Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Brussels

A minimalist portrait of a woman’s everyday life, living in a soul-saving routine until her world begins to subtly but steadily fall apart from the hard-won balance she has achieved. 

Jeanne Dielman is a single mother and housewife who follows a strict schedule: caring for her son, performing household duties, and having occasional encounters with men for money. Gradually, the meticulously organized world around Jeanne starts to crumble under the weight of small disruptions in her daily life, symbolizing much deeper shifts in her inner world. The film slowly and methodically extracts the tension hidden behind this routine, leading the viewer, at a leisurely pace, to a shocking climax. Akerman delicately dissects every aspect of her heroine's life, transforming the mundane into a meditation on suppressed emotions and hidden violence accumulating within her.

 In 2022, the film ranked first in the authoritative list of the 100 greatest films by "Sight and Sound," surpassing "Vertigo," "2001: A Space Odyssey," and "Citizen Kane," becoming the first work by a female director to top this ranking.