Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles

Last night Jennifer and I went to Wexner for Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles. It's the screening of a new 35mm print. Jennifer invited me earlier this week. I got really excited when I saw that the film was 201-min long. When it comes to films, I am a sadist. I like really long films and I like challenging my own limit. So far my record stays 4 hours for a single film and 24 hours for a film marathon.

The film was magnificent. It is one of those master pieces that make me want to write a big fat paper on it. As a big film nerd, even the idea of watching a film like this for many times, taking notes and elaborating on the greatness of the picture turns me on.

-film spoiler alert-

The film tells the story of 3 days in a woman's life. Jeanne is a widow living with her son who is a student in school She prostitutes herself at home everyday to make a living and leaves her son in the dark. The first day, she lives as the machine she's always lived. (In my opinion) because of the short yet intense conversation between Jeanne and her son about whether one can and/or should make love with someone they're not in love with, her life starts to change. The machine that runs her body is out of order, starting with her overcooking potatos. Jeanne keeps screwing up more and more things in her life. On the second night, her son had another short yet intense conversation with her about his growing knowledge of sex intercourse and his earlier sexual fantasies over Jeanne. Jeanne's third day is aggravated by an out-of-stock condom vending machine. Later on the day, she experiences a sexual awakening during sex and kills the man-to-fuck of the day afterwards. Then she sits in front of her dinning table. At this point, I'm sure every audience is wondering how the film is going to conclude. Is her son coming home? Is she going to kill herself?...I looked at my watch. There were 5 minutes left till the time the film's supposed to end. For an over-3-hour film that tells a 3-day story, I knew that was it. The film ended with her sitting in front of the dinning table, her hands and shirt having blood on them, and a slight smile of relief appearing on her never-had-an-expression face.

It sounds like a very long and boring film, except for the ending which probably woke up many half-asleep audience. Three hours of a woman who and whose life are even more boring than bare bricks. There's barely any dialogue, or for that matter sound, in the film. However, we were all very absorbed by the extremely well-crafted details. The film is like a big puzzle. Like Hitckcockian suspense, the film intrigues us with an over peaceful face. You know there's more beneath it. You know something is going to happen, so you wait, with great patience and interest. Even though things begin to change from half way, but only in a very subtle fashion. So when Jeanne stabs her scissors into the man, everyone is shocked. Imagine an orgasm after a 3-hour foreplay. That's how mind-blowing the ending is.

The cinematography of the film is pristine. On the first day and a half, when everything is ''normal", every shot is an established shot, very well framed and very patient. Once things start going wrong, shots become cutting-edge and anxious. Shots are still long, the change is not dramatic, but as subtle as the change in Jeanne's body. Jeanne's face is never clear before and after her sex deal with different men, either in the dark or cut out of the frame. Only on the third day can we see her face while she's having sex. It's a high-angle shot which clearly shows all her facial expressions and body movement. This is the moment her body and mind awake and come into light.

Chantal Akerman is a female director, and Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles is obviously a feminist film. The awakening of identity (or whatever) of women has been part of French cinema history forever. This film slowly and thoroughly digests its feminism theme through several motives: clock, room(closure/space), machine, processing, cleansing...all of which are very connected yet strong on their own.

After the screening, Jennifer, Catherine, me and another girl whose name I don't quite remember, went to a cafe for some chitchat. This is why I love Jennifer. She left her husband, her one-year old son and her 4 cats home and hung out with 3 single girls at a cafe after midnight. It was a Friday night. Party people were everywhere. We were probably the nerdiest bunch. At the cafe, we talked about the film and joked about it too: how retarded Jeanne's son looks; how Jeanne and her son look like a sexless old married couple; how the baby cried like an old wild cat, blah blah blah. It was so much fun! Master pieces like this, you have to take it with a grain of salt.