The British Film Institute has chosen a film directed by a Belgian female director, the late Chantal Akerman, as the “greatest film of all time”. Every ten years the British Film Institute holds its Sight and Sound poll in which film buffs can vote for the film they consider to be the greatest ever work of cinematographic art.
Culture
British Film Institute says Belgian film is the “greatest of all time”
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Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles’, directed by Chantal Akerman, a Belgian director who died in 2016 has topped the 2022 Sight and Sound poll. This is the first time that a work directed by a woman has even reached the top ten. The poll had come under fire for its lack of diversity. However, now a film directed by a woman has knocked Orson Wells’ Citizen Kane of the top spot that it had held for the past 40 years.
Released in 1975, the film tells the story of a Brussel widow who turns to prostitution to make ends meet, but kills one of her clients. The film runs for almost three and a half hours.
The film has never been a success at the box office nor are you likely to see it screened at prime time time on one of the main TV channels. Nevertheless, the film critic and writer Lilian Crawford told the British public broadcaster BBC that "Jeanne Dielman isn't a film that I would say to someone getting into cinema 'Oh, this is the first film you absolutely must see. I think if you're going to work through the list, maybe do it in reverse order and sort of build towards it, because it's quite an ask to invite people to see this. But in an academic sense and thinking about cinema and encouraging more people to seek out experimental film, films by women, and in terms of the history of feminist cinema, this is absolutely the sort of essential text."