1973 film by Chantal Akerman

Mid-August in Paris (the title is a date: August 15) in a sunny, quiet apartment a young woman talks, thinks, reflects about herself, everyday life and little events in a long, uninterrupted monologue. The camera pictures her and her gestures in long, fixed shots moving around the rooms, the space, the light and shadows of a summer day.

Since the 1980s, famed cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton has been present in much of Chantal Akerman’s work, whether through her numerous collaborations soundtracks, or as a protagonist (as in Rue Mallet-Stevens, 1986), or in this case, as the subject of an extended documentary portrait. The film begins with a voiceover from Akerman, describing and situating her subject, after which Wieder-Atherton takes over the narrative, sitting before the camera for an extended presentation of her life and art. Wieder-Atherton then performs some short pieces by Claudio Monteverdi, Luciano Berio, Leos Janacek, Johannes Brahms and Franz Schubert, either solo or accompanied by a small ensemble. As well as insights into an artist, this film offers a precious cinematic moment of listening.

"Au fond c’est un hommage a Godard.” ——CA

"A man stands amid unpacked boxes in his new home, delivering an extended monologue on indecision and dislocation. This rarely seen, overlooked gem created by Akerman for television explores the quotidian crises and profound feelings of alienation that run through her work." - BAM

Seven Women, Seven Sins (1986) represents a quintessential moment in film history. The women filmmakers invited to direct for the seven sins were amongst the world's most renown: Helke Sander (Gluttony), Bette Gordon (Greed), Maxi Cohen (Anger), Chantal Akerman (Sloth), Valie Export (Lust), Laurence Gavron (Envy), and Ulrike Ottinger (Pride). Each filmmaker had the liberty of choosing a sin to interpret as they wished. The final film reflected this diversity, including traditional narrative fiction, experimental video, a musical, a radical documentary, and was delivered in multiple formats from 16, super 16, video and 35mm.

Chantal Akerman was commissioned by Visions to make this short film for £20,000. It was first shown on 21 November 1984, on Channel 4. Akerman herself plays the role of a director visiting Hollywood to find financing from an uncle she hardly knows. Very little goes to plan… Also stars Aurore Clement and Colleen Camp.

Jack and Julie live in a bare flat in Paris. At night, Jack drives a taxi while Julie wanders around the city, and in the day they make love. One day Julie meets Joseph, the daytime driver of the taxi, and soon Julie is spending her nights with Joseph and her days with Jack.

All of the time and effort put forth to stage a musical is chronicled here in this bright and funny French outing. The story is set at a shopping mall where people audition for an upcoming show. Afterwards, they are seen going through the grueling routines of learning the music and rehearsing.

