Review by andredejongh

Gorgeous 'grandchild' of Chantal Akerman's 1975 film: 'Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles' Wow... I did not know what to expect when I was going to watch this film: is it going to be a horror? (at one point I was thinking she perhaps was getting what she all this time was fantasising about) A huge drama? Comedy? There is some comedy in this film but it is inferior to the overall feeling of the state of being of the main protagonist. She feels isolated from everyone, you could call it depression, but she is still functioning. She works, she has a clean tidy house and she takes care of herself and dresses well. Everyone at her office is really busy with themselves, their own lives, their jobs at the office and the office dynamics. Fran is good at what she does. She grew up in the quiet isolated part of town and this shaped her. She was probably quite isolated from other people, as we learn during a conversation she has at the house party. She probably felt so much isolated from the rest of the world, while growing up, that it became a part of her. Not enough life to stimulate her, not enough engagement with the big world out there. So she incorporated this lonely detachment towards the world and society around her. And no one seems to care or to notice her. Not even at her job, but they accept her. Until the new colleague comes in. They connect. He sees her. He feels for her. And she feels for him, This film isn't as heavy as 'Melancholia' (2011, Lars von Trier) Nor as emotional as 'Dancer in the Dark' (2000, also by Lars von Trier). The pace and the atmosphere, and the sensitivity and the introvertness of protagonist Fran are closely connected to Belgian director, Chantal Akerman's 1975 film 'Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles'. This film with the very long and unusual title from 1975 is about the monotonous, isolated life of a housewife who gets through her days in her clean and tidy apartment. Who turns to offering sex to men, inside that lonely apartment, contributing to her overall feeling of emptiness and isolation. Rachel Lambert's 'Sometimes I Think About Dying' has the same slow paced, voyeuristic, observant quality as Akerman's classic. Never before I have seen a successor to Akerman's masterly film. And here it is. Well done. Of course we are almost 50 years after 'Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles'. We are in the 21st century and Rachel Lambert set her film in rural USA, instead of in a mondaine big city like Brussels. But, it is a smart move, I think. In the 1970's Western societies were way more conservative and a woman, a housewife like Jeanne Dielman in Brussels could live and suffer way more isolated because she was a (divorced or widowed?) woman in a traditional society. The women's rights movement didn't achieve the results we are experiencing this day and age (although many right wing forces are trying to turn back the clock these days). In the 21st century you more likely tend to find women feeling isolated like this, in smaller isolated towns. Not saying that in the big Western metropoles women, and men for that matter, can't feel like detached from life and stuck in their jobs and their day to day routine while going through a depression. Anyway, this is a beautiful film. Gorgeously photographed and directed with a beautiful musical score. Superb cast, really. Everyone is so good. At times the cast feels like a cast from Woody Allen's heydays. You can feel and see that director Rachel Lambert studied the classics. This is a superb, masterly film. If I would pick out one flaw then it is the car scene: too much dialogue and expressed emotion. It is a bit out of tune with the rest of this film. That's why I don't give it 10 stars, but 9 stars in stead. Beautiful film, just beautiful.