March 4th, 2015
6PM
@ Alamo Drafthouse at the Ritz
320 East 6th Street, Austin, TX 78701 (map)
$10.25 (BUY TICKETS)
In a small apartment in Brussels lives Jeanne Dielman (Delphine Seyrig), a middle-aged widow, mother, homemaker, and prostitute whose existence is dominated by routine – the preparation of meals, the running of errands, visits from her clients, and evenings with her teenage son Sylvain (Jan Decorte) – until the cracks start to show. As towering a cinematic landmark as L’avventura or Weekend, Jeanne Dielman is a singular blend of feminism, modernism, and the avant-garde whose hypnotic rhythms and rigorous attention to detail make for a riveting, unforgettable experience.
Experimental Response Cinema and the Alamo Drafthouse at the Ritz are excited to present a 35mm print of this legendary film. Programmed by Ekrem Serdar. Introduced by Jason Cortlund (Now, Forager, senior programmer of the former Cinematexas festival).
Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles by Chantal Akerman
201 min / 35mm / sound / 1975
“A landmark film of any stripe … shot, lit, and framed with care. There’s still nothing quite like it.” – Nicolas Rapold, Nextbook
“Severe yet majestic … Nothing can quite prepare the first-time viewer for the force of Ms. Akerman’s concentration, for the film’s overwhelming concreteness or the horrifying logic of its ending.” – Dennis Lim, The New York Times
“[SIX STARS – highest rating] … Who wants to see an avant-garde feminist masterpiece, other than feminists and the avant-garde? You should. Chantal Akerman’s 1975 movie is still massively important … Jeanne Dielman is immersion cinema, a brilliant example of maximal minimalism that fuses viewer with subject so profoundly, the marathon experience transcends simple spectatorship.” – Stephen Garrett, Time Out New York
“Puts time onscreen as it was never seen before … a chillingly sardonic feminist fable.” – Richard Brody, The New Yorker
“A structuralist-materialist-feminist monument in transfigured time … epochal.” – J. Hoberman, The Village Voice
“Jeanne Dielman’s inversion of the accepted relationship between art and life opens up new cinematic textures and areas of contemplation. Its blue-moon repertory screenings become something very like a pilgrimage.” – Mark Asch, The L Magazine
“One of the towering masterpieces of modern cinema.” – Nelson Kim, Hammer to Nail
“A central work of the post-Nouvelle Vague European art film … meticulously observed.” – George Robinson, The Jewish Week
“There is no better shorthand tactic for making you, dear reader, feel the urgency of getting your head out of your Netflix queue and running to the theater to see Jeanne Dielman than to invoke the sacred Kane. Indeed, both films are not merely masterpieces but also landmark works.” – Amy Taubin, Artforum
“A significant achievement … it should (indeed, must) be seen on a big screen, in a theater, to get any measure of the proper effect, and the enveloping impact of Akerman’s vision and Seyrig’s performance.” – Bruce Eder, The Allmovie Blog