, died some 15 years after the film came out, of lung disease. This was one bravura performance.)

Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles defines a bleak, nearly-insufferable reality for some people, but it's a reality undoubtedly face every day - divorced or widowed mothers that must slog away at an endless bout of chores. Their persistency and compulsiveness may not be as meticulous as our titular character's, but they very well could mirror the same mannerisms and patterns in terms of carrying out these chores.For two-hundred and twenty-one minutes, we watch Jeanne Dielman (Delphine Seyrig) carry out a several day's worth of chores, whether it be mopping, washing dishes, peeling potatoes, cooking dinner, and so forth. I'd be interested in hearing the diversity of people's reactions to this material. No doubt some will cringe at the thought of sitting in front of a screen for three and a half hours, viewing a film about a single mom's daily routine. Personally, he premise had be at its naturalism.To faithful readers, it comes as no surprise I'd love Jeanne Dielman; it is one of the most naturalistic, soothing, and original films I've come across in a blue moon. We are simply observers, flies on the wall to Jeanne's daily routine, never interfering or side-stepping our role as a passive observer to her actions. It's hard not to be somewhat vocal at her actions, as we slowly see her dark side come through as she frequently prostitutes herself for money, turning tricks in a shockingly cold way.Not long after the film begins, Jeanne's compulsive routine becomes implanted in our heads, so much so that the sounds of potatoes being peeled, dishes clanking together and being washed, the faucet running, or Jeanne's footsteps on her titled-kitchen floor begin to possess a wonderful and rare musicality to them. We begin to anticipate them, look forward to them, and just sit back and listen to them, as if we're beginning to fall to the life of a routine housewife.The second day in the life of Dielman is when things begin to heat up, however; this is where we see her begin to get tired, frustrated, and sloppy. She winds up overcooking a meal, dropping a newly-cleaned dish, losing a button for a shirt and not being able to find it, among other small, easy-to-miss occurrences. With this, we see Jeanne's only vice is prostitution because it allows for a break in conventionality and a bout of unpredictability, regardless of how cold and vapid the sex so often is. Watching her put up with a thankless, rigorous routine for so long makes one wonder why more mothers aren't participating in a quietly rebellious lifestyle. For all I know, many are.Jeanne Dielman possesses some beautifully natural cinematography and tight-framing techniques, thanks to the work of Babette Mangolte's use of familiar settings as well as directress Chantal Akerman's direction that captures anything and everything in a scene. Akerman scholar Ivone Margulies claims that through her detailed expressions of scenes, depictions of routine monotony, and tightly-compacted shots, Akerman was trying to bring about ideas of feminism, a woman's role in the world at the time, as well as a bout of "anti-illusionism" to the screen, contrary to what cinema was founded on. Early cinema came about by defying reality, convention, and anything real, often inviting a magical persona in with the early shorts of the late-1800's. There's nothing magical about Jeanne Dielman - it's all real, too real.Frankly, some will still not look into Jeanne Dielman because of their lack of desire to see real-life portrayed on film. As someone who hungers for naturalism, believable events, and relatable relationships and characters in films, I find this notion hard to penetrate but can simply respect it. I've had people tell me the films of Joe Swanberg, the Duplass brothers, and Kevin Smith offput them because they're "too real" and "I don't want to see that." I feel people have been quietly, unintentionally thought that going to the movies means seeing something you couldn't see anywhere else, and that films portraying or trying to replicate real life are just not acceptable. Along comes an unassuming but powerful film like Jeanne Dielman that will be missed by people who have the same sort of petty quibbles about naturalistic film.Finally, sex is a recurring theme in the film, although it is never shown in grave detail. Consider the scene where Jeanne's only son brings up the ideas that circumvented his mind when he first discovered what mom and dad were doing in the bedroom, and the anger, hostility, and fear he felt inside of him. They were emotions too big for him to handle, and if he knew his mother was a frequent prostitute, no doubt he'd feel the same sickness. One constant theme and idea in Jeanne Dielman is the characters often say what they're really not supposed to say, leaving no filter on their thoughts. This provides for an unsurprising detailed and open account of feelings, rather than the obligatory situational comedy one would think would arise from such a feature.Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles's runtime will no doubt be a slog for many people; this could easily be described a "maddening masterpiece," meaning that while someone can see what is trying to be done and admire the themes, have a hard time sitting through the film. To say Jeanne Dielman was an easy sit for myself would be straight-up lying. However, with each passing scene, the film found a different way to enchant and mesmerize me, regardless of inducing restlessness because of its detailed, real-time look into life.Starring: Delphine Seyrig.