Get Rid of Government Time — Liliane Lijn, 1962.
this morning i feel like a softly boiled egg and not in a good way, maybe with a broken shell — like virginia woolf’s “shell-like covering which our souls have secreted to house themselves, to make for themselves a shape distinct from others…” — and some of me has leaked out into the world, in the form of a weird ectoplasm.
thinking of chantal akerman, i rewatched the moving documentary❊ made on the occasion of the comprehensive retrospective in bruxelles and jeanne dielman being voted the best ever film, which she didn’t live to see.
the doco is simple but effective : a series of interviews with people who knew her, worked with her, and admirers of her work and so on. interspersed with scenes from her movies and installation work.
the person from sight and sound is asked what akerman would have thought of this and she quotes from a letter she received from her in response to a request to participate in the 1994 poll :
i don’t really like the idea. why is it necessary to always classify everything? perhaps you can publish this as my response : it is tiring and not really necessary.
yes. actually most things are tiring and not really necessary. a more interesting poll would be : the most necessary films — and jeanne dielman would most certainly be on that list. akerman would have liked that.
❊Always On the Road (2024) directed by Katherine Schmelzer, Pieter Verbiest.