At the center of Chantal Akerman’s enormous body of work was her mother, a Holocaust survivor who married and raised a family in Brussels.
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The minister responsible for francophone culture, Joelle Milquet, lauded “her abundant output which covered documentaries and fiction, often experimental and without concessions, which will have its place in world cinema”.
News of the filmmaker’s unexpected death was revealed in European newspapers including Liberation and Figaro in France, and comes after Akerman last month debuted her latest film, No Home Movie, at the Locarno Film Festival. It was, however, the almost 3 ½ hour Jeanne Dielman-a mesmerizing portrait of a Belgian woman, played by Delphine Seyrig, as she goes through her daily routines-that established her on the worldwide film scene.
Other notable titles in her filmography include “I, You, He, She” (1976), “News from Home” (1976), “Les Rendez-vous d’Anna” (1979), “Nuit et jour” (1991) and “D’est” (1993).
The New York Times described Jeanne Dielman as “the first masterpiece of the feminine in the history of the cinema”. She took a more commercial approach in 1996’s “A Couch in New York”, which starred Juliette Binoche and William Hurt.
The date and cause are not yet known, according to the New York Times.
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Akerman’s work influenced directors, including Todd Haynes, Sally Potter and Michael Haneke.
