ADLON, Percy On ADLoN: articles Nationality: German. Born: Munich, I June 1935; great-grandson of Walker, B,"" Percy Adlon, ' in Film Comment(New York), July- August 1988. history, litcrature, and theater, with a degree in acting. in Munich. Bouijut, M. " The Film Career of Percy Adlon. "in Arant-scene du Family: Married Eleonore, a frequent collaborator on his films: son Cinema. November-December 1988 Felix. film writer-director. Career: Created documentaries for Bayerischer Rundfunk(Bavarian Broadcasting), 1970-1984; directed On ADLON: films- is first feature film. celeste. 1981. Awards: Bavarian Film award (Germany)for Best Director, for Fiinf letzte Tage, 1983: Berlin Film Die Schonheit im Normalen finden: Die inneren Bilder des Percy ritics Ernst Lubitsch Award for Best Comedy, 1987, Bavarian Film don. Bavarian Television. 1993 Award for Best Screenplay, 1988, and Cesars(france) for Best European Film and Best Foreign Film, 1989, all for Out of Rosenheim Bavarian Film Award for Best Director. for Salmonberries. 1992. Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Films(Belgium) Silver Roughly a decade older than his more renowned compatriots in the Raven for Younger and Younger, 1994 German New Cinema, Percy Adlon began making feature films more than a decade after the remarkable early works of Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders, and Rainer Werner Fassbinder. If ultimately he has Films as director: created a body of work more conventional than those of his younger contemporaries, he has still achieved a handful of works which 1978 Der Vormund und sein Dichter(The Guardian and the remain important and distinctive, particularly for their mixture of cool Poet)(for TV) ompassion Io 1979 Herr Kischottfor TV) 980 Celeste (+ sc) Following a long career in Bavarian television, largely in docu 1981 Finf letzte Tage(Five Last Days)(+ sc) mentary work, Adlon received immediate international notice with 1982 Die Schaukel(The Swing)(+ sc) Celeste, his first feature. Based upon a memoir by Marcel Proust's 1983 Zuckerbaby (Sugarbaby)(+sc) maidservant, the film patiently records the title characters daily activities, or more frequently her stasis, as she sits waiting for 1984 Herschel und die Musik der Stene(Herschel and the Music of Monsieur to ring for his daily coffee-or for help if seized by an 1987 Out of Rosenheim(Bagdad Cafe)(+ co-sc, pr) asthma attack. The film is a kind of study in restraint-not onl 1988 Rosalie Goes Shopping (+ sc, pr) Celestes but the filmmakers, as he seeks visual and emotional 1989 Salmonberries(+ sc) variety within a restricted environment. Most of the drama is set in 1988 Younger and Younger (+ co-Sc, co-pr) Proust's apartment, but there are occasionally montages(handsomely 1989 In der glanzvollen Welt des Hotel Adlon(The Glamorous composed shots, empty of people) of elegant apartment facades in World of the Adlon Hotel; Hotel Adlon)(for TV)(+ sc) Paris, or the writers vacation beach in Normandy, or bleak, wintry 1999 Die Strausskiste(Forever Flirt)(+ sc) vistas in Celeste's native village. Occasionally Celeste(Eva Mattes) addresses the camera directly; at other times her filashback-memories of a livelier, party-going Proust (Jurgen Arndt) weave in and out of Other Films the more somber present time of the narrative. Fragmented bursts of francks String Quartet punctuate silences otherwise broken only by 1997 Eat Your Heart Out(Felix Adlon)(pr) a clock ticking or an occasional cough from the masters cork-line bedroom; the music unexpectedly becomes live when a string quartet performs (still in fragments of music) privately for Proust and Publications Celeste By ADLoN: articles- but Adlon often explores devotion--not without ironic perspective or quirky humor, but never with the derision of more cynical filmmakers Dialogue on Film: Percy Adlon, "interview in American Film(Los Celeste, for example, is devoted but not remotely doglike or patheti- Angeles), May 1988 cally spinsterish. She appears to have a satisfactory relationship with Stone, Judy, ""Percy Adlon, interview in Eye on the World: Conver- her husband. Proust's rant: and she is not obsequious, as sations with International Filmmakers, Los Angeles. 1997 Adlon establishes in an early flashback when, as a new servant, she