The Belgian filmmaker spent a period of time, unspecified, a week or two, in an apartment in Tel Aviv that was lent to her. She lived there alone, in virtually complete isolation, indirectly filming and narrating the experience, sustained only by "provisions" found in the kitchen, especially rice and carrots, having had stomach trouble from an Israeli salad; didn't go to cafes or supermarkets, and rarely even went out, except for a couple of forays to the sea; the apartment was a block or so from the beach.
La-bàs is a series of long stationary shots out the windows, often showing figures of old people on balconies on the roof or buildings opposite. A woman, immobile, is tended to by her husband. One man sits for long periods motionless. Ackerman in voice-over says she thinks he's watching his plants grow. "But I don't think plants grow any faster in Israel," she says.
Is this any better than the proverbial watching paint dry? Two aspects, visual and auditory, save this thin, dry, austere documentary from being a sterile art piece and make it both thought-provoking and haunting, for those who have the patience to sit through it; many will not.
To begin with, screens filter the light of the windows in a beautiful way: the shots are often handsome, not unworthy of something by Hou Hsiau-hsien or Tsai Ming-liang, if without their human figures moving about.
Further, Ackerman's voice overs, spoken off-camera during the shots, though skimpy, provide fleetingly penetrating, brutally frank self-revelations and contexts that range from the personal to the universal. Her father was once going to emigrate to Israal just after WWII and was waiting in Marseille to go, but he was warned that the Palestine environment was too harsh. The family settled in Belgium instead. She speaks of an aunt who committed suicide. Is she herself depressed? She speaks of passivity and laziness. She may be agoraphobic. She clearly is going through an agoraphobic period. She may also be afraid of bombs. A parent calls and expresses concern about her going out to dangerous places; she promises she won't. She speaks of prisons, external and self-imposed: this is one of the latter kind.
People call and invite her out. She says she can't because she's working. This devotion to the enterprise makes something positive and substantial, even noble, about this otherwise evanescent, uncertain project. This is an act of painfully heightened self-consciousness, a self-examination, a journal both Zen-like and intensive. She also speaks of reading; making extensive notes; having "complex" thoughts. A certain ambivalence toward her Jewishness is also involved. Finally, with minimal means, Ackerman has forged something unique.
A telling image: a Chasidic family leaving the beach. The man, in his quaint outfit, symbolizes the oddity of the Israeli enterprise. Ackerman doesn't comment on the oppression of Palestinians or Israeli dependence on the US. Her seclusion in the middle of Israel's largest city may be comment enough. This is something she apparently can't be a part of. But in her alienation, she couldn't be more Jewish.

From the Other Side is a haunting and minimalist documentary that explores the tragic realities of illegal immigration along the U.S.–Mexico border, focusing on the twin towns of Agua Prieta, Sonora, and Douglas, Arizona. Director Chantal Akerman utilizes her signature long, observational takes and static shots to capture the harsh desert landscape and the architectural starkness of the border wall. Through deeply personal interviews with Mexican migrants and grieving families, contrasted against the high-tech tracking systems and perspectives of white American ranchers, the film highlights how tightened border security forced migrants into increasingly perilous terrain. Ultimately, the documentary serves as a poetic, empathetic, and politically charged meditation on xenophobia, separation, and the human cost of geographic boundaries.

A burnt-out New York psychoanalyst exchanges apartments with a Parisian woman. When his patients arrive, they talk to her and then pay. He returns early and becomes a patient as well.

Chantal Akerman investigates the American Deep South through the story of a lynching and grisly murder of an African-American man that took place in Texas in 1998.

A vibrant account of immigrant Jewish life (and loss) as told by denizens of Manhattan’s Lower East Side (including The Living Theatre cofounder Judith Malina).

2015 film by Chantal Akerman

1972 film by Chantal Akerman

Film comprised of six vignettes each illustrating one aspect of life in the French capital, each set in a different area of the city.

Single woman Charlotte tries to write erotic fiction despite not having any sensual experience.

Like many French-language films I've seen, this one is more concerned with presenting a fairly realistic slice of life than with creating the standard story arc. The main character, Michele, spends the hour discussing her views of life with some old and new friends, and tries to understand her own feelings about her place in the world and her sexuality, while a camera follows along at close range. If you like your stories action-packed and resolved at the end you won't care for this one, but as a "portrait of a young girl" this film is engaging and thought-provoking. The movie reminded me of some of my own teenage trials, in a bittersweet way. The film is not so good at authentically recreating the 60's, but hey, it was probably low-budget. Anyway, the setting doesn't seem that important, as the kids' thoughts are pretty universal. Includes songs by the likes of Leonard Cohen, Johnny Hallyday, and James Brown.

Ariane and Simon met down by the water. Simon has managed to prize Ariane away from her friends, a bunch of free and arrogant girls, and move her into his place, with her own room at the end of the hall and her own bathroom next to his. He has taken on Andrée, one of the girls from the bunch by the water, to watch over Ariane, escort her wherever she goes and report back to him on everything she does. Andrée becomes Ariane’s accomplice. She’ll tell lies for her, and with her, and most likely they’ll make love together when the mood takes them.