Chantal Akerman by Chantal Akerman

Asked to create a portrait of a film artist for the French TV series Cinema of Our Time, Akerman jokingly suggested herself as the subject, then warmed to the idea. Here, Akerman treats clips from her films as rushes for a whole new film. She grudgingly added the required introduction, which nevertheless is typically funny and intelligent and offers much to bear in mind while watching the compilation that follows. To wit: Chantal was not the first woman in her Jewish family to flout the Second Commandment against visual representation; her maternal grandmother was a painter of “huge paintings,” all lost in the Holocaust. Chantal’s mother told her, “All I remember is that there were women in them. Faces. Faces that could see me.” Let the rushes begin.