1 ADLON, Percy A Nationality: German. Born: Munich, 1 June 1935; great-grandson of founder of the famed Hotel Adlon, Berlin. Education: Studied art history, literature, and theater, with a degree in acting, in Munich. Family: Married Eleonore, a frequent collaborator on his films; son: Felix, film writer-director. Career: Created documentaries for Bayerischer Rundfunk (Bavarian Broadcasting), 1970–1984; directed his first feature film, Céleste, 1981. Awards: Bavarian Film Award (Germany) for Best Director, for Fünf letzte Tage, 1983; Berlin Film Critics Ernst Lubitsch Award for Best Comedy, 1987, Bavarian Film Award for Best Screenplay, 1988, and Césars (France) for Best European Film and Best Foreign Film, 1989, all for Out of Rosenheim; Bavarian Film Award for Best Director, for Salmonberries, 1992; Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Films (Belgium) Silver Raven for Younger and Younger, 1994. Films as Director: 1978 Der Vormund und sein Dichter (The Guardian and the Poet) (for TV) 1979 Herr Kischott (for TV) 1980 Celeste (+ sc) 1981 Fünf letzte Tage (Five Last Days) (+ sc) 1982 Die Schaukel (The Swing) (+ sc) 1983 Zuckerbaby (Sugarbaby) (+sc) 1984 Herschel und die Musik der Sterne (Herschel and the Music of the Stars) (for TV) (+ sc) 1987 Out of Rosenheim (Bagdad Café) (+ co-sc, pr) 1988 Rosalie Goes Shopping (+ sc, pr) 1989 Salmonberries (+ sc) 1988 Younger and Younger (+ co-sc, co-pr) 1989 In der glanzvollen Welt des Hotel Adlon (The Glamorous World of the Adlon Hotel; Hotel Adlon) (for TV) (+ sc) 1999 Die Strausskiste (Forever Flirt) (+ sc) Other Films: 1997 Eat Your Heart Out (Felix Adlon) (pr) Publications By ADLON: articles— ‘‘Dialogue on Film: Percy Adlon,’’ interview in American Film (Los Angeles), May 1988. Stone, Judy, ‘‘Percy Adlon,’’ interview in Eye on the World: Conversations with International Filmmakers, Los Angeles, 1997. On ADLON: articles— Walker, B., ‘‘Percy Adlon,’’ in Film Comment (New York), JulyAugust 1988. Boujut, M. ‘‘The Film Career of Percy Adlon,’’ in Avant-scène du Cinema, November-December 1988. On ADLON: films— Die Schonheit im Normalen finden: Die inneren Bilder des Percy Adlon, Bavarian Television, 1993. *** Roughly a decade older than his more renowned compatriots in the German New Cinema, Percy Adlon began making feature films more than a decade after the remarkable early works of Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders, and Rainer Werner Fassbinder. If ultimately he has created a body of work more conventional than those of his younger contemporaries, he has still achieved a handful of works which remain important and distinctive, particularly for their mixture of cool detachment and genuine compassion for lonely eccentrics. Following a long career in Bavarian television, largely in documentary work, Adlon received immediate international notice with Céleste, his first feature. Based upon a memoir by Marcel Proust’s maidservant, the film patiently records the title character’s daily activities, or more frequently her stasis, as she sits waiting for Monsieur to ring for his daily coffee—or for help if seized by an asthma attack. The film is a kind of study in restraint—not only Céleste’s but the filmmaker’s, as he seeks visual and emotional variety within a restricted environment. Most of the drama is set in Proust’s apartment, but there are occasionally montages (handsomely composed shots, empty of people) of elegant apartment facades in Paris, or the writer’s vacation beach in Normandy, or bleak, wintry vistas in Céleste’s native village. Occasionally Céleste (Eva Mattes) addresses the camera directly; at other times her flashback-memories of a livelier, party-going Proust (Jurgen Arndt) weave in and out of the more somber present time of the narrative. Fragmented bursts of Franck’s String Quartet punctuate silences otherwise broken only by a clock ticking or an occasional cough from the master’s cork-lined bedroom; the music unexpectedly becomes live when a string quartet performs (still in fragments of music) privately for Proust and Céleste. Obsession is a common-enough preoccupation of modernist film, but Adlon often explores devotion—not without ironic perspective or quirky humor, but never with the derision of more cynical filmmakers. Céleste, for example, is devoted but not remotely doglike or pathetically spinsterish. She appears to have a satisfactory relationship with her husband, Proust’s manservant; and she is not obsequious, as Adlon establishes in an early flashback when, as a new servant, she
ADLON DIRECTORS, 4 EDItION Percy Adlon(left)with Jack Palance refuses to use the third person(as in"Will Monsieur be having his finest achievements. A touching lengthy scene in which the two coffee now?"), though she also cannot accept his invitation to call women and a couple of male inmates are allowed by the guard to have him Marcel. Her visible grief over his death, which concludes the a party in their room with some smuggled treats is superbly executed. film, raises the question that much of the film has seemed to ask: Is the Sugarbaby, which increased Adlons fame abroad, is filled with word"" appropriate for this relationship? le sort of droll eccentricity for which he became known in America, Less well known outside Germany but no less accomplished