Chantal Akerman passed away last night in Paris at 65 years old. While the cause of her death is not immediately known, the filmmaker was battling severe depression after the loss of her mother last year. She is survived by her sister, Sylviane.
Akerman was a fearless director, artist, writer, and cinematographer. Since getting her start in Belgium in 1968 with the black-and-white short film Saute Ma Ville (Blow Up My City), Akerman was a leading figure and thinker within the world of European feminist and experimental filmmaking. She was willing to linger on a shot or a subject longer than others, evoking mixed emotions and thoughts from critics and moviegoers alike. For nearly fifty years, Akerman challenged the conventions of narrative and documentary film making with pieces like Hotel Monterey (1972), I, You, He, She (1976), News From Home (1977), Letters Home (1986), South (1999), and Over There (2006). While Akerman continued to work right up until her death—her last film No Home Movie came out earlier this year—her space in the creative filmmaking pantheon was already solidified by 1975, when she released her most influential film Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles. Clocking in at over three hours long, Jeanne Dielman‘s slow pacing and seemingly mundane subject matter opened the world of cinema to other avenues of storytelling.
Akerman was inspired to start making films when she saw Jean-Luc Godard’s Pierrot le Fou. Now, a new generation of filmmakers has been touched by Akerman’s work in that same pure fashion. Watch a small scene from Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles below.
