“After this film, there is virtually nothing more to say.” “This film” is called At Home Movie and words are its author, Chantal Akerman, said in an interview with Publico shortly after its world premiere at the Locarno Film Festival.
Less than two months after Chantal to say, we know of his death, at age 65 – and through the inevitable short of a work, a look and a unique career, is chilling having to take these words to letter. Even though by then I felt something “end point” in At Home Movie , intensely personal film that seemed to take as thematic synthesis and formal of all his work, moreover accompanied by I Do not Belong Anywhere , excellent documentary Marianne Lambert proposing an introduction attentive to this same work.
At Home Movie Chantal Akerman is a kind of “public mourning” his mother, Natalia, following the last months of his life through images rotated during their irregular visits to his Brussels home. The film lays bare the central importance of Natalia for Chantal movie: a woman whose experience as a survivor of Auschwitz and how familiar anchor in Brussels “pursued” whenever her daughter, always on the move to escape from their presence but always returning to it be reunited. It is an artistic center of gravity of the own director admits only have been aware later. And At Home Movie was carrying at the same time something “exorcism”, “reconciliation” and “appeasement” of the relationship between Chantal and Natalia.
Akerman admitted to the PUBLIC that No Home Movie was, personally, much more “close to the bone” than previous works. It made also much more complicated to fulfill the necessary “promotional duties” required by a debut in a world-class festival, complicated by an aggressive reaction to the film that made her very upset. At the end of the first projection conference in Locarno, In Home Movie was met with boos, and plenty of critics unimpressed with the film questioned whether his presence in the competition would have no more to do with the author’s reputation fulfilling than the intrinsic quality of the film. The very filmmaker admitted not like to see the film in competition; called it “absurd and ironic”, but had yielded to the arguments of those responsible for international sales of the film.
It was felt, however, how difficult it was for Chantal Akerman speak of At Home Movie , was devastating to see if they exposed themselves there own on a big screen. Make the death of his mother a movie was, as we were told, “the only way to survive” the emotional event impact (as if the very process of creation was a refuge or a hiding place), but at the same time became unbearable show movie and talk about it. Chantal wanted to do the PUBLIC interview with the socks Marianne Lambert – as if the presence of friend and collaborator give him a chance to guard – but never took off his sunglasses. He answered some of the questions in a choked voice, paused regularly not to let the excitement overwhelm her. And finished the “regular time” asked Marianne:. “? You can not stay with me for the next interview”
Later, we learned that Chantal did one or two interviews this morning but eventually cancel all other tags. And whenever spoke of At Home Movie , made him underlining the difficulty of doing so: he made a point of explaining that not “decided” to make a film about her mother’s death, but that the situation you imposed during the process of “thinning” and organization of the images filmed over the years, the “weight” of the film only became apparent once finished
In Locarno, framed by Marianne Lambert documentary. – commissioned by the Belgian Cinematheque as part of a series on national filmmakers – At Home Movie suggested an end of cycle, a time to pause and state of play for Chantal Akerman. Somehow, she knew it: “After this film, there is virtually nothing more to say,” he told us. But we never thought having to take these words literally.
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