No Home Movie
Director: Chantal Akerman
Talent: Natalia Akerman, Chantal Akerman
Release Date: 24th June
With this film, Chantal Akerman documents her aging mother’s steadily declining health while trying to get her to delve more into her experiences as a prisoner at Auschwitz, an aim which is marred by both her mother’s reticence about the war and desire to talk more about Chantal’s childhood than her own. In an attempt to make the footage seem more authentic, Akerman relies on nothing more than muggy streams of light through the window and a low-resolution camera to capture shaky and badly framed shots.
While one can appreciate intellectually what Akerman is doing here — a neo-Dogme 95 approach in order to stress sincerity and the beauty that can be found in the mundane — the film singularly fails in its execution. Akerman alienates the viewer by taking fly-on-the-wall to its logical extreme and making you feel like an unwelcome pest. You never feel included in the story, and this coupled with punishingly dull external shots and inattention to quality makes this film seem like it wasn’t intended for anyone but Akerman herself.
Words; Eva Short
