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Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du
Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
(1975)
Directed by Chantal Akerman
February 20 - Thursday - 7:00 p.m.
A singular work in film history, Jeanne Dielman
meticulously details, with a sense of impend-
ing doom, the daily routine of a middle-aged
widow, whose chores include making the beds,
cooking dinner for her son, and turning the
occasional trick. In its enormous spareness,
Akerman's film seems simple, but it encom-
passes an entire world. Whether seen as an
exacting character study or one of cinema's
most hypnotic and complete depictions of
space and time, Jeanne Dielman is an as-
tonishing, compelling movie experiment, one
that has been analyzed and argued over for
decades. --The Criterion Collection. In French
language with English subtitles. (35mm. 201
min. Not Rated.)
Almayer's Folly
(2011)
Directed by Chantal Akerman
February 21 - Friday - 9:30 p.m.
February 23 - Sunday - 6:30 p.m.
Chantal Akerman adapts Joseph Conrad's debut
novel concerning a Dutch trader living in Malaysia,
transplanting the story from the 1890s to the 1950s.
This brings the weight of another 50 years of colo-
nialism and foreign intervention to bear on Conrad's
tale, a story of cultural conflict, desire, and despair.
Having married the adopted Malay in order to obtain
an inheritance that has failed to materialize, Almayer
has become isolated and bitter, investing all his
emotional energy in his own beloved daughter, Nina.
Haunted by feelings of racial alienation and harbor-
ing hatred towards her father, Nina has no intention
of providing him with comfort or companionship. In
French, English, and Khmer languages with English
subtitles. (35mm. 127 min. Not Rated.)
Chantal Akerman 15
News from Home
(1976)
Directed by Chantal Akerman
February 21 - Friday - 6:30 p.m.
Letters from Chantal Akerman's mother are read
over a series of elegantly composed shots of
1976 New York, where our (unseen) filmmaker
and protagonist has relocated. Akerman's
unforgettable time capsule of the city is also a
gorgeous meditation on urban alienation and
personal and familial disconnection. --The
Criterion Collection. In French language with
English subtitles. (35mm. 85 min. Not Rated.)
In French language with English subtitles.
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