Filmmaker Chantal Akerman 1950-2015

Chantal Akerman, the revered Belgian-born director who died last Monday at age 65, was a pioneer of modern feminist cinema, a hyperrealist filmmaker, and a radical artist all at once.

She was inspired to make films as a teenager, after seeing Jean-Luc Godard's "Pierrot le Fou" (1965). The young aspiring filmmaker soon moved to New York City, where she became interested in the avant garde and experimental film scene of the 1960s, particularly the non-narrative works of artists such as Andy Warhol, Michael Snow and Jonas Mekas. They opened Akerman's eyes to film's diverse temporal possibilities, such as capturing events in real time or through extended duration, and the technique of the long take, both of which became tropes throughout her work.

From her meticulous examination of women's interior lives, to her reflections on the harsh materiality of post-war Europe, Akerman's extraordinary regard for the complex relationship that emerges between temporality, the body, and the moving image manifests singularly throughout her oeuvre.

"She had a horror of clichés and neat formulations," wrote Kent Jones, Director of the New York Film Festival. "It seems to me that she was always trying to wriggle out of the straitjacket of such size-ups and classifications as feminist, structuralist, leftist, or 'essentially' Jewish, even when they were made in her favor."

Akerman's death was announced as her last film, "No Home Movie," a portrait of her dying mother, made its U.S. debut this week at the New York Film Festival.

In honor of Akerman's impressive career we highlight five of her most notable works. (Click through to watch clips.) Also, through October 20, a selection of Akerman's films from the Criterion Collection may be streamed for free online at hulu.com.

​"Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles"

Akerman's most widely-known film, "Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles" (1975), boasts a running time of a little less than three-and-a-half hours. It follows the actions of its eponymous protagonist (played by Delphine Seyrig), a 1960s, post-World War II-era widowed Belgian housewife, mother, and clandestine prostitute. Unfolding in a series of static, real-time long takes containing repetitious actions, the narrative spans the course of three days, each day consuming approximately one hour of screen time, during which the spectator becomes privy to the banality of Jeanne's daily routines and commonplace everyday life. However, on the third day, something unruly enters the domestic space, leaving routine unforgettably shattered.

In this 2009 interview from the Criterion Collection (below), Akerman recalls conceiving "Jeanne Dielman."

​"News from Home"

"News from Home" (1977) is a personal documentary in which Akerman reflects on the time she spent as a teenager living in New York City. The film consists of observational long takes capturing different locations in Manhattan, set to the soundtrack of Akerman's voiceover as she recites a series of letters her mother had sent her between 1971 and 1973.

​"D'Est"

"D'Est (From the East)" (1993) recounts an expedition through Eastern Europe from the end of summer to deep winter. The compelling cinematic journey captures cities, surfaces, landscapes and faces to illuminate a diverse spectrum of quotidian life.

"Je Tu Ill Elle"

Chantal Akerman's audacious first feature, "Je Tu Ill Elle (I, You, He, She)" (1975), centers on an aimless young woman (played by Akerman) navigating the space of a self-imposed isolation.

The film sets the stage for Akerman's career-long exploration of selfhood, temporality and the often-hazy lines separating interior from exterior, fact from fiction and the real world from the one living inside the film frame.

​"Là-Bas"

"Là-Bas (Down There)" (2006), the César-nominated documentary, is a self-portrait that ruminates on stillness and the suspension of time and memory. Akerman reflects on the traumas of the Holocaust and her family's Jewish history from a claustrophobic apartment in Tel Aviv.

The entirety of the film consists of static point-of-view long takes that capture the movement and bustling life in the Israeli city.