No Home Movie

Some of the scenes with her mom, especially the ones with her having talks with Chantal, are engaging. A few bits are poignant. But lot of it was testing my patience too much. All with all it did too little for me.

ache'r'man :(

Made much more sense after reading her autobiographical notes, "My Mother Laughs." Banality of life, the reality of the ultimate end. Though no one in the movie mentions her mother's situation, death is on the air. The prolonged landscape shots, which are probably equally dull as the home scenes, together with the latter, seem to suggest that this is what life is, repetitious, and utterly meaningless. Yet in all these there is the power of the familiar and familial. Worth thinking on.

I very much appreciate what Akerman is doing here as she reflects on her own lack of rootedness, and that which has marked her family (at least before, during, and after WWII). Despite this, Akerman clearly has a significant and meaningful connection with her mother. The camera's stillness in many sequences gives a sense of rootedness, even as Akerman punctuates those with sequences from New York, Oklahoma, and Israel. The film seems to end on a searching note--no home, indeed.

You get that Chantal Akerman loved her mother a lot. You feel for her, especially when you know she killed herself shortly after her mother passed away. But as a simple visitor into their home, No Home Movie (2015) was like visiting a distant aunt interacting in awkward polite conversation, where you keep looking at your watch and looking for excuses to leave.

There is a good personal diary movie in here, but too much footage, and it pains me to say that because Akerman is just so lovable to me, and "No Home Movie" makes for such a tragic swan song. Still, I have to be honest. I know she started out with forty hours, leaving two, but this should have been whittled down more.

Throughout, you're grasping for air, and maybe that's intentional; as off-the-cuff as much of the production seems, there's still a Dielman-esque visual focus on putting people into boxes, restricting their presence. Akerman's mother is never not confined. When the reality of the situation finally becomes clear, the results are absolutely devastating. It's a messy and imperfect film, but the visceral impact of watching Akerman wrestle with this moment in her life cannot be understated.

?stanbul Modern.