De afspraken van Anna
Directed by:
Chantal AkermanScreenplay:
Chantal AkermanCinematography:
Jean PenzerCast:
Aurore Clément, Helmut Griem, Magali Noël, Hanns Zischler, Lea Massari, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Alain Berenboom, Françoise Bonnet, Laurent TaffeinVOD (2)
Plots(1)
Chantal Akerman’s narrative follow-up to her international breakthrough, Jeanne Dielman, is a penetrating portrait of a woman’s soul-deep malaise and a mesmerizing odyssey through a haunted Europe. While on a tour through Germany, Belgium, and France to promote her latest movie, Anna (Aurore Clément), an accomplished filmmaker, passes through a series of eerie, exquisitely shot brief encounters—with men and women, family and strangers—that gradually reveal her emotional and physical detachment from the world. Mirroring the itinerant Akerman’s own restless wanderings, this quasi self-portrait journeys through a succession of liminal spaces—hotel rooms, railway stations, train cars—toward an indelible encounter with the specter of history. (Criterion)
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Reviews (1)
This is undoubtedly a film that falls into the category of those that the viewer must inevitably immerse themselves in (and you can rest assured that you will want to). Afterward, one can fully enjoy the slow flow of life and the journey of a young artist by train across Europe, during which fleeting connections of shattered emotions arise through encounters with various male characters. The question is what a sensitive - though already hardened by this way of life - artist can shake out of these sparks. On a general level, the film can also serve as a depressing view into the life of a modern artist (even an "artistic" director must consider marketing promotion...). The film is completely believable (it could be said to be "taken from life") despite its unique artistic license - for example, the contrast between the open confessions of people around Anna and her seemingly silent impenetrability, with a few exceptions. And, of course, the visual concept of the film, whose depth can probably only be understood by someone "knowledgeable." As a layperson, I am therefore condemned only to silent wonder, as if all the paintings in the Louvre started moving (24 times per second). Especially those by Edward Hopper, whose color aesthetics clearly affected Akerman even after her return from the USA in the early 70s.
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