Fast Forward Theater: The Banality of Banal

JEANNE DIELMAN (1975) (C) - OK. I did it. Check it off the list. Chantal Akerman's foundational alt-cinema touchstone about three days of drudgery in the life of a Belgian widow clocks in at three hours and twenty minutes and dares you to sit through it. I did it, albeit often on fast forward because -- trust me on this -- you don't miss anything by zipping through Mme. Dielman (Delphine Seyrig) peeling potatoes, rolling a meatloaf, or folding laundry.

We admire Akerman, and three years ago we explored her work somewhat, including "Je Tu il Elle" and her farewell, "No Home Movie." (She died in 2015.) Forty-four years ago, it may have been a daring experiment to turn the camera's gaze (stare?) on a bored housewife, whose ennui extends to the perfunctory tricks she turns every afternoon with nerdy customers.

She lives with her young-adult son, Sylvain (Jan Decorte), who doesn't have much to say during painfully silent dinners but then gets all chatty about inappropriate sexual topics just before lights-out at bedtime. Is he signaling to Jeanne that he knows about her daytime activities while he's off at school? No clue.

Otherwise, Jeanne neatens the bed, prepares meal, takes tea breaks, does the shopping, fucks a gentleman caller, and reads letters from her sister, who is off living in America. Akerman and Seyrig gradually (very gradually) peel away a few layers of the character until we sense a restlessness and unhappiness. This builds (gradually) to a shocking event that is treated like another day in the life of Ms. Dielman. This might have been inspired, ironically, by Monty Python's "The Dull Life of a City Stockbroker," or it just might have been a cri de coeur from the depths of the feminist movement.