Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman has died at the age of 65. Akerman’s death was confirmed by her sister and Royal Belgian Film Archive director Nicola Mazzanti; though there is no official confirmation, the French newspaper Le Monde is reporting that the cause of death was suicide.
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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”.
The Toronto Film Festival described her influence in a statement: “Daring, original, uncompromising and in all ways radical, Akerman revolutionized the history of cinema not only with her masterpiece ‘Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, ‘ but also with the sustained urgency of her brilliance”. An actress and a theorist, Akerman cast herself as the star of her first feature Je Tu Illinois Elle, which she made before Jeanne Dielman, but which saw release after it. Among her other films were Joseph Conrad adaptation “Almayer’s Folly”, Marcel Proust adaptation “The Captive“, “News From Home” and “A Whole Night”. It featured several of the long, still takes she became known for, seeing a middle-aged widow going about domestic tasks in a claustrophobic Brussels flat. Her latest, No Home Movie, will soon play this year’s New York Film Festival.
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Those new to Akerman’s work are advised to watch the below interview, conducted by filmmaker Ricky D’Ambrose in 2013.
