Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles

Jeanne Dielman is a movie made in 1975 by Chantal Akerman. The film has two distinct sides for me. One of them is its cruelly realistic portrayal of the life of a widow in her forties. The second is its unbearable length and dullness. Probably, most people from the 21st century cannot stand to watch this movie in one sitting. Despite being more patient than most people, I myself could not watch it all at once. That is why I first watched the first two hours of the film one day and finished the rest the next day.You may ask: why is it so long and boring? What is it about?

It is about a woman, Jeanne Dielman, who lives in Belgium with her son. At first, we see a man coming into the house, and he goes to a room with Jeanne. When they come out, the man gives money to Jeanne and says, "I will see you next Thursday" . You may find me too naive, but I thought that man was her husband, and because of his job, he could only visit once a week. But obviously, that was not the case. After the second man, I understood that Jeanne was a sex worker but also a mother and a widow.

The movie begins with Jeanne's daily life. She performs her chores with incredible care and order: she prepares dinner for her son, sleeps, wakes up, prepares breakfast, gets her son's shoes and clothes ready, sends him to school, does the housework, goes grocery shopping or visits the shoemaker to get her son’s shoes fixed, comes back home, and does more chores. Then, another man visits and pays her. In short, the movie is like a real documentary of a woman's daily routine. However, on the second day, this woman’s extraordinarily ordinary life begins to change. After she realizes that she has overcooked the potatoes and that there is only one potato left in the house, her face looks devastated.

When watching this movie, one thing that caught my attention was that there was almost no conversation in Jeanne's life. She tries to talk with her son, but he does not seem talkative. The scenes where her son does speak are generally devastating for Jeanne. In one scene, the son talks about how he cannot stand the idea of his parents making love and how he wanted to kill himself and his father because of that thought. He even says that he lied to his father, claiming he was afraid of sleeping alone, to make sure his parents would not be intimate. That was the longest speech of the son and probably tore Jeanne’s heart apart, as she is actually a sex worker—even though her son does not know this.

The final scene of the movie probably surprised everyone who watched it because Jeanne kills one of the men she lies down with. After watching this movie, I realized that all women carry a burden on their shoulders, no matter where they are in the world. I could relate to Jeanne’s state of mind even though I am not a widow, do not have a child, and have never been married. It is clear, however, that it was far more difficult for a woman to stand strong on her own in the past, especially if she was also obliged to care for a child both mentally and economically.

If you are a patient cineaste, I would suggest this movie. You will not only see a woman’s daily life in all its harsh reality but also witness the perfect acting and beauty of Delphine Seyrig. Have fun watching!