Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
Jeanne Dielman’s static framing, long takes, and eschewal of reverse shots force the viewer to objectively experience its protagonist and the oppressive female labor that is her daily routine. Akerman’s attention to images between the images requires the same attention of the film’s viewers—an attention appropriate to its content. Though the filmmaker’s static frame and extended-duration shots stem from structural cinema, Akerman’s application of these techniques to women’s domestic work is unique. The picture inverts normal filmic expectations by removing drama from emotional intensity and attaching it to long takes that would only be implied and elided in more standard cinematic presentation. Jeanne Dielman’s temporal dilation equalizes its exposition and drama to transform knowledge of an object—Jeanne’s oppression—into a vision of it
Bad jargon from Wikipedia. Image from Wikipedia.
