Motion Picture Director. She was a director whose observation of women’s inner lives, often using long takes, made her a pioneer in feminist and experimental filmmaking. Born to Polish Holocaust survivors, she was inspired to begin making films as a teenager after seeing Jean-Luc Godard’s 'Pierrot le Fou' (1965). Her first film, 'Saute Ma Ville' (Blow Up My City), was a 13-minute black-and-white short that she made at age 18. The film shows her singing and dancing about her kitchen, then leaning her head on gas-lit burners before the screen goes dark and the room explodes. She was 25 when she made her groundbreaking 'Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles' (1975), which follows a widowed housewife as she prepares food, does chores and receives a gentleman who pays her for sex. The minimalist repetition builds quietly to a traumatic climax. She would go on to make more than 40 films, including 'News From Home' (1977), 'A Whole Night' (1982), 'From the East' (1993), 'A Couch in New York' (1996), 'South' (1999), 'Over There' (2006) and 'No Home Movie' (2015). Akerman, who had been suffering from depression following the death of her mother in 2014 and had recently been hospitalized, died of undisclosed causes.
Motion Picture Director. She was a director whose observation of women’s inner lives, often using long takes, made her a pioneer in feminist and experimental filmmaking. Born to Polish Holocaust survivors, she was inspired to begin making films as a teenager after seeing Jean-Luc Godard’s 'Pierrot le Fou' (1965). Her first film, 'Saute Ma Ville' (Blow Up My City), was a 13-minute black-and-white short that she made at age 18. The film shows her singing and dancing about her kitchen, then leaning her head on gas-lit burners before the screen goes dark and the room explodes. She was 25 when she made her groundbreaking 'Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles' (1975), which follows a widowed housewife as she prepares food, does chores and receives a gentleman who pays her for sex. The minimalist repetition builds quietly to a traumatic climax. She would go on to make more than 40 films, including 'News From Home' (1977), 'A Whole Night' (1982), 'From the East' (1993), 'A Couch in New York' (1996), 'South' (1999), 'Over There' (2006) and 'No Home Movie' (2015). Akerman, who had been suffering from depression following the death of her mother in 2014 and had recently been hospitalized, died of undisclosed causes.
Bio by: Louis du Mort
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Chantal AKERMAN cinéaste 1950-2015.
enfant d'une rescapée de la shoah.
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