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…

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…

"Your hair's a mess."
"I cooked the potatoes too long."

When this was introduced, we (the audience) were told that if we feel bored, that's entirely by design. I see what he (the presenter) was getting at, and I'm sure he's completely correct, but I can't say that I ever felt bored while watching this. Certainly not bored in the way that doing the very activities depicted onscreen (cleaning dishes, making beds, having liaisons with strange and unappealing men) make me feel. A character like this, played with as much subtlety as Delphine Seyrig gives her, presented in this way could not be boring.

There's repetition, monotony, tedium, yes, but there's so much to take in. There is purpose and,…

So this is one of the greatest movies of all time exactly beacause it is like smashing through a brick wall with your bare fists. I fucking hated watching Jeanne Dielman, I was bored out of my fucking mind. And through that boredom, through that anger, Chantal Akerman, the sly devil, allowed me to fully empathise with her main character. Jeanne Dielman I think shows the greatest case for how important it is to view a movie as a whole, that includes the time it was made in. You need to understand who this movie was for. The film was a silently deafening scream for help. It was showing a mirror into a world that so many of its viewers…

Giving this movie 5 stars makes me feel exactly like one of the typical pretentious film snobs I constantly make fun of but I really can't imagine giving this anything lower (except maybe 4.5). It IS boring and it IS mundane yet once I got sucked in I found it hard to look away, even when my mind wandered I was thinking of nothing other than Jeanne and her life, her reality and her future. Depression (melancholy, unhappiness, discontent, whatever you want to call it) is not always readily apparent - what seems like a woman doing her daily routine can be revealed to be something much more tragic once you're forced to look closely enough and that's exactly what…