Chantal Akerman Biography
Independent filmmaker noted for her minimalist narratives and static visual style. Inspired by Godard’s Pierrot le Fou, she took on a variety of odd jobs to finance her first film, Saute ma Ville / Blow Up My City (1968), a black-and-white short that drew belated attention at the 1971 Oberhausen Festival. She spent much of 1972 in New York, living in the East Village, working as a cashier at a porno movie theatre, among other occupations, and associating with the city’s experimental filmmakers. She has since returned to the US periodically to get “re-energized” and engage in filmmaking projects, but has been working mostly in Europe. Her films, often dramatically vague and nearly plotless, typically seek to explore human emotion and character through unorthodox cinematic means. Although she is admired by serious critics, her films are barely accessible to general audiences.
SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY
Je tu il elle (Belgium 1974)
Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Belgium 1975)
Les Rendez-vous d’Anna (France/Belgium 1978)
Toute une nuit (France/Belgium 1982)
Nuit et jour / Night and Day (France 1991)
D’est / From the East (France/Belgium 1993)
Portrait d’une jeune fille de la fin des années 60 à Bruxelles / Portrait of a Young Girl at the End of the 1960s in Brussels (France 1994)
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