No Home Movie

(Chantal Akerman, Belgium/France 2015, 115 min., DCP, French w/subtitles)

Holocaust: Affect and Absence| Rochester Premiere. In her final masterpiece, Chantal Akerman (who committed a suicide shortly after completion of the film) creates a portrait of her relationship with her mother, Natalia, a Holocaust survivor and central presence in Akerman’s films.

“This is a film about the world that moves, which the mother never sees; she practically never leaves her apartment anymore. But the world outside is really there; it insinuates itself between the shots of the apartment, like a touch of yellow on the canvas that makes the rest of the painting exist. It’s also a film of love, a film about loss, sometimes funny, sometimes terrible. But viewed with an eye that keeps a respectful distance, I think. A film where a transmission occurs, discreetly, almost effortlessly, without pathos, in a kitchen in Brussels.” – Chantal Akerman