Like many French-language films I've seen, this one is more concerned with presenting a fairly realistic slice of life than with creating the standard story arc. The main character, Michele, spends the hour discussing her views of life with some old and new friends, and tries to understand her own feelings about her place in the world and her sexuality, while a camera follows along at close range. If you like your stories action-packed and resolved at the end you won't care for this one, but as a "portrait of a young girl" this film is engaging and thought-provoking. The movie reminded me of some of my own teenage trials, in a bittersweet way. The film is not so good at authentically recreating the 60's, but hey, it was probably low-budget. Anyway, the setting doesn't seem that important, as the kids' thoughts are pretty universal. Includes songs by the likes of Leonard Cohen, Johnny Hallyday, and James Brown.

Two girls come to Paris for the first time and try to live.

Belgian director Chantal Akerman struggles to overcome her laziness in the name of making a film about the subject.

A filmed adaptation of Rose Leiman Goldemberg’s play, based on Sylvia Plath’s intense correspondence with her mother Aurelia, from the time the poet was in university until her suicide. Delphine Seyrig and her niece Coralie Seyrig recite Sylvia and Aurelia’s letters to the audience directly.

Ariane and Simon met down by the water. Simon has managed to prize Ariane away from her friends, a bunch of free and arrogant girls, and move her into his place, with her own room at the end of the hall and her own bathroom next to his. He has taken on Andrée, one of the girls from the bunch by the water, to watch over Ariane, escort her wherever she goes and report back to him on everything she does. Andrée becomes Ariane’s accomplice. She’ll tell lies for her, and with her, and most likely they’ll make love together when the mood takes them.

Chantal Akerman followed famous Choreographer Pina Bausch and her company of dancers, The Tanzteater Wuppertal, for five weeks while they were on tour in Germany, Italy and France. Her objective was to capture Pina Bausch's unparalleled art not only on stage by behind the scenes.

An omnibus project examining, well, the state of the world.

1968 film by Chantal Akerman

This experimental documentary is a compendium of striking images of Eastern Europe and its citizens in transition, following the collapse of the so-called Cold War. Places as diverse as Baltic beaches, and Moscow's snow-covered streets vie for attention along with the citizens of these places as they wait in lines, march in military formation, or stand idle in the waiting rooms of train stations. There is no narration, and no clear point (except the idea of transitions) is indicated by the beautifully chosen, enigmatic imagery. Indeed, there is not even much musical accompaniment. Fans of director Chantal Akerman's aggressively "non-commercial" work are likelier to find this film more appealing than the average viewer will.

A sensitivity to sounds coming from the activities of an unwelcome guest in the close quarters of an apartment is only one important component in this atmospheric, avant-garde drollery by Chantal Akerman. When the apartment owner comes home, her guest is settled in and at first, the slightly reclusive host decides simply to eat her breakfast in her room instead of having to face morning conversation with her guest. Sounds of the toilet flushing, the bath water running and splashing, footsteps pacing, and furniture moving invade the hostess' refuge in her bedroom like the frontrunners of an all-out offensive. She locks herself up for 28 days, life's detritus accumulating around her, just so she does not have to go out to face the nemesis that lurks beyond her door.

Following over two dozen different people in the almost wordless atmosphere of a dark night in a Brussels town, Akerman examines acceptance and rejection in the realm of romance.

Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman lives in New York. Filmed images of the City accompany texts of Akerman's loving mother back home in Brussels. The City comes more and more to the front while the words of the mother, read by Akerman herself, gradually fade away.

1975 film by Chantal Akerman

On a trip across Western Europe to promote her newest release, filmmaker Anna encounters several individuals—familiar and otherwise—and attends to their discontents.

In a 360° circular panoramic shot the camera slowly pans an entire apartment (or house). When it first passes the bedroom there is nobody there but each time it shows the room again Chantal Akerman is sitting on the bed, motionless first, then busy doing something (peeling an orange, eating an orange, etc.). When she is last seen she yawns and lies down on her bed. The camera continues panning but after 10 minutes and 21 seconds the film comes to an end and she can't be seen asleep.

A woman suffers a subdued psychological breakdown in the wake of a devastating breakup.