Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce 1080 Bruxelles

1975 Directed by Chantal Akerman

A lonely widowed housewife does her daily chores, takes care of her apartment where she lives with her teenage son, and turns the occasional trick to make ends meet. Slowly, her ritualized daily routines begin to fall apart.

Delphine Seyrig Jan Decorte Henri Storck Jacques Doniol-Valcroze Yves Bical

Alternative Title

Jeanne Dielman, 23 Rue du Commerce

drama

201 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by IHE ★★★½ 26

Adam was right, I can’t stop thinking about it. A boring, frustrating, painful experience of a movie that is also kind of brilliant. A unique film you should check out if you’re willing to be bored out of your mind for nearly 3 and a half hours.
Review by nathaxnne (hiatus) ★★★★★ 18

Like is usually the case with these sorts of things, the day-to-day maintenance operations of and for the patriarchal state are performed almost entirely by women. As the subjugated, enslaved class, they engaged in the preprogrammed routinized, menial labor without which the patriarchy could not be. The entire physical and psycho-emotional substrate of the apparatus of their oppression is entirely dependent upon their daily activities. Women are responsible for all custodial, caretaking tasks in support of male supremacy: cooking, cleaning, education, rearing, procreation, sexual gratification, etc. What is more, the evacuation of autonomy, of personal time, of personal thought, with the burden of near-constant routine action, is a (the?) primary modality of patriarchal oppression. 'Jeanne Dielman' is not about revolution…
Review by Karsten Runquist ★★★★★ 67

I did it, I watched it, fuck!
I first heard about this film in high school and have ever since been reading things about it and waiting for the "right day" to watch it. For some reason today was that day. As much as I have read and known about this film, actually experiencing it myself was kind of surreal. Like I knew what to expect but I didn't expect for it to send me into the state it sent me in. I'm not about to be the Man on Letterboxd explaining his interpretation of this film so I'm just gonna say I loved it, it's genius, and that's that.
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Review by Sally Jane Black 8

I don't know why the routine that is depicted on the first day is taken as routine. I watched it and assumed that this rigid human being would adhere to this routine, even though each subsequent day is slightly (or drastically) different. The film succeeds in making it feel like a routine so thoroughly that the changes that come in the next two days are sharply distinct. Those static camera angles and the eerie flickering neon lights that pervade the house at night make the film seem harsh and predestined to some sort of apocalypse, and they reinforce the tight control Jeanne seems to cling to.
Jeanne seems to be in a state of self-denial, constantly moving, working to keep…
Review by FernandoFCroce ★★★★★ 1

Habit, "the most imperious of all masters," analyzed six ways from Sunday as a time bomb with a 201-minute-long fuse. Bressonian lampoons of Julia Child cooking shows, a masterpiece of absences, a prisoner polishing the bars of her own cage until a missed hour causes the universe to shift. Far from a release, orgasm is the ultimate loss of control.
Review by Sam Adams ★★★★★ 2

A movie that makes you physically start because its protagonist drops a potato.

Recent reviews

Review by Diego ★★★★

I feel so empty after watching this.
Review by andyfang

excruciating...this will sit with me for a loooong time
Review by Alyssa Bondoc ★★½

Critical Approaches to Screen Studies
Week 9: Feminist Theory
Review by Stephen Dorney ★★★★

[viewed at Cork Film Festival 2019]
Is domestication as horrid as the 9-to-5 drudgery? No matter the situation we are an animal fixed on the sadistic urge for self-destruction. In Chantal Akerman's feminist statement every footstep is a trudge-like plod; every dish washed is a monumental chore; every errand is a perpetual, repeating, unending task; every converse so banal and drab. If you didn't want to reach out and offer Jeanne (Delphine Seyrig) a helping hand, you're lying or too terrified to enter that world so many women were a part of, and still are now.
Review by yantagrafemas ★★★★★

Schrödinger's kitchen chair
Review by azra ★★★★

I thought my ADHD brain would hate this, but I truly appreciate the pace of this film and the overall narrative
Review by BO J ★★★★

I like the concept. A housewife in real time who has a breakdown or breakout, depending on your perspective. I watched at 2x the speed. Loved the composition of the shots and the color pastel color palette. Reminded me of the static shots and squares in Tokyo Story
Review by Ukodus ★★★★

Hægt væri að líta á þessa kvikmynd sem einskonar systur Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962, Agnès Varda). Báðar fjallar þær um konur sem þurfa að takast á við lífið í ákveðnu öfgaástandi. Varda sýnir tvo klukkutíma í lífi Cléo er hún þarf að takast á við það að hún sé mögulega með krabbamein, á meðan Akerman sýnir þrjá daga í lífi Jeanne og er það hversdagsleikurinn í lífi hennar sem er öfgakenndur. Á meðan Varda sýnir tvo mikilvægustu klukkutíma í lífi Cléo, sýnir Akerman þrjá ómerkilegustu daga í lífi Jeanne. Akerman sýnir allt það sem Jeanne gengur í gegnum frá morgni til kvölds er hún lifir sínu hversdagslega lífi algjörlega óháð því hvort að það sé spennandi eða ekki.…
Review by Claire ★★★★★

I've searched for this film since 1978 when it was shown on my college campus.
It Really affected me. I was 17 and ardent. But it was the quotidian grind that blew my mind. It's not that I wasn't aware of these things it was exactly as I imagine she intended: boring.
But. I adored the method of her Showing it. The squirming I did watching it.
I'm so over the moon I finally figured out what it was called.
Get this. I remembered it as a Short film doing that cartoon trick of just showing an adult woman from the shoes to the waist.
Yeah try and Google That Wrong!!