news from home: the Chantal Akerman poll

I have yet to watch No Home Movie and I am fairly certain it would destroy me

I've only seen 14 of these, and it's already impossible.

Seen 20 and yeah it's Dielman but it feels like a travesty to choose, such is the scale of her achievement.

damn y'all putting me to shame

The thing that really struck me about just seeing the ones I have is that anyone who's only seen Dielman would almost certainly never guess the stylistic and tonal breadth of her work

Do we have to vote for the unlovable masterpiece? Why not for our favorites?

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ha, I thought about leaving Dielman out, it has always seemed a shame to me that it's all most people have seen of hers (if they've seen anything) and she deserves so much more than to get half-assedly trotted out when "women in film" are getting programmed/discussed

I love D'est, Golden Eighties, Portrait d'une jeune fille, Anna, Un divan. I'll watch a few more before I vote.

Golden Eighties is a riot and super weird

i’ve only seen news from home so i’m very unqualified to vote in this poll

i’ve also only seen it once yet it has really stuck with me. saw a tumblr post with screenshots from it the other day and immediately clocked it. there’s something so personal about the way she shoots new york in that movie that it doesn’t feel recorded by a camera but an eye

gonna re-watch Jeanne Dielman this weekend! I can't wait.

News From Home

D'Est is really great btw

I mean, I'm not NOT going to vote for Jeanne Dielman. Would've been more fun to see poll results without that option, tho. (Would likely end up voting D'est in that scenario.)

I'm going to vote for the one I love the most. At the moment, that's D'est, I think.

The kitchen movie's a tad slow; I like it, but I like News from Home better.

I set a relatively distant deadline to give folks a chance to catch one or two new ones if they have a chance.

Tomorrow We Move is a really sweet, melancholy family comedy. Not my favorite but worth checking out for fans. Sylvie Testud plays a chain smoking Akerman stand-in and Aurore Clement is her mom

Yeah that's charming too, if a bit in air quotes.

Aurora Clement is also the star of Les Rendezvous-vous d’Anna, which is a fantastic film. In it she is a stand-in for Akerman, and her mother is played by Lea Massari (who played the character named Anna who disappeared in l’Avventura)

I haven't seen it yet and hope to catch up with it, but I was heartened to see No Home Movie in FC's decade-ending top 5.

watch every chantal akerman movie challenge. embarrassing how few of these i've seen

I have strong memories of Hotel Monterey. It’s completely soundless but is spellbinding, it feels like a portal into an alternate reality

I was quite taken with No Home Movie.

Do we have to vote for the unlovable masterpiece? Why not for our favorites?

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― Cherish, Thursday, 23 April 2020 bookmarkflaglink

I love Dielman very much. I was trying to say how a format like a poll feels a tad inadequate. Films like Toute une Nuit (my choice), which a lot of the better filmmakers would struggle to match, might only get a vote. Just feels wrong.

did you go to any of the ica retrospective when it was on? I didn't get to go to as many as i would have liked but I did go the night she was there!

Most of the 20 films were seen through that retro yes, and I was there that night. She was on such great form!

I'm almost tempted to vote for the Pina Bausch one, which I think is one of the best films I've ever seen, but at the same time it is basically a south bank show episode

I was trying to say how a format like a poll feels a tad inadequate. Films like Toute une Nuit (my choice), which a lot of the better filmmakers would struggle to match, might only get a vote. Just feels wrong.

Also, kind of a big one that's missing is 2006's Là-bas (Down There).

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I ended up watching 13 more before I voted (total 27), but it didn't change my vote (D'est).

oh wow! well done

Correct

A Couch in New York is on mubi rn.

1972 Hotel Monterey

yo this is so good

You end up really feeling that you've stayed there.

haunted liminal space 101

1994 Portrait d’une jeune fille de la fin des années 60 á Bruxelles

this one has been "making the rounds" lately it seems, looking forward to seeing it

I'm like....75% of the way there to convincing k@te to do an akerman podcast. she wrote this great piece about her life/work that I really should have linked back when we made the poll

https://cinema-scope.com/columns/deaths-of-cinema/

Wow, thanks! That's a terrific article!

Oh wow, I didn't remember News from Home taking this one...

golden eighties >>>>>

^^^

I'd give a vote to La Captive, a very good Proust film.

_1994 Portrait d’une jeune fille de la fin des années 60 á Bruxelles_


this one has been "making the rounds" lately it seems, looking forward to seeing it

I'm like....75% of the way there to convincing k@te to do an akerman podcast. she wrote this great piece about her life/work that I really should have linked back when we made the poll

https://cinema-scope.com/columns/deaths-of-cinema🕸/

I'd give a vote to La Captive, a very good Proust film.

― jmm, Tuesday, December 6, 2022 8:58 AM (nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Early box set announced by Criterion:

https://www.criterion.com/boxsets/7045-chantal-akerman-masterpieces-1968197