Synopsis
A young girl comes back home, shuts herself away in her apartment, goes about her business in a strange way, hums as if she was mad, polishes her shoes and her legs as well, throws her cat out of the window and ... kills herself.
Blow Up My Town
1968 ‘Saute ma ville’ Directed by Chantal Akerman
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In 1965 Chantal Akerman saw Pierrot Le Fou and decided that night she was going to be a filmmaker so it comes as no real surprise that her first short feels very inspired by Godard's work in the sixties. It's a little frantic in a way and Akerman almost personifies a Karina-esque character toiling away in her kitchen for the night. Where it gets a little weird and distant from those early Godard inspirations is where it takes up some of the same themes that are visible in second wave feminist filmmaking in this time period. It almost recalls Daisies brash feminism without the visual circus of Chytilova's picture. She would toil away in her kitchen, rebelling more and more…
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CW: feminism, suicide, mental health
It's sad knowing that there are still people who would argue against this film's sentiment. Second wave defiance that eats a poor kitty along with it, a disorderly breakdown of urban European domesticity, this film gradually but not slowly, loudly but not violently peels away normality, each new chore shedding yet more reason until she is taping up the doors, no longer bearing any resemblance to household chores. This breakdown is less a depiction of mental distress and more a gob of spit in the eye of expectation, ending in darkness. My main objection is the use of the Plathian exit; it feels like a cheap shock. At its time, perhaps an opening cinematic salvo…
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I'd never seen anything by Chantal Akerman before - I'd been put off by her difficult reputation, which is what happens when your signature film is nearly three and a half hours long. From what I understand of Jeanne Dielman, this twelve-minute short is an early exploration of the same idea; the use of apparently banal, unremarkable scenes from a woman's life to create a cumulative portrait of her despair.
After watching Blow Up My Town I watched this 2011 interview with Akerman. I could identify with a lot of what she said, particularly when I learned she got into film as a teenager. When you get into films as a teenager rather than a kid, your tastes follow a…
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"Saute Ma Ville is the mirror image of Jeanne Dielman"
-Chantal Akerman"In Jeanne Dielman there is a woman who lives her life through rituals. She cooks and cleans every single day. It's mechanical, perfectly shaped and fills her life with purpose. When there are slight breaks in those tasks the woman of that film begins to fracture. Jeanne Dielman shows a structure to live in. Saute Ma Ville seeks to destroy those structures."
Read the entire piece over at Curtsies and Hand Grenades
curtsiesandhandgrenades.blogspot.ca/2015/10/female-filmmaker-project-saute-ma-ville.html -
Surprised I enjoyed it as much as I did. Chantal was a gentle and beautiful soul, as well as a genius filmmaker. I am now determined to see more of her work.
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A slice of absurdist domestic feminism from Chantal Akerman. Even at thirteen minutes it's a tad repetitive for its abrupt ending, but if you begin to get distracted or annoyed at the obvious, intentionally obnoxious soundtrack, asynchronous with the images of Akerman doing mundane things around the house, the final shot is sure to bring you back. A clear influence on the work of Catherine Breillat, I'm told this is a notable precursor to Akerman's career high, Jeanne Dielman. I'm not able to really comment on that, except to say that I cannot wait to watch it.
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Surprised I enjoyed it as much as I did. Chantal was a gentle and beautiful soul, as well as a genius filmmaker. I am now determined to see more of her work.
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Apesar deste curta ser um espelho para o Jeanne Dielmann, ele é ao mesmo tempo um igual e um oposto, especialmente porque se trata de uma jovem que dá um basta às convenções de forma anárquica que contrasta com o tipo de submissão feminina encontrada na geração anterior que é o foco da Dielmann. Em todo caso toda a revolta feminina contra o status quo vem à tona no final de forma explosiva, uma até literal.
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18-year-old Chantal Akerman’s first film shows the way to Jeanne Dileman, but mix in a heavy dollop of Zazie. “Zazie dans son appartement” would have been an apt title. It’s an amateur effort but fascinating to see the focus that would yield her formalist epic.
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