Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)

A magnificent epic of experimental cinema offering a feminist perspective on recurrent events of everyday life.

Such a sudden shake-up at the top of Sight and Sound’s ten-yearly poll! Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) heads the 2022 list. No other film made by a woman has ever even reached the top ten. In the first instance, this is unsurprising: women film directors have always, obviously, been few and far between; equally obviously, the contributing critics have been predominantly male. It was when Sight and Sound expanded the critics’ pool in 2012 that Jeanne Dielman first entered the list, at number 35; its rise to the top now is a triumph for women’s cinema.

But perhaps the ultimate surprise goes even further: the film that collected the most votes in 2022 is made with a cinematic style and strategy closer to avantgarde than mainstream traditions and, furthermore, at just under three and a half hours, demands dedicated viewing. Although confrontational, idiosyncratic and extraordinary films have consistently appeared lower in the lists, the experimental tradition, to which Jeanne Dielman belongs, is – apart perhaps from the recent appearance of Dziga Vertov’s Man with a Movie Camera (1929) – absent. While it has brought this tradition to the top of the list, Jeanne Dielman is inescapably a woman’s film, consciously feminist in its turn to the avant garde. On the side of content, the film charts the breakdown of a bourgeois Belgian housewife, mother and part-time prostitute over the course of three days; on the side of form, it rigorously records her domestic routine in extended time and from a fixed camera position. In a film that, agonisingly, depicts women’s oppression, Akerman transforms cinema, itself so often an instrument of women’s oppression, into a liberating force.

Read the full article by Laura Mulvey

1975 Belgium, France
Directed by
Chantal Akerman
Produced by
Evelyne Paul, Corinne Jenart
Written by
Chantal Akerman
Featuring
Delphine Seyrig, Jan Decorte, Henri Storck
Running time
201 minutes

