Join us at the Rio Theatre on Wednesday, March 8 as we mark International Women’s Day with s prime time screening of Belgian director Chantal Akerman‘s landmark achievement JEANNE DIELMAN, 23, QUAI DU COMMERCE, 1080 BRUXELLES. Released in 1975 to both acclaim and derision, the film is a bona fide icon of narrative feminist filmmaking, a magnificent epic of experimental cinema offering a unique perspective on recurrent events of everyday life. In 2022, the film was monumentally bolstered yet again when it outranked titles like VERTIGO and CITIZEN KANE by placing first in Sight & Sound’s highly esteemed Top 100 Films of All Time poll – the first time a film directed by a woman has ever done that.

“For the first time in 70 years the Sight and Sound poll has been topped by a film directed by a woman – and one that takes a consciously, radically feminist approach to cinema. Things will never be the same.” (British Film Institute)

A singular work in film history, Akerman’s epic meticulously details, with a sense of impending doom, the daily routine of a middle-aged widow, whose chores include making the beds, cooking dinner for her son, and turning the occasional trick. In its enormous spareness, Akerman’s film seems simple, but it encompasses an entire world. Whether seen as an exacting character study or as one of cinema’s most hypnotic and complete depictions of space and time, ‘Jeanne Dielman’ is an astonishing, compelling movie experiment, one that has been analyzed and argued over for decades. With Delphine Seyrig, Jan Decorte.

“A portrait of female marginalization, subjugation, and suffering that’s as strikingly empathetic and relevant today as it was in 1975.” (The Daily Beast)

“At once spectacle and antispectacle, Jeanne Dielman not only criticizes the dominant mode of representing women but challenges the dominant mode of representation itself.” (Village Voice)

“An enormously demanding, superbly wrought film that also is most rewarding.” (Los Angeles Times)

“For all its strategic tedium, there is a thrill to Jeanne Dielman, at least for those capable of getting on its wavelength. Its power comes from the way that Akerman carefully establishes her heroine’s routines in order to slowly disrupt them, so that every break from the norm—a lid left unclosed, a button left unclasped, a spoon suddenly dropped—looks like another crack spreading across the facade of Jeanne’s military-grade Stepford poise. In its radically deconstructed way, it’s almost a suspense picture; what we’re watching is a lit fuse slowly but surely burn its way to explosion.” (Chron.com)

Wednesday, March 8
Doors 6:30 pm | Movie 7:00 pm *Start time subject to change. Please arrive on time.
Advance tickets HERE

JEANNE DIELMAN, 23, QUAI DU COMMERCE, 1080 BRUXELLES (Chantal Akerman, 1975 / 202 mins / 14A) Jeanne Dielman, the widowed mother of a teenage son, Sylvain, ekes out a drab, repetitive existence in her tiny Brussels apartment. Jeanne’s days are divided between humdrum domestic chores — shopping, cooking, housework — and her job as an occasional prostitute, which keeps her financially afloat. She seems perfectly resigned to her situation until a series of slight interruptions in her routine leads to unexpected and dramatic changes.

*Minors permitted. Must be 19+ w/ID for bar service.
*Rio Theatre Groupons and Rio Theatre passes are OK for any single film screening only. Please redeem at the box office.
*Online sales end an hour before showtime; unless otherwise noted, tickets are always available for purchase at the box office prior to showtime. All Rio Theatre tickets are final sale. Our box office is typically open 30 minutes before showtime. All seating is General Admission; please arrive 20-30 minutes prior to showtime to ensure great seats and time for treats.
*If you are looking to redeem either a Rio Theatre gift certificate or Groupon to any regular Rio Theatre screening: You can either email us in advance <[email protected]> and give us a “heads up,” or do it at the box office prior to showtime. (We seat 400+ people and our regular screenings are very rarely at capacity – you should not have issues being admitted.)