A glimpse of a vibrant city through Chantal Akerman’s youthful eyes
My thing this week is a little slice-of-life of Brussels in 1967, as filmed by a teenaged Chantal Akerman, eight years before she presented a very different slice of Brussels in “Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai de Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles”.
There’s something that feels very contemporary about the scenes of Akerman’s friend and future collaborator, Marilyn Watelet, shopping for clothes, doing her hair, and washing up dishes. And the fun fair scenes of the Foire du Midi are charming — I love the suited bumper car drivers, and the scenes of the roller coaster show surprisingly adept and agile filmography for such a young photographer.
We were in Brussels this summer, and it’s interesting to see some of the streets we visited as they looked 57 years ago.
