Jean Dielman and who we are.
Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) was recently voted as the Greatest Film of All Time in Sight & Sound’s 2022 poll.
This quiet meditation of a film is often dubbed so arthouse that it verges on the brink of boring and anyone who claims that they like the film must be lying. I disagree.
The problem is we have completely messed up our understanding of art's place in culture. People disappointed by this film are going into it with an expectation of how it will fulfill its promise of satisfaction.
It's a consumerist mindset, with the film as the product to be consumed. Art is not a product to be consumed, even if that's how we've learned to treat it, even if that's how the film industry treats it.
The ranking is just the result of a poll of people who find the film meaningful. It's not a Michelin star rating of what you can expect your experience to be.
Jeanne Dielman just is, the same way we just are.
This quiet meditation of a film is often dubbed so arthouse that it verges on the brink of boring and anyone who claims that they like the film must be lying. I disagree.
The problem is we have completely messed up our understanding of art's place in culture. People disappointed by this film are going into it with an expectation of how it will fulfill its promise of satisfaction.
It's a consumerist mindset, with the film as the product to be consumed. Art is not a product to be consumed, even if that's how we've learned to treat it, even if that's how the film industry treats it.
The ranking is just the result of a poll of people who find the film meaningful. It's not a Michelin star rating of what you can expect your experience to be.
Jeanne Dielman just is, the same way we just are.