than as well as introducing his discovery, Marianne Sagebrecht, in a lead- Celeste is Five Last Days, which with quiet power presents just what ing with its the title alludes to: the five last days in the life of a young freedom extravagant lighting scheme--neon pinks and blues, occasional slashes fighter, beginning with her arrest for spreading anti-Nazi propaganda of gold or ghastly greens-and long takes in which the nd ending with her beir n off to be hange meanders a bit away from the actors, to the left and right in ever-wider a restricted one, is Gestapo headquarters in Munich: its front office, drifts without ever quite leaving them. The tale leans toward the interrogation rooms and, especially, Sophies bedroom in a cavernous fantastic: a depressed, overweight funeral-parlor worker, 38, in an basement area. No torture or even especially callous behavior instant falls in love with a handsome young U-Bahn driver, 25, spies shown, but the menace of the place is palpable-groaning basement on him, seduces him with candy bars while his wife is out of town, and sounds, sinister empty spaces, barking guard dogs. Again Adlon uses has night after night of fantastic sex with him until the wife beats her striking variety of shots within confined areas but this is not a dry, disco floor. The films last shot, with Marianne(as the cademic exercise in camera placement. Rather, the film, like Celeste character is named)on a subway platform proffering a candy bar to an is centered upon a growing friendship, here between Sophie and her unknown figure, or to no one, is in itself highly stylized, an abstrac older roommate Else, a long-term prisoner. The nuances of the tion of her plight. performances, and once again an austerity in film style matching the A major part of Sugarbaby's success is its ability to present emotional restraint of the women, make this film among Adlons Marianne's dogged pursuit of
ADLON DIRECTORS, 4th EDITION 2 Percy Adlon (left) with Jack Palance. refuses to use the third person (as in ‘‘Will Monsieur be having his coffee now?’’), though she also cannot accept his invitation to call him Marcel. Her visible grief over his death, which concludes the film, raises the question that much of the film has seemed to ask: Is the word ‘‘friendship’’ appropriate for this relationship? Less well known outside Germany but no less accomplished than Céleste is Five Last Days, which with quiet power presents just what the title alludes to: the five last days in the life of a young freedom fighter, beginning with her arrest for spreading anti-Nazi propaganda and ending with her being taken off to be hanged. The setting, again a restricted one, is Gestapo headquarters in Munich: its front office, interrogation rooms and, especially, Sophie’s bedroom in a cavernous basement area. No torture or even especially callous behavior is shown, but the menace of the place is palpable—groaning basement sounds, sinister empty spaces, barking guard dogs. Again Adlon uses a striking variety of shots within confined areas but this is not a dry, academic exercise in camera placement. Rather, the film, like Céleste, is centered upon a growing friendship, here between Sophie and her older roommate Else, a long-term prisoner. The nuances of the performances, and once again an austerity in film style matching the emotional restraint of the women, make this film among Adlon’s finest achievements. A touching lengthy scene in which the two women and a couple of male inmates are allowed by the guard to have a party in their room with some smuggled treats is superbly executed. Sugarbaby, which increased Adlon’s fame abroad, is filled with the sort of droll eccentricity for which he became known in America, as well as introducing his discovery, Marianne Sagebrecht, in a leading role. This film too is highly stylized, but far from austere, with its extravagant lighting scheme—neon pinks and blues, occasional slashes of gold or ghastly greens—and long takes in which the camera meanders a bit away from the actors, to the left and right in ever-wider drifts without ever quite leaving them. The tale leans toward the fantastic: a depressed, overweight funeral-parlor worker, 38, in an instant falls in love with a handsome young U-Bahn driver, 25, spies on him, seduces him with candy bars while his wife is out of town, and has night after night of fantastic sex with him until the wife beats her up on a disco floor. The film’s last shot, with Marianne (as the character is named) on a subway platform proffering a candy bar to an unknown figure, or to no one, is in itself highly stylized, an abstraction of her plight. A major part of Sugarbaby’s success is its ability to present Marianne’s dogged pursuit of the subway driver with alternating
