33° TORINO FILM FESTIVAL
TFFDOC/EVENTI SPECIALI

CHANTAL AKERMAN PAR CHANTAL AKERMAN

by Chantal Akerman
Country: France
Year: 1996
Duration: 64'


Contacted to make an episode of the series Cinéastes de notre temps, Chantal Akerman proposed the names of various filmmakers she admired: but all the directors she mentioned had already been taken, so she suggested herself as the subject of her own film. This is the genesis of a self-portrait made of monologues about her own work and philosophy, and of edited clips from films of hers, such as Jeanne Dielman, Saute ma ville, Hôtel Monterey, Histoires d’Amerique, Toute une nuit, Portrait d’une jeune fille de la fin des années 60 à Bruxelles and Les années 80.

Biography

film director

Chantal Akerman

Chantal Akerman (Brussels, Belgium, 1950 - Paris, France, 2015), one of the most important avant-garde and feminist directors of the 1970s, got her start in film at fifteen years of age, after seeing Pierrot le Fou by Godard. She debuted in 1968 with Saute ma ville, which was followed in 1972 by La chambre and Hôtel Monterey and in 1974 by Je, tu, il, elle. She moved to New York, where she frequented artists such as Jonas Mekas, Andy Warhol and Stan Brackage. In 1975 she directed her best-known film, Jeanne Dielman, 23, rue du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles. Over the years, she has traversed countries and genres with movies such as Golden Eighties (1986), D’Est (1983), Un divan à New York (1996), La Captive (2000, presented at the Torino Film Festival), and La folie Almayer (2011). Her final film, No Home Movie (2015), was presented at the last Locarno Film Festival. 

FILMOGRAFIA

Saute, ma ville (cm, 1968), L'Enfant aimé (cm, 1971), Hôtel Monterey (1972), La Chambre (1972), Hanging Out Yonkers (1973), Le 15/8 (1973), Je, tu, il, elle (1974), Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975), News from Home (1977), Les Rendez-vous d'Anna (1978), Toute une nuit (Tutta una notte, 1982), Les années 80 (1983), Paris vu par… Vingt ans aprés (1984), New York, New York Bis (1984), La Paresse (1986), Le Marteau (1986), Mallet-Stevens (1986), Letters Home (1986), Golden Eighties (1986), Seven Women, Seven Sins (1987), Histoires d'Amerique (1988), Trois strophes sur le nom de Sacher (1989), Trois dernieres sonate de Franz Schubert (1989), Contre l'oubli (1991), Nuit et jour (1991), D'Est (1993), Portrait d'une jeune fille de la fin des années '60 a Bruxelles (1994), Un divano a New York (Un divan à New York, 1996), Sud (1999), La Captive (2000).

Declaration

film director

“I said to myself, ‘I’m a director of our times, I’ll make the movie about myself, a director of our times; it will be a sort of self-portrait.’ And the best way to make a self-portrait is to talk about my movies, to treat them like rushes to edit in order to make a new film. Which would be, in fact, my self-portrait. I talked about it with the directors of the series and they said yes, as long as I appeared in it myself and talked about myself. And that’s when the problems began.” 

Cast

& Credits

regia/director
Chantal Akerman
fotografia/cinematography
Raymond Fromont, Philippe Gilles
montaggio/film editing
Claire Atherton
suono/sound
Xavier Vauthrin
produttori/producers
Janine Bazin, André S. Labarthe
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