Portrait d’une paresseuse (Sloth). 1986. Germany. Written and directed by Chantal Akerman. DCP courtesy Royal Film Archive of Belgium — CINEMATEK and Fondation Chantal Akerman. In French; English subtitles. 8 min.
Sloth may be Chantal Akerman’s favorite deadly sin, but in this whimsically paradoxical short film a lot seems to be happening within a very compressed amount of time. As Sonia Wieder-Atherton practices her cello, Akerman musters the energy to get out of bed (or rather, off a mattress on the floor). She recalls her mother’s skin-care regimen, finds nothing in the fridge so skips breakfast, takes a week’s worth of vitamins and a long drag from her cigarette, and thinks about cleaning up dinner from the night before. In the end, she’s back where she started.
Je tu il elle (I, You, He, She). 1975. Belgium. Written and directed by Chantal Akerman. With Akerman, Niels Arestrup, Claire Wauthion. 2K restoration by the Royal Film Archive of Belgium — CINEMATEK and Fondation Chantal Akerman; DCP courtesy Janus Films. In French; English subtitles. 86 min.
“Leap and dance and kiss whom you please.” So goes the nursery rhyme that concludes this three-act study of emotional entanglements. After a breakup, Akerman (playing some version of herself, “je”) rearranges the furniture in her cramped studio apartment and ends up on a mattress on the floor. Passing the hours and days in slow pans and fadeouts, she moves between lethargy and restlessness, writing and rewriting letters (addressed to “tu,” and narrated in retrospective voiceover), eating sugar out of a paper bag, night crawling, robing and disrobing, and watching others watching her from outside. Twenty-eight days later, she leaves the room. She takes up with a truck driver (“il,” played by Niels Arstrup), wordlesslessly absorbing his ruminations on women and his loveless marriage. She reunites with her lover (“elle,” Claire Wauthion) for a single night of hunger and sex. Reflected in mirrors and glass doors, and reflecting on relationships, bodies, and the passage of time, Je, tu, il, elle is a chilly story of exile and return.