All The Lonely People: Chantal Akerman’s Les Rendez-vous d’Anna (1978)

Chantal Akerman’s first series of features in the 1970s have one defining aspect in common: all are suffused with loneliness. In her first fiction feature, Je Tu Il Elle (1974), a character wanders between lovers old and new but is always confused as to what she really wants. In Jeanne Dielman, 23 Commerce Quay, 1080 Brussels (1975), we follow a woman trapped in the monotony of … Continue reading All The Lonely People: Chantal Akerman’s Les Rendez-vous d’Anna (1978)

News From Home (1976-77) And The Transience Of Family – Chantal Akerman.

A dialectic commentary of personal history is presented in Chantal Akerman’s News From Home (1976-77); a feature length cinematic experiment that seems born of cathartic necessity rather than simply creative ambition.  Akerman had been working her way up throughout the 1970s and News From Home was made after her critical appreciation had grown, largely thanks to the impossible-to-ignore vigour of her 1975 film, Jeanne Dielman, … Continue reading News From Home (1976-77) And The Transience Of Family – Chantal Akerman.