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

[Scottie]

This movie is excellent.

Who knew watching a woman peel potatoes could be so mesmerizing?

[UncleBuckWild]

Originally Posted by iScottie

This movie is excellent.

Who knew watching a woman peel potatoes could be so mesmerizing?

I agree. Especially during those chilly winters.

Don't have a fireplace... so playing this on a loop will be equally rewarding and perhaps heart warming (if not body).

Hopefully once I wake up next morning she's done cooking.

[spanky87]

Originally Posted by iScottie

This movie is excellent.

Who knew watching a woman peel potatoes could be so mesmerizing?

You get so caught up in her routines that the sequence where she

[Show spoiler]overcooks the potatoes

becomes intensely gripping stuff.

[cgpublic]

With the price drop to $16.49, 5% Prime Card and free Prime shipping, the additional $5 off my next Prime Pantry order is the icing on the cake.

[tama]

Excellent film. I didn't notice any issues with compression. Oddly enough as I watched this disc I kept thinking to myself "this looks damn good for a 2K scan". Turns out its a new finished in 2K master from the 4K scan of the O-NEG according to the booklet inside the case. All the dining room/bedroom/kitchen scenes looked outstanding.

[AnamorphicWidescreen]

Last week, I watched Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles in it's entirety. I found myself liking the film right away. And, I found the movie anything but boring. Though the main character did many mundane tasks over several days (cooking, cleaning, shopping, talking to her son, briefly taking care of a neighbor's baby, etc.), for some reason it was very compelling - and, I never longed for the movie to be over (which I do with numerous other films I watch). Truly superb & sublime movie, and is yet another example of why the '70's was the best decade for film, hands down.

Several points:

-The main character's days of monotony were broken up by her regular prostitution, which apparently was her only source of income. Her reasons for doing seemed to be because after her husband died, she had no way to support herself, so was forced into this - despite not wanting to.

- There were flashing light/lights that were constantly seen in the main room of the woman's apartment in the evening, presumably going on all night. However, we never actually saw where the source of the light was coming from.

- The apartment was so small that it seemed to have only had one bedroom (the woman's). I.e., her son had to sleep on a bed that was folded out from a couch/chair each night, after moving the dinner table to the side.

Re: the ending, my impression was that

[Show spoiler]the woman was filled with self-loathing due to having to prostitute herself for so long- so she took this out on her "john" by killing him.

[PowellPressburger]

Love the film and like the previous post anyone else want to chime in on the lighting effect in the dining / living room area? I assume it is some sort of store / business lighting that would annoy me to death if I needed to fall asleep like Jeanne's son. Close the curtains... but also wondered if anyone had any reasoning for that lighting.

[AnamorphicWidescreen]

Originally Posted by PowellPressburger

Love the film and like the previous post anyone else want to chime in on the lighting effect in the dining / living room area? I assume it is some sort of store / business lighting that would annoy me to death if I needed to fall asleep like Jeanne's son. Close the curtains... but also wondered if anyone had any reasoning for that lighting.

Unfortunately, even closing the curtains wouldn't eliminate the light effect - it would still flash through the window/curtains. I strongly suspect it's the neon light of a sign that's continuously flashing all night.

[Page14]

I bought this on a whim (during this current Barnes & Noble half-off sale) without doing any research. I watched it last night. Loved it! So simple, yet it isn't. I'm really happy that Criterion included a booklet like in years past.

[losabio]

Originally Posted by spanky87

You get so caught up in her routines that the sequence where she

[Show spoiler]overcooks the potatoes

becomes intensely gripping stuff.

Watched this one for the first time tonight (thanks, BN 50% sale!), and I legit

[Show spoiler]flinched when Jeanne dropped the shoe brush

. There's a channel on YouTube called The Report of the Week where an anachronistic gent named Reviewbrah does fast food reviews. I am especially fond of the parts of his reviews where he'll just silently eat whatever food he's reviewing for what seems like a pretty long time. Most YT food shows have folks biting into a chicken wing or whatever, and then, with the first bite still in their mouths, begin telling you that, yup, you can really taste the cilantro or, wow, this is really different! Not Reviewbrah; he'll just quietly sit there on camera and eat half the hamburger and then start sharing his thoughts.

If I find content such as silent munching by Reviewbrah to be pretty entertaining viewing, then how do you suppose I liked Jeanne Dielman?

[koberulz]

Watched this tonight.

I don't get it.

It's literally nothing happening for three hours and fifteen minutes, followed by something happening for no adequately explained reason for two seconds, then even less things happening for another five minutes than were happening in the first three hours.

I recall someone saying it was "tense", because you just knew something was going to happen, and...no? Were we watching the same film? I was having trouble staying awake...

[ravenus]

^haha, I personally liked the film, but you're entitled to your view. The way I saw it:

[Show spoiler]Day 1 shows the last perfect day of routine in the woman's life, Day 2 shows slight cracks / slip-ups, Day 3 is when she totally cracks up, but the craziness must have been building up inside of her for a long time (Why? Maybe her loneliness and want of affection, maybe the endless routine), and the film is more of a silent non-judgmental observer of the final days before she goes bonkers.

I didn't buy it for my collection as I am less likely to watch it a second time, but it was a good sit-through once at the cinema

[koberulz]

I just found it too easy to zone out, I guess. People talk about the little mistakes, dropping a shoe brush etc and I have no recollection of that at all.

[PowellPressburger]

Blu-Ray sales are about to go thru the roof!

[Gacivory]

Criterion give us a 4K!

[Sommerswerd]

Originally Posted by Gacivory

Criterion give us a 4K!

It only has a 2K digital restoration.

[PowellPressburger]

Originally Posted by Sommerswerd

It only has a 2K digital restoration.

Do you think they could do a 4K scan?

[Sommerswerd]

Originally Posted by PowellPressburger

Do you think they could do a 4K scan?

Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.66:1 [sic]. On standard 4:3 televisions, the image will appear letterboxed. On standard and widescreen televisions, black bars may also be visible on the left and right to maintain the proper screen format. Supervised by director Chantal Akerman and cinematographer Babette Mangolte, this new 2K digital restoration was undertaken from a 4K scan made from the 35mm original camera negative by the Cinématheque royale de Belgique.

The scan was done in 4K but the restoration was in 2K.

[Rayjg]

According to Sight & Sound this is now the greatest film of all time

[jedidarrick]

I picked it up so that my buddies and I could watch it as our final film of 2022, but I wouldn't be surprised if Criterion was working on getting a 4K restoration/UHD release ASAP to take advantage of the attention this film is now getting.