Dubbed by the Village Voice as "arguably the most important European director of her generation," Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman is known for making innovative films that have often earned comparison to those of Jean-Luc Godard or Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Although she rejects the label of "feminist filmmaker," Akerman has become a guiding light in making films about the real issues faced by women, employing an experimental, deeply personal approach to her subjects.
A disciple of Godard (who first inspired the then-15-year-old Akerman with his Pierre le fou), Akerman attended Brussels' INSAS film school and the Universite Internationale du Paris. She demonstrated her devotion to Godard with her first amateur short subject, 1968's Saute Ma Ville (Blow up My Town), which three years after its completion was entered in the Oberhausen Festival. Working on the fringes of show business in New York in the early '70s, Akerman became an enthusiastic participant in the avant garde film movement, putting her theories to good use in such European movie projects as Je Tu Il Elle (1974), Tout Une Nuit (1982), and Seven Women Seven Sins (1986).
In 1975, Akerman made her best-known and one of her most influential films, Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai de Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, a film that was barely shown in the U.S., but which generated considerable response in Europe. Filmed largely in real time, it was an over three-hour-long chronicle of mundane episodes from the daily life of a 40-year old woman who snaps when faced with intense emotion and commits a horrifying crime. This focus on activities and occurrences over traditional narrative and continuity is a typical feature of Akerman's films (the 1972 short Hotel Monterey consists entirely of shots of people walking in and out of a rundown New York hotel). She is also known for utilizing experimental compositions of light and architectural design, with detached, non sequitur soundtracks to underscore the "action." In 1996, Akerman made perhaps her most mainstream film to date, Un Divan a New York. A romantic comedy about an American psychoanalyst and a Parisian dancer who agree to switch apartments, it starred William Hurt and Juliette Binoche. Three years later, Akerman ventured to Jasper, Texas, where she made Sud, a documentary about the horrendous killing of James Byrd, Jr., an African-American man who was savagely murdered by three white men. The film was screened at that year's Cannes Film Festival.
| Title | Year | Editors' Rating | User Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Almayer's Folly
Director, Producer, Screenwriter |
2011 | |||
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La folie Almayer
Director |
2011 | |||
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40 x 15
Participant |
2008 | |||
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The State of the World
Cinematographer, Director |
2007 | |||
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Tomorrow We Move
Director, Screenwriter |
2004 | |||
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De l'autre cote
Cinematographer, Director, Screenwriter |
2002 | |||
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La Captive
Director, Screenwriter |
2000 | |||
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South
Director, Screenwriter |
1999 | |||
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A Couch In New York
Director, Screenwriter |
1996 | |||
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Chantal Akerman By Chantal Akerman
Director, Editor, Producer, Screenwriter |
1996 | |||
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Portrait d'une jeune fille de la fin des annees 60 a Bruxelles
Director, Screenwriter |
1994 | |||
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D'Est
Director |
1993 | |||
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Akermania, Vol. 1
Actor, Director |
1992 | |||
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Le Demenagement
Director |
1992 | |||
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Contre L'Oubli
Director |
1991 | |||
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Nuit et Jour
Director, Screenwriter |
1991 | |||
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Histoires D'Amerique
Director, Screenwriter |
1989 | |||
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Seven Women, Seven Sins
Director |
1987 | |||
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Golden Eighties
Director, Screenwriter, Songwriter |
1986 | |||
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Lettre d'un Cineaste
Director |
1984 | |||
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Paris Vu Par... 20 Ans Apres
Director, Screenwriter |
1984 | |||
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L'Homme à La Valise
Actor, Director, Screenwriter |
1983 | |||
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Les Années 80
Director, Screenwriter, Songwriter |
1983 | |||
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One Day Pina Asked Me
Director |
1983 | |||
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Toute Une Nuit
Director, Screenwriter |
1982 | |||
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5% de Risque
Actor |
1980 | |||
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Dis Moi
Director |
1980 | |||
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Les Rendez-Vous D'Anna
Director, Screenwriter |
1978 | |||
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News from Home
Actor, Director, Screenwriter |
1976 | |||
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Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
Director, Screenwriter, Voice |
1975 | |||
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Je Tu Il Elle
Actor, Director, Screenwriter |
1974 | |||
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Hotel Monterey
Director |
1972 | |||
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La Chambre
Director |
1972 | |||
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Saute Ma Ville
Actor, Director |
1968 |