I watched this on the 11th of March, 2025, at the independent cinema.
It’s 201 minutes covering three days in the life of Jeanne Dielman, and when I say covering, I mean covering. There are lengthy scenes where she just does household stuff. The vast majority of the movie watches her as she goes through her day, shopping, cleaning, cooking, bathing, eating, and so on. The actress, Delphine Seyrig, does a marvelous job of it, it’s some of the most naturalistic acting I’ve ever seen.
Also? It was kind of fantastic? The lack of any kind of plot, background music, camera motion, or any of the dressings you expect of a film meant you were heightened to the nuance of what was going on; her movements, tiny motions in her face, her hesitations and tics.
The character is a sex worker. Every day, she receives a man in the afternoon. They are invariably older; there is no talking. When they leave, she stands near them, waiting in a dignified yet almost desperate manner, for them to take out their wallets.
Throughout the movie, there is a tension which grows and grows, imperceptibly, until your heart is hammering while you watch this woman make coffee in an extended scene where she makes three cups and throws them all away.
For such a spare movie, there’s an incredible amount of detail to talk about, and I guess that was one of its theses? The incredible depth and complexity of a perfectly normal life.
Near the end, she kills the man.
The movie ends in a silent shot of her smeared with blood, sitting at her kitchen table.