Post by klep on Jan 30, 2017 7:50:17 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 1/30: Jeanne Dielman 23, Quai du Commerce 1080 Bruxelles
UNSEEN CLASSICS WEEK!
Routine. Routine is the way we structure our lives. Human beings love patterns, recognizing them and falling into them all the time, even when we shouldn't.
Routine. Routine is a comfort, a crutch. It is a way for us to cope with the world when we don't want to deal with it. We can retreat into sameness, following routines that don't change with the world around us. There is no introspection, there is only the thing that we do next.
Routine. Routine is a trap. We fall into routines and they start to justify themselves; we lose track of why we have the routine and can no longer escape it. Routines can prevent us from dealing with serious issues that crop up in our lives; we use routines to suppress them and avoid confronting our problems until they become too big to ignore.
Jeanne Dielman (Delphine Seyrig) breaks her routine abruptly towards the end of Chantal Akerman's brilliant second film. When it happens, it comes after we have spent over three hours watching her go through her day. We see her clean, run errands, cook, babysit, turn tricks, eat dinner with her son, and go to bed. We see her do chores in real-time. It's slow and tedious, but like a routine, it eventually becomes comforting to watch. Knowing what to expect, appreciating her efficiency, and seeing minor variations. Eventually we start to notice, however, that the appearance of stability may be masking disquiet in Jeanne's heart.
Jeanne is a widow, and a fiercely independent one. But it's not easy to be a single mother in a major city, and money is tight. Rather than take another husband just for financial stability, she has turned to sex work to keep the bills paid. It's not exactly something she's proud of - part of her routine is scrupulously hiding any trace by the time her son Sylvain (Jan Decorte) returns home; he's clearly unquestioningly oblivious to where her money comes from. She seems to have developed her routine in part to help her compartmentalize the sex work from the rest of the day.
But the cracks are there. We start to see them on the second day, when she realizes after a trick that she left the potatoes on too long and has no more. She has to run out to buy more instead of properly clean up, and her son notices her hair is messed up when he gets home. The next day similarly is thrown into turmoil, as she ends up being too early to a number of things and is left with time to just sit and face herself. Even the baby she minds for a few minutes won't cooperate, crying the whole time.
And then she stabs her trick.
It's not clear exactly why she stabs him in that moment; it's the first time we actually see her in bed with a man, so we can't know if something about that trick is unusual. Perhaps the orgasm he gives her is a violation of her independence, perhaps she's just fed up of what she has to do to maintain this life for her and her son. The only thing we do know is that her carefully constructed routine has been showing cracks, and the pressure it was containing has burst loose. As she sits at the dining room table, bloody, Jeanne placidly starts to smile.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 2/6: Eve's Bayou
WEEK ONE OF BLACK FILM MONTH
Our first film for Black Film Month will be Kasi Lemmons' Eve's Bayou, a story of forbidden love in the Deep South during Jim Crow. Join us next week as we talk about how no really, Samuel L. Jackson is a great dramatic actor and we just forget that sometimes because he enjoys camp so much too. Eve's Bayou is available for rent on Amazon Video, though it is not free for Prime members.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 1/24: The War Room
Next week the Next Picture Show podcast takes a look at a pair of political documentaries that bookend the last 25 years of American politics: The War Room and Weiner. On Wednesday we'll have a day to discuss the former, about the successful 1992 Clinton campaign. The War Room is available on Filmstruck's Criterion channel and for rent on Amazon Video, though it is not free for Prime members.
UNSEEN CLASSICS WEEK!
Routine. Routine is the way we structure our lives. Human beings love patterns, recognizing them and falling into them all the time, even when we shouldn't.
Routine. Routine is a comfort, a crutch. It is a way for us to cope with the world when we don't want to deal with it. We can retreat into sameness, following routines that don't change with the world around us. There is no introspection, there is only the thing that we do next.
Routine. Routine is a trap. We fall into routines and they start to justify themselves; we lose track of why we have the routine and can no longer escape it. Routines can prevent us from dealing with serious issues that crop up in our lives; we use routines to suppress them and avoid confronting our problems until they become too big to ignore.
Jeanne Dielman (Delphine Seyrig) breaks her routine abruptly towards the end of Chantal Akerman's brilliant second film. When it happens, it comes after we have spent over three hours watching her go through her day. We see her clean, run errands, cook, babysit, turn tricks, eat dinner with her son, and go to bed. We see her do chores in real-time. It's slow and tedious, but like a routine, it eventually becomes comforting to watch. Knowing what to expect, appreciating her efficiency, and seeing minor variations. Eventually we start to notice, however, that the appearance of stability may be masking disquiet in Jeanne's heart.
Jeanne is a widow, and a fiercely independent one. But it's not easy to be a single mother in a major city, and money is tight. Rather than take another husband just for financial stability, she has turned to sex work to keep the bills paid. It's not exactly something she's proud of - part of her routine is scrupulously hiding any trace by the time her son Sylvain (Jan Decorte) returns home; he's clearly unquestioningly oblivious to where her money comes from. She seems to have developed her routine in part to help her compartmentalize the sex work from the rest of the day.
But the cracks are there. We start to see them on the second day, when she realizes after a trick that she left the potatoes on too long and has no more. She has to run out to buy more instead of properly clean up, and her son notices her hair is messed up when he gets home. The next day similarly is thrown into turmoil, as she ends up being too early to a number of things and is left with time to just sit and face herself. Even the baby she minds for a few minutes won't cooperate, crying the whole time.
And then she stabs her trick.
It's not clear exactly why she stabs him in that moment; it's the first time we actually see her in bed with a man, so we can't know if something about that trick is unusual. Perhaps the orgasm he gives her is a violation of her independence, perhaps she's just fed up of what she has to do to maintain this life for her and her son. The only thing we do know is that her carefully constructed routine has been showing cracks, and the pressure it was containing has burst loose. As she sits at the dining room table, bloody, Jeanne placidly starts to smile.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 2/6: Eve's Bayou
WEEK ONE OF BLACK FILM MONTH
Our first film for Black Film Month will be Kasi Lemmons' Eve's Bayou, a story of forbidden love in the Deep South during Jim Crow. Join us next week as we talk about how no really, Samuel L. Jackson is a great dramatic actor and we just forget that sometimes because he enjoys camp so much too. Eve's Bayou is available for rent on Amazon Video, though it is not free for Prime members.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 1/24: The War Room
Next week the Next Picture Show podcast takes a look at a pair of political documentaries that bookend the last 25 years of American politics: The War Room and Weiner. On Wednesday we'll have a day to discuss the former, about the successful 1992 Clinton campaign. The War Room is available on Filmstruck's Criterion channel and for rent on Amazon Video, though it is not free for Prime members.