Ranked in The Greatest Films of All Time poll

Sight and Sound

Who voted for Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles

Critics

Neta Alexander
USA
Jonathan Ali
UK
Mubarak Ali
New Zealand
Thomas Allenbach
Switzerland
Nirit Anderman
Israel
Fábio Andrade
Brazil
Dudley Andrew
USA
Mallory Andrews
Canada
Ina Archer
USA
Luke Aspell
UK
Alejandro Bachmann
Austria
Cameron Bailey
Canada
Rose Baker
UK
Miriam Bale
USA
Charles Barr
UK
Cecilia Barrionuevo
Argentina
Adam Batty
UK
Robert Beeson
UK
Kaushik Bhaumik
India
Ela Bittencourt
USA/Brazil
Leonardo Bomfim
Brazil
Bernd Brehmer
Germany
Richard Brody
USA
Hannes Brühwiler
Germany/Switzerland
Colin Burnett
USA
Andreas Busche
Germany
Esther Buss
Germany
Dan Callahan
USA
Max Carpenter
US
Lauren Carroll Harris
Australia
Jenny Chamarette
UK
Andrew Chan
USA
Justin Chang
USA
Carlo Chatrian
Italy
Saibal Chatterjee
India
Luc Chessel
France
Graiwoot CHULPHONGSATHORN
Thailand
Robyn Citizen
Canada
Ashley Clark
USA
Roger Clarke
UK
Pablo Conde
Argentina
Adam Cook
Canada
Nilo Couret
USA
Lillian Crawford
UK
Barbara Creed
Australia
Jordan Cronk
USA
Jenny Darling
Australia
Nick Davis
USA
Jemma Desai
UK
Helen DeWitt
UK
Alonso Díaz de la Vega
Mexico
Mar Diestro-Dópido
UK
Jamie Dunn
UK
Christophe Dupin
Belgium
Kate Erbland
USA
Karoline Eriksson
Sweden
Miquel Escudero Diéguez
Spain/Chile/France
Swarnavel Eswaran Pillai
USA
Michael Ewins
UK
Joseph Fahim
Egypt
David Filipi
USA
Matthew Flanagan
UK
Nicole Flattery
Ireland
Mihai Fulger
Romania
Vigen Galstyan
Armenia
Patrick Gamble
UK
Adriano Garrett
Brazil
Marya E. Gates
USA
Ryan Gilbey
UK
Lalitha Gopalan
USA
Jan Göransson
Sweden
Julian Graffy
UK
Erika Gregor
Germany
Tim Grierson
USA
Stefan Grissemann
Austria
Susannah Gruder
USA
Bruno Guaraná
United States
Haden Guest
USA
Malini Guha
Canada
Antoine Guillot
France
Victor Guimarães
Brazil
Evgeny Gusyatinskiy
Netherlands
Kim Haery
South Korea
Anke Hahn
Germany
Fionnuala Halligan
UK
Rahul Hamid
US
Simran Hans
UK
Briony Hanson
UK
Scott Jordan Harris
UK
Philippa Hawker
Australia
Vinzenz Hediger
Germany
Patrick Heidmann
Germany
Tanya Horeck
UK
Bill Horrigan
USA
Tomáš Hudák
Slovakia
Brian Jacobson
USA
Marcel Jean
Canada/France
Bruce Jenkins
USA
Olivier Joyard
France
Tara Judah
Australia/UK
Alexia Kannas
Australia
Sarah K Keller
USA
Natalia Keogan
USA
Jessica Kiang
Germany
Jihoon Kim
South Korea
B (Brent) Kite
USA
Robert Koehler
USA
Michael Koresky
USA
Violeta Kovacsics
Spain
Roger Koza
Argentina
Mario Kozina
Croatia
Jay Kuehner
USA
Peter Labuza
USA
Tomris Laffly
USA
Jean-Marc Lalanne
France
Will Lautzenheiser
USA
Alisa Lebow
UK
Dorota Lech
Canada/Poland
Kevin B Lee
USA
Nathan Lee
USA
Isaac León-Frías
Peru
Diego Lerer
Argentina
Anke Leweke
Germany
Wood Lin
Taiwan
Michel Lipkes
Mexico
Akira Mizuta Lippit
USA
Leandro Listorti
Argentina
Chloe Lizotte
USA
Beatrice Loayza
USA
Guy Lodge
UK/South Africa
Maria João Madeira
Portugal
Nadin Mai
France
Paulo Maia
Brazil
Łukasz Mańkowski
Poland
Chiara Marañón
Spain/UK
Ivone Margulies
USA
Eva Markovits
France
Lee Marshall
UK/Italy
Luis Martínez
Spain
Kristy Matheson
UK
Peter Matthews
UK
Sam McAuliffe
UK
Bruno Mestdagh
Belgium
Petra Meterc
Slovenia
Hind Mezaina
United Arab Emirates
Daniela Michel
Mexico
Petar Milat
Croatia
Jelena Milosavljevic
UK
Christian Monggaard
Denmark
Laura Mulvey
UK
Jorge J. Negrete Camacho
Mexico
Veton Nurkollari
Kosovo
Davide Oberto
Italy
Isabel Orellana Guarello
Chile
Bruno Oseguera Pizaña
Mexico
David Parkinson
UK
Bina Paul Venugopal
India
Julie Pearce
UK
Justine Peres Smith
Canada
Daniela Persico
Italy
Michael Phillips
USA
Hannah Pilarczyk
Germany
Robert Polito
USA
Hannah Proctor
UK
Stephen Puddicombe
UK
Caitlin Quinlan
UK
Kong Rithdee
Thailand
Adam Roberts
UK
Selina Robertson
UK
Tim Robey
UK
Nicoletta Romeo
Italy
Wendy Russell
UK
Kate Saccone
Netherlands
Kat Sachs
USA
Cristian Saldía
Chile
Rox Samer
USA
Maria San Filippo
USA
Ariel Schweitzer
France/Israel
Jourdain Searles
US
Sanghita Sen
UK
Ekrem Serdar
Turkey/USA
Girish Shambu
USA
Michael Sicinski
USA
Nadine Smith
USA
Courtney Stephens
USA
Kyle Stevens
USA
Abby Sun
USA
Anna Swanson
Canada
Jocelyn Szczepaniak-Gillece
USA
Ran Tal
Israel
Yonca Talu
France
Amy Taubin
USA
Teet Teinemaa
Estonia
José Teodoro
Canada
Muriel Tinel-Temple
UK
Scott Tobias
USA
Jesse Trussell
USA
Daniela Turco
Italy
Chalida Uabumrungjit
Thailand
Nicolas Wackerbarth
Germany
Harriet Warman
UK
Kieron Webb
UK
Catherine Wheatley
UK
Patricia White
USA
Madeline Whittle
USA
Mary Wiles
New Zealand
Alissa Wilkinson
USA
Norm Wilner
Canada
Emma Wilson
UK
Michael Witt
UK
Rowan Woods
UK
Neil Young
UK/Austria
Brianna Zigler
USA
Gregory Zinman
USA
Timé Zoppe
France

Directors

Ali Abbasi
Denmark
Frank Beauvais
France
Sofia Bohdanowicz
Canada
Allison Chhorn
Australia
Denis Coté
Canada
Ricky D'Ambrose
USA
Maya Da-Rin
Brazil
Cheryl Dunye
Oriol Estrada
Spain/Dominican Republic
Daniel Goldhaber
USA
Helen Grace
Australia
Robert Greene
USA
Luca Guadagnino
Italy
Joanna Hogg
UK
Dea Kulumbegashvili
Georgia
Karyn Kusama
USA
Joe Lawlor & Christine Molloy
Ireland
Jackie Lentzou
Greece
David Lowery
USA
Manuela Martelli
Chile
Adam McKay
USA
Kleber Mendonça Filho
Brazil
Nina Menkes
USA
Carol Morley
UK
Phyllis Nagy
US
Jenni Olson
USA
Asli Özge
Turkey
Kiyong Park
South Korea
Helen Petts
UK
Laura Poitras
USA
Mara Polgovsky Ezcurra
Mexico
Marta Popivoda
Serbia
Lynne Ramsay
UK
Camilo Restrepo
Colombia
Sophy Romvari
Canada
Isabel SANDOVAL
USA
Ben Sharrock
UK
Peter Strickland
UK
Tilda Swinton
UK
Ann Turner
Australia
Laura Wandel
Belgium
Lulu Wang
USA
Helena Wittmann
Germany
Ezequiel Yanco
Argentina
Shengze Zhu
China/USA
Rebecca Zlotowski
France

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