DIRECTORS, 4EDITION AKERMAN amused detach orcycle ride and serious compas- s the shy but fierce-tempered orphan for whom the librarian isa t first er lover only a tool for researching her strange name (Kotzebue) and origin, o but later, on a trip to Berlin, th ct of a hopeless sexual attraction. ast one scene of m, shrine jars of her we see with its States,pre States,some younger certainly A r thoug predict were rela ot for a short by M (strande I by Celeste's fter World War, as ng the ruins of the hotel. hand, the film serves career of someone who seems to Sugarbab nd his calling only in middle age and whose work took him to tion rec flected America before leading back home. charact Joseph Milicia characte several use of Bob AKERMAN, Chantal Adlo Nationality: Belgian. Born: Brussels. June 1950. Education: INSAS 68; studied at Universite Internationale lled du Theatre, Paris, 1968-69. Career: Saute ma vie entered in Oberhausen festival, 1971; lived in New York, 1972; returned to France, 1973. Films as Director: ech) whose husban 1968 Saute ma vie West and who Alaskan librarian; 1971 L'Enfant aim ibutes to 1972 Hotel Monterey; La Chambre the soundtrack) searching for the secret of her birth. Again Adlon 1973 Le 15/18 (co-d); Hanging out Yonkers (unfinished) secures sional, here lang 1974 Je tu il lle
DIRECTORS, 4 AKERMAN th EDITION 3 amused detachment (e.g., their motorcycle ride) and serious compassion (a take of over nine minutes in which Marianne tells her lover about her earlier life of suffering and grief) without ever seeming to condescend. Another part is Sagebrecht’s understated performance, memorable even in small details like her first saying ‘‘Zuckerbaby’’ to herself in a hushed voice, as if it were a revelation. At only one point does the comedy cross over into John Waters-style campy melodrama (rather than, say, Fassbinderish degradation), when the wife viciously attacks Marianne on the dance floor and leaves her writhing in misery, while no one makes a move to stop the violence. (A couple of Adlon’s later films have strikingly Watersesque moments: the loony family acting hyper-normal at the dinner table and around the TV in Rosalie Goes Shopping, and the cartoonish lady with whom the older Mr. Younger has noisy sex in Younger and Younger.) Sugarbaby’s success led to Adlon’s making a film in the United States, premiered in Germany as Out of Rosenheim and released in the States, somewhat shortened, the next year as Bagdad Café. It is certainly Adlon’s only film to be turned into an American TV series, though without his participation. The trajectory of the plot is a bit predictable—two exceedingly dissimilar individuals become both friends and business partners—but films about women’s friendships were relatively rare in 1988, and the pair were vividly impersonated by Marianne Sagebrecht, as an ever mildly astonished echt-Bavarian (stranded in the Mohave Desert with little to her name other than a feathered hat and her husband’s lederhosen), and CCH Pounder, as a constantly exasperated and short-tempered African American owner of the cafe where Jasmin seeks shelter, then employment. Some of the supporting characters may be a little calculatedly oddball, but Jack Palance’s Rudy, a cowboyish ex-Hollywood scenic painter who senses Jasmin’s inner beauty and celebrates in oils her outward zaftigheit, is a memorable figure; the role revivified the actor’s career. Yellow filters give the film a markedly different color scheme than Sugarbaby’s, but some camera setups of near-expressionistic stylization recall the previous film. More impressively original are Adlon’s camera movements to connect the spookily empty desert spaces with the oddly cozy cafe, as in one lengthy tracking shot with assorted characters drifting on and offscreen across the dusty parking lot, and several shots following the boomerang thrown by a young vagabond, always taking us back to the cafe. The director also makes repeated use of Bob Telson’s haunting soundtrack song, ‘‘I’ll Be Calling You.’’ Adlon’s second American film, Rosalie Goes Shopping, in which a German immigrant wife (Sagebrecht again) develops petty credit fraud into major capitalist enterprise, has its supporters, but the comic characters are rather one-note (particularly in comparison to the leads in Bagdad Café), and the confessional scenes with Rosalie’s appalled priest (Judge Rheinhold) are rather too predictable. Subtler and more lingering in the imagination is Salmonberries, the last of Adlon’s trilogy of films about German women making a life for themselves in the United States. Friendship is once again the theme, but the couple is even unlikelier, and certainly less comical, than the pair in Bagdad Café: an East German woman (Rosel Zech) whose husband was slain as they attempted to cross the border to the West