Overview
With this magnificent epic of experimental cinema, Akerman offers a feminist perspective on the stifling and frustratingly recurrent aspects of everyday life.
Dominated by a commanding performance from Delphine Seyrig (The Day of the Jackal), the film sparingly depicts a homemaker and part-time prostitute struggling to raise and provide for her teenage son. As her patient, highly choreographed routines become strained, a remarkable portrait emerges, one that displays the full force and intensity of domestic estrangement. Ranked 1st in the 2022 Sight and Sound Great Films of All Time poll
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This new video essay by writer and critic Jessica McGoff, traces the restless movement in the works of Chantal Akerman, where the concept of home is always slipping just out of reach.

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Marianne Faithfull is the eponymous girl in this glorious, richly colourful slice of sixties British cinema.

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This rollicking take on Dumas’ swashbuckler, packed with lavish spectacle and high-stakes drama, slayed all Hollywood films at the French box-office.

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An official finds his home under surveillance and his marriage facing turbulence in this Orwellian portrait of life in Communist-era Czechoslovakia.

Les Rendez-vous d'Anna Les Rendez-vous d'Anna
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A quasi self-portrait that was neglected on its release, this road movie is a profound musing on loneliness and the long shadow of the war.

Je tu il elle Je tu il elle
Drama 1974 86 mins Director: Chantal Akerman
Akerman’s debut feature, with its 10-minute lesbian sex scene, revealed its maker to be a radical and uncompromising force in cinema.

Saute ma ville Saute ma ville
Drama 1968 13 mins Director: Chantal Akerman
Chantal Akerman’s plays a manic heroine in her early, incendiary critique of domesticity and conformity.

Golden Eighties Golden Eighties
Musical 1986 99 mins Director: Chantal Akerman
Song, dance and romance charge this joyous hair-salon set musical, but Akerman’s take on 80s consumerism is anything but frothy.

Le Déménagement Le Déménagement
Drama 1993 39 mins Director: Chantal Akerman
Surrounded by unpacked boxes, a man delivers an extended monologue on indecision and regret.

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Short documentary 2025 14 mins Director: Jessica McGoff
This new video essay by writer and critic Jessica McGoff, traces the restless movement in the works of Chantal Akerman, where the concept of home is always slipping just out of reach.

Stolen Kisses Stolen Kisses
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Naively idealistic and largely inept both in his dealings with women and in any job, Antoine clumsily courts Christine while working for a private detective agency.

Hotel Monterey Hotel Monterey
Documentary 1973 63 mins Silent Director: Chantal Akerman
A hypnotic tour of a New York hotel that proves that nighttime is Akerman time.

Là-bas Là-bas
Documentary 2006 79 mins Director: Chantal Akerman
Akerman’s introspective apartment-bound reflection on isolation and confinement.

Saute ma ville Saute ma ville
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Chantal Akerman’s plays a manic heroine in her early, incendiary critique of domesticity and conformity.

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A quasi self-portrait that was neglected on its release, this road movie is a profound musing on loneliness and the long shadow of the war.

Je tu il elle Je tu il elle
Drama 1974 86 mins Director: Chantal Akerman
Akerman’s debut feature, with its 10-minute lesbian sex scene, revealed its maker to be a radical and uncompromising force in cinema.

Avec Sonia Wieder-Atherton Avec Sonia Wieder-Atherton
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A celebration of Akerman’s longtime collaborator, cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton, showing her artistry as she plays and discusses her life in music.

War and Peace War and Peace
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The rise of nuclear nationalism in 1990s India is explored in a powerful and personal documentary from Anand Patwardhan.

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The Girl on a Motorcycle The Girl on a Motorcycle
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Short documentary 2025 18 mins Director: Maha Albadrawi
Exclusive to BFI Player, a video essay exploring Sophia Loren’s 60s and 70s filmography, and how her work shook up Italian gender roles.

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A postal worker’s secret opera recording sparks a gripping chase through Paris in Jean-Jacques Beineix’s (Betty Blue) stylish crime-thriller.