Film-maker’s 1976 feature Jeanne Dielman pushes Vertigo into second place and Citizen Kane into third
It was heralded by Le Monde in 1976 as “the first masterpiece of the feminine in the history of cinema”. Nearly 50 years later, Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles has become the first feature by a female film-maker to be named the “greatest film of all time” by Sight & Sound.
Akerman’s 70s classic, which follows the meticulous daily routine of a middle-aged widow over the course of three days – including having sex with male clients for her own and her son’s subsistence – topped the decennial poll this year for the British Film Institute’s (BFI) magazine, pushing Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo to second place and Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane to third.