and who is now living an embittered life as an Alaskan librarian; and a half-Inuit orphan (the singer k.d. lang, who also contributes to the soundtrack) searching for the secret of her birth. Again Adlon secures a memorable performance from a non-professional, here lang as the shy but fierce-tempered orphan for whom the librarian is at first only a tool for researching her strange name (Kotzebue) and origin, but later, on a trip to Berlin, the object of a hopeless sexual attraction. Adlon makes excellent use of another extreme environment—the snowy wastes of the Alaskan tundra—and has at least one scene of unforgettable beauty, when we see the librarian’s bedroom, a shrine glowingly lit not by stained glass but by row upon row of jars of her berry jam against the windows. Memorable in an altogether different way is the Berlin hotel sequence in which the librarian tries to explain to Kotzebue why she cannot have a love affair with her: we see fragments of a night-to-dawn session, each a separate shot with its own striking camera placement, separated by fades to black. The cleverly titled Younger and Younger returns to the cartoonishness of Rosalie in its tale of a philandering storage facility manager who becomes haunted by the ghost of his neglected wife. It does boast an extravagant performance by Donald Sutherland as the elder Younger—and a remarkable makeup job on Lolita Davidovich, who starts out as a middle-aged frump but as a ghost becomes younger and more luscious in every scene. But there is less of a truly distinctive visual scheme than in any of the earlier features, and some of the minor characters are rather palely conceived. Following the film’s commercial failure and the limited distribution of Salmonberries, Adlon seems to have retired, except for a short feature that was clearly a personal project, involving as it does his actual family and American movies. Combining documentary footage with staged scenes, In der glanzvollen Welt des Hotel Adlon is a biography of his uncle Louis Adlon (played by Percy’s son Felix), who grew up in the family hotel but lived in Hollywood in the 1920s, had affairs with stars of the day (e.g., Pola Negri, played by Céleste’s Eva Mattes), and returned to Berlin only after World War II, as a Hearst correspondent, to reminisce among the ruins of the hotel. While Adlon may have other projects at hand, the film serves presently as a moving capstone to the career of someone who seems to have found his calling only in middle age and whose work took him to an oddly German-inflected America before leading back home. —Joseph Milicia AKERMAN, Chantal Nationality: Belgian. Born: Brussels, June 1950. Education: INSAS film school, Brussels, 1967–68; studied at Université Internationale du Théâtre, Paris, 1968–69. Career: Saute ma vie entered in Oberhausen festival, 1971; lived in New York, 1972; returned to France, 1973. Films as Director: 1968 Saute ma vie 1971 L’Enfant aimé 1972 Hotel Monterey; La Chambre 1973 Le 15/18 (co-d); Hanging out Yonkers (unfinished) 1974 Je tu il elle
AKERMAN DIRECTORS, 4 EDItION Publications By AKERMAN: books- Les rendez-vous d'Anna. Paris. 1978 Bordering on Fiction: Chantal Akerman's D'Est, New York, 199 By AKERMAN: articles- Interview with C. Alemann and H. hurst. in Frauen und Film Interview with Daniele Dubroux, and others in Cahiers du cinema (Paris), July 1977. Interview with P. Carcassone and L. Cugny, in Cinematographe (Paris), November 1978 Interview in Stills(London), December 1984/January 1985 Interview in Inter/View(New York), February 1985 Interview in Cinema(Paris), 25 June 1986 Interview in Nouvel Observateur(Paris), 28 September 1989 Interview in Filmihullu. no. 4. 1991 Interview in EPD Film(Frankfurt/Main), July 1992. Interview in Sequences(Haute-Ville), July-August 1997. On AKERMAN: book- Margulies, Ivone, Nothing Happens: al Akerman's Hyperrealist Everyday, Duke University Press, On AKERMAN: articles- Chantal Akerman Bertolina, G,"Chantal Akerman: il cinema puro, in Filmcritica 1975 Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Rome), March 1976. 1977 News from Home Creveling, C, "Women Working, in Camera Obscura(Berkeley) 1978 Les Rendez-vous d'anna Fal1976. s·no Mairesse, E,"A propos des films de Chantal Akerman: Un temps 1982 Toute une nuit(All Night Long atmosphere, in Cahiers du Cinema(Paris), October 1977 983 Les Annees 80(The Golden Eighties)(co-sc): Un Jour pina Bergstrom, Janet, in Camera Obscura(Berkeley), Fall 1978 demande Martin, Angela, *Chantal Akerman's Films, in Feminist Review 1984 L'Homme a la valise, Jai faim, jai froid (episode in Paris vu no.3,1979 par..20 ans apres); Family Business; New York, Ne Seni, N, in Frauen und Film(Berlin), September 1979 York bis Perlmutter, Ruth, ""Visible Narrative, Visible Woman. in Millenium 1987 Seven Women, Seven Sins(co-d) (New York), Spring 1980 1988 Un jour Pina m'a demande Delavaud. G."Les chemins de Chantal Akerman. in Cahiers du 1989 Histoires d'Amerique: Food, Family, and Philosophy/Ameri Cinema(Paris), April 1981 can stories Philippon, A, "Fragments bruxellois/Nuit torride, in Cahiers du 1991 Nuit et jour Cinema(Paris). November 1982 1992 Contre / oubli Dossier on Akerman, in Versus(Nijmegen), no 1, 1985. 