Sightlines · reception

How Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles was received

1976 · Chantal Akerman · Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles on Sightlines

The arc

Hailed at its 1975 Cannes debut as 'the first masterpiece of the feminine in the history of cinema' but long confined to art-house and academic circles, it stunned everyone in 2022 by topping the Sight and Sound poll — dethroning Vertigo as the official Greatest Film of All Time.

What’s debated

Since the Sight and Sound crowning, film fans endlessly relitigate whether a 201-minute film of domestic routine can really be #1 — Paul Schrader publicly grumbled about the result, and 'is it a masterpiece or a endurance test?' remains the fight.

Its footprint

The potato-peeling scene is the film's endlessly referenced image — shorthand for slow cinema itself — and after the 2022 poll it became a genuine Letterboxd meme, with reviewers timing their own chores against Jeanne's.

Where it stands

Once a feminist-canon deep cut you had to seek out, it's now the ultimate 'you must have seen this' — the first film directed by a woman to top the Sight and Sound all-time poll.

Did you know? Chantal Akerman was only 24 when she made it, working with a largely female crew including cinematographer Babette Mangolte, and starring French art-cinema icon Delphine Seyrig.

Named by the director

• Michael Snow — Akerman repeatedly credited discovering Snow's structural films in New York with transforming her sense of duration and the fixed frame, the formal approach that shaped Jeanne Dielman.

A Deleuzian reading of Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles →