Because I can, here’s me throwing a wasp’s nest into the relative calm of cinema discourse: I think Jeanne Dielman is better than the film it unseated in Sight & Sound’s 2022 Greatest Films of All Time critics poll, aka Vertigo. Although maybe my thoughts aren’t all too unpopular, given that directors like Cheryl Dunye (The Watermelon Woman), critics like Scott Tobias, and even Texas transplant David Lowery (Pete’s Dragon) ranked the quiet 1975 drama among their top 10. As slow as it is devastating, Dielman depicts in painstaking detail what the cruel drain misogyny creates within the women caught in its oppressive cycles. While Hitchcock’s beautiful tale of betrayal still earns a spot near the top, it cannot compare to director Chantal Akerman’s incredible re-creation of life’s crushing mundanities. Anyway: All responses to my opinion – spitting mad or otherwise – may go directly to [email protected]. – James Scott