1993 D'est(+ sc); Moving in (Le demenagement) Barrowclough, S, ""Chantal Akerman: Adventures in perceptio 1994 Portrait of a Young Girl at the End of the 1960s in Brussels Monthly Film Bulletin(London), April 1984 Squire, C, Toute une heure, in Screen(London), November/ December 1984 1996 Chantal Akerman by Chantal Akerman: Un divan a New York Castiel, E, in 24 Images(Montreal), nos. 34/35, 1987. (A Couch in New York)(+sc) Paskin, Sylvia, "Waiting for the Next Shot, in Monthly Film 999 Sud (South)(+ sc) 2000 La Captive(The Captive)(+ sc) Bulletin(London ) March 1990. ahg P von, Keskusteluvourossa: Chantal Akerman, in Filmihullu, Williams, B, Splintered Perspectives: Counterpoint and Subjectiv Films as producer ity in the Modemist Film Narrative. in Film Criticism, no 2, 998 Fifty Fifty(sup pr, sup dir) ber 1991
AKERMAN DIRECTORS, 4th EDITION 4 Chantal Akerman 1975 Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles 1977 News from Home 1978 Les Rendez-vous d’Anna 1980 Dis-moi 1982 Toute une nuit (All Night Long) 1983 Les Années 80 (The Golden Eighties) (co-sc); Un Jour pina a demandé 1984 L’Homme à la valise; J’ai faim, j’ai froid (episode in Paris vu par . . . 20 ans après); Family Business; New York, New York Bis 1987 Seven Women, Seven Sins (co-d) 1988 Un jour Pina m’a demande 1989 Histoires d’Amérique: Food, Family, and Philosophy/American Stories 1991 Nuit et jour 1992 Contre l’oubli 1993 D’est (+ sc); Moving In (Le Déménagement) 1994 Portrait of a Young Girl at the End of the 1960s in Brussels (+ sc) 1996 Chantal Akerman by Chantal Akerman; Un divan à New York (A Couch in New York) (+ sc) 1999 Sud (South) (+ sc) 2000 La Captive (The Captive) (+ sc) Films as Producer: 1998 Fifty Fifty (sup pr, sup dir) Publications By AKERMAN: books— Les Rendez-vous d’Anna, Paris, 1978. Bordering on Fiction: Chantal Akerman’s D’Est, New York, 1995. By AKERMAN: articles— Interview with C. Alemann and H. Hurst, in Frauen und Film (Berlin), March 1976. Interview with Danièle Dubroux, and others, in Cahiers du Cinéma (Paris), July 1977. Interview with P. Carcassone and L. Cugny, in Cinématographe (Paris), November 1978. Interview in Stills (London), December 1984/January 1985. Interview in Inter/View (New York), February 1985. Interview in Cinéma (Paris), 25 June 1986. Interview in Nouvel Observateur (Paris), 28 September 1989. Interview in Filmihullu, no. 4, 1991. Interview in EPD Film (Frankfurt/Main), July 1992. Interview in Séquences (Haute-Ville), July-August 1997. On AKERMAN: book— Margulies, Ivone, Nothing Happens: Chantal Akerman’s Hyperrealist Everyday, Duke University Press, 1996. On AKERMAN: articles— Bertolina, G., ‘‘Chantal Akerman: il cinema puro,’’ in Filmcritica (Rome), March 1976. Creveling, C., ‘‘Women Working,’’ in Camera Obscura (Berkeley), Fall 1976. Mairesse, E., ‘‘A propos des films de Chantal Akerman: Un temps atmosphere,’’ in Cahiers du Cinéma (Paris), October 1977. Bergstrom, Janet, in Camera Obscura (Berkeley), Fall 1978. Martin, Angela, ‘‘Chantal Akerman’s Films,’’ in Feminist Review, no. 3, 1979. Seni, N., in Frauen und Film (Berlin), September 1979. Perlmutter, Ruth, ‘‘Visible Narrative, Visible Woman,’’ in Millenium (New York), Spring 1980. Delavaud, G., ‘‘Les chemins de Chantal Akerman,’’ in Cahiers du Cinéma (Paris), April 1981. Philippon, A., ‘‘Fragments bruxellois/Nuit torride,’’ in Cahiers du Cinéma (Paris), November 1982. Dossier on Akerman, in Versus (Nijmegen), no. 1, 1985. Barrowclough, S., ‘‘Chantal Akerman: Adventures in perception,’’ in Monthly Film Bulletin (London), April 1984. Squire, C., ‘‘Toute une heure,’’ in Screen (London), November/ December 1984. Castiel, E., in 24 Images (Montreal), nos. 34/35, 1987. Paskin, Sylvia, ‘‘Waiting for the Next Shot,’’ in Monthly Film Bulletin (London), March 1990. Bahg, P. von, ‘‘Keskusteluvourossa: Chantal Akerman,’’ in Filmihullu, no. 4, 1991. Williams, B., ‘‘Splintered Perspectives: Counterpoint and Subjectivity in the Modernist Film Narrative,’’ in Film Criticism, no. 2, 1991. Roberti, B., ‘‘Tradire l’immagine,’’ Filmcritica, September/October 1991
