One of the real masterworks of modern cinema is Belgian and has the quite blunt title of JEANNE DIELMAN, 23 QUAI DU COMMERCE, 1080 BRUXELLES. Director Chantal Akerman was was only 25, in 1975, when she captured (with an all female crew) this three-hour-and-20-minute film about three days in the life of a widow, mother and prostitute. Akerman follows Jeanne Dielmans day to day rituals: washing, straightening, cooking and turning on and off the lights when she enters a room. Her son comes home, they have dinner, they take a walk, she puts on the radio and knits. But during the day she has gentleman in and turns tricks, leading to an inevitable crack in Jeanne’s facade. It’s both a structuralist triumph and a stunning indictment of society’s gender roles. Read the rest of this entry »