When Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles was released in 1975, the film had an immediate and significant impact but on quite a restricted audience. It was received enthusiastically by feminists committed to a radical cinema for radical politics as well as by followers of avant-garde film. Over the years, although this audience stayed by and large loyal, Jeanne Dielman remained on the margins of film culture.
However, in November 2022, when it unexpectedly topped Sight and Sound’s decennial poll of ‘Greatest Films of All Time’, Jeanne Dielman’s critical status underwent an abrupt change. Since then, this little-known film, always hard to watch due to Akerman’s rigorous cinematic style and a running time of just over three hours, has been discovered by new audiences and received new critical attention.
In this talk, Professor Laura Mulvey will discuss Jeanne Dielman in its original context, and what kind of unusual, surprising, cinematic experiences new audiences might expect to encounter through this remarkable film. Laura Mulvey is a British feminist film theorist. She was educated at St Hilda’s College, Oxford. She is currently professor of film and media studies at Birkbeck, University of London.
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This event is organised by St John’s College members Professor Nikolaj Lubecker and Eli Zuzovsky and supported by TORCH (The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities).
Image credit: Chantal Akerman: Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975). Produced by Paradise Films and Unité Trois.