DIRECTORS, 4 EDITION ALDRICH Klerk, N. de "Chantal Akerman, in Skrien (Amsterdam), June/ motion of her arms are visible. Her straightening and arranging and smoothing are seen as a child would see and remember them McRobbie, A, ""Passionate Uncertainty, ' in Sight and Sound (Lon- In Toute une nuit Akerman displays her precision and control as don), September 1992. she stages the separate, audience-involving adventures of a huge cast Chang, Chris. ""Ruined, "in Film Comment(New York), November/ of all ages that wanders out into Brussels byways on a hot, stormy December 1993 night. In this film, reminiscent of wim Wenders and his wanderers Boquet, Stephane, ""Ce qui revient et ce qui arrive, 'in Cahiers du and Marguerite Duras's inventive sound tracks, choreography, and Cinema(Paris), December 1995 sense of place, Akerman continues to explore her medium using no Preziosi,Adelina, and Michele Gottardi, Corpi di cinema/Esordienti conventional plot, few spoken words, many sounds, people who leave alla carica/l silenzio invisible, "in Segnocinema(vicenza), Sep- the frame to a lingering camera, and appealing es. A little girl tember -October 1997 asks a man to dance with her, and he does. The filmmakers feeling for the child and the childs independence cant be mistaken Akerman's Moving In, meanwhile, centers on a monologue deliv. ered by a man who has just moved into a modern apartment. A film of has left behind At the age of fifteen Chantal Akerman saw Godard's Pierrot le fou memory and loss, according to Film Comment, he l and realized that filmmaking could be experimental and personal. She a melancholy space of relations, relations dominated by his former neighbors, a trio of female 'social science students. dropped in and out of film school and has since created short and feature films for viewers who appreciate the opportunity her works -Lillian Schiff provide to think about sounds and images. Her films are often shot in real time, and in space that is part of the characters'identity During a self-administered apprenticeship in New York(1972-73) shooting short films on very low budgets, Akerman notes that she ALDRICH, Robert earned much from the work of innovators michael Snow and Stan Brakhage. She was encouraged to explore organic techniques for her Nationality: American. Born: Cranston, Rhode Island, 9August personal subject matter. In her deliberately paced films there are long 1918. Education: Moses Brown School, Providence, and University takes, scenes shot with stationary camera, and a play of light of Virginia, graduated (law and economics)1941. Family: Married elation to subjects and their space. (In Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Harriet Foster, 1941( divorced 1965); children: Adell, william Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, as Jeanne rides up or down in the Alida, and Kelly; married fashion model Sibylle Siegfried, 1966 elevator, diagonals of light from each fioor cut across her face in a rhythm. )Her films feature vistas down long corridors, acting with characters backs to the camera. and scenes concluded with everal seconds of darkness. In Akerman films there are hotels and journeys, little conversation. windows are opened and sounds let in, doors opened and closed; we hear a doorbell, a radio, voices on the telephone answering machine, footsteps, city noises. Each frame is carefully composed, each gesture the precise result of Akerman's directions. A frequent collaborator is her sensitive cameraperson. Babette mangole, who has worked with akerman on such works as Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, News from Home, and Toute une nuit. Mangolte has also worked with avant guardists Yvonne Rainer. Marcel Hanoun and Michael Snow. Plotting is minimal or non-existent in Akerman films. old welfare lients come and go amid the impressive architecture of a once splendid hotel on New Yorks Upper West Side in Hotel Monterey New York City plays its busy, noisy self for the camera as Akerman's oice on the sound track reads concerned letters from her mother in Igium in News from Home. A young filmmaker travels to German to appear at a screening of her latest film, meets people who distress her, and her mother who delights her, and returns home in Les rendez ous d'Anna. Jeanne Dielman, super-efficient housewife, earns money as a prostitute to support herself and her son. Her routine breaks down by chance, and she murders one of her customers The films(some of which are semi-autobiographical) are not dramatic in the conventional sense, nor are they glamorized or roticized the excitement is inside the characters. In a film which Akerman has called a love letter to her mother Jeanne dielman is facing the steady camera as members of a cooking class might ee her, and she prepares a meatloaf-in real time. Later she gives herself a thorough scrubbing in the bathtub; only her head and the Robert Aldrich
