Many were surprised at the 2022 Sight and Sound critics’ poll topper, which beat out Hitchcock’s blonde mindbender Vertigo and capitalist cautionary tale Citizen Kane to be crowned the “greatest film of all time.” Yet Belgian director Chantal Akerman’s film captures the cruel tedium of the misogynistic world without once letting up: presenting on film life exactly as it is. Yes, the world of widowed housewife Jeanne is one built from boredom – you’ve never seen so many potatoes cooked for such a spoiled adult son – but that is how women are expected to live, even now. Silent and constant, Jeanne moves through her life as less its owner than a worker in its machinery. She simmers in that sexist soup as the viewer does until, at last, neither you nor Jeanne can bear it any longer. – James Scott
