Shownotes Transcript
And thus the people who started this podcast to review the AFI's Top 100 Lists have now made a point of talking about the Sight & Sound list. S&S critics ranked Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles in the #1 spot last December, which is the main reason we committed 200 minutes to watch it...let alone decided to review it. Ryan went on a passionate rant about their controversial Top 100, which led to a pretty heated debate about the merits of this lugubrious motion picture and other "women who suffer" films. Not that Jeanne Dielman doesn't find a way to draw you in. Chantal Akerman's feminist look at a widowed mother who lives a dull, repetitive life with her son is Ozu-like in its shot compositions, the unmoving camera and the (very) long takes. We watch process---do we ever---and not much happens as we see Delphine Seyrig go about her routine...until her entire world is rocked. And what causes it to be rocked? Invest a solid hour in our review of an acclaimed example of "slow cinema" in this 531st Have You Ever Seen podcast.
A follow-up thought: a problem with the Sight & Sound list that wasn't quite put into clear words in this review is that Ryan just doesn't think a lot of the movies they honoured are, well, good enough. To like them or get some meaning out of films that weren't made by or for a straight, white male is very valid, but for enough people to feel so strongly as to put them on their own Top 10 is a mind-boggler. Also, is Jeanne Dielman rewatchable? That's something we didn't get into. Is this a movie you want to see again and again?
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