DIRECTORS, 4 ALDRICH th EDITION 5 Klerk, N. de, ‘‘Chantal Akerman,’’ in Skrien (Amsterdam), June/ July 1992. McRobbie, A., ‘‘Passionate Uncertainty,’’ in Sight and Sound (London), September 1992. Chang, Chris, ‘‘Ruined,’’ in Film Comment (New York), November/ December 1993. Boquet, Stéphane, ‘‘Ce qui revient et ce qui arrive,’’ in Cahiers du Cinéma (Paris), December 1995. Preziosi, Adelina, and Michele Gottardi,‘‘Corpi di cinema/Esordienti alla carica/Il silenzio invisible,’’ in Segnocinema (Vicenza), September-October 1997. *** At the age of fifteen Chantal Akerman saw Godard’s Pierrot le fou and realized that filmmaking could be experimental and personal. She dropped in and out of film school and has since created short and feature films for viewers who appreciate the opportunity her works provide to think about sounds and images. Her films are often shot in real time, and in space that is part of the characters’ identity. During a self-administered apprenticeship in New York (1972–73) shooting short films on very low budgets, Akerman notes that she learned much from the work of innovators Michael Snow and Stan Brakhage. She was encouraged to explore organic techniques for her personal subject matter. In her deliberately paced films there are long takes, scenes shot with stationary camera, and a play of light in relation to subjects and their space. (In Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, as Jeanne rides up or down in the elevator, diagonals of light from each floor cut across her face in a regular rhythm.) Her films feature vistas down long corridors, acting with characters’ backs to the camera, and scenes concluded with several seconds of darkness. In Akerman films there are hotels and journeys, little conversation. Windows are opened and sounds let in, doors opened and closed; we hear a doorbell, a radio, voices on the telephone answering machine, footsteps, city noises. Each frame is carefully composed, each gesture the precise result of Akerman’s directions. A frequent collaborator is her sensitive cameraperson, Babette Mangolte, who has worked with Akerman on such works as Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, News from Home, and Toute une nuit. Mangolte has also worked with avant guardists Yvonne Rainer, Marcel Hanoun, and Michael Snow. Plotting is minimal or non-existent in Akerman films. Old welfare clients come and go amid the impressive architecture of a once splendid hotel on New York’s Upper West Side in Hotel Monterey. New York City plays its busy, noisy self for the camera as Akerman’s voice on the sound track reads concerned letters from her mother in Belgium in News from Home. A young filmmaker travels to Germany to appear at a screening of her latest film, meets people who distress her, and her mother who delights her, and returns home in Les Rendezvous d’Anna. Jeanne Dielman, super-efficient housewife, earns money as a prostitute to support herself and her son. Her routine breaks down by chance, and she murders one of her customers. The films (some of which are semi-autobiographical) are not dramatic in the conventional sense, nor are they glamorized or eroticized; the excitement is inside the characters. In a film which Akerman has called a love letter to her mother, Jeanne Dielman is seen facing the steady camera as members of a cooking class might see her, and she prepares a meatloaf—in real time. Later she gives herself a thorough scrubbing in the bathtub; only her head and the motion of her arms are visible. Her straightening and arranging and smoothing are seen as a child would see and remember them. In Toute une nuit Akerman displays her precision and control as she stages the separate, audience-involving adventures of a huge cast of all ages that wanders out into Brussels byways on a hot, stormy night. In this film, reminiscent of Wim Wenders and his wanderers and Marguerite Duras’s inventive sound tracks, choreography, and sense of place, Akerman continues to explore her medium using no conventional plot, few spoken words, many sounds, people who leave the frame to a lingering camera, and appealing images. A little girl asks a man to dance with her, and he does. The filmmaker’s feeling for the child and the child’s independence can’t be mistaken. Akerman’s Moving In, meanwhile, centers on a monologue delivered by a man who has just moved into a modern apartment. A film of ‘‘memory and loss,’’ according to Film Comment, he has left behind ‘‘a melancholy space of relations, relations dominated by his former neighbors, a trio of female ‘social science students.’’’ —Lillian Schiff ALDRICH, Robert Nationality: American. Born: Cranston, Rhode Island, 9 August 1918. Education: Moses Brown School, Providence, and University of Virginia, graduated (law and economics) 1941. Family: Married Harriet Foster, 1941 (divorced 1965); children: Adell, William, Alida, and Kelly; married fashion model Sibylle Siegfried, 1966. Robert Aldrich