Chantal Akerman's News From Home is an enchanting and deeply personal piece of filmmaking which profoundly explores the isolation and alienation felt by its filmmaker. Chantal Akerman, a belgian filmmaker, left home when she was twenty to pursue filmmaking, and with News From Home she has put together a beautifully realized experimental documentary that interweaves the vast sights and sounds of New York City with the letters from her loving mother, who desperately misses her daughter. A film about urban life, loneliness, isolation, and the need for independence, News From Home is a mosaic of images, colors, and sounds that is both deeply personal and universally profound. Experiencing News From Home is much like experiencing a bunch of great painting, as every composition throughout the film's running time elicits some sense of emotion from the viewer. Isolation is probably the film's most forward boding emotion, as Akerman captures desolate streets which only seem to be inhabited by the cold steel of cars that venture down boulevards and avenues. The human experience of urban life is captured in such an interesting way, with compositions that routinely entrap the subjects in the frame, offering us a proverbial window into these indivduals' experiences that simultaneously cages them, creating a sense of alienation. While these images are perfect for capturing the isolation and alienation which the filmmaker is going through, even the compositions full of people tend to show very little communication, interaction, or emotional contact, as Akerman effectively captures how even the busiest city in the new world is full of many lonely, isolated individuals. The letters themselves, read back to us by Akerman as she juxtaposes images of New York, offer unique insights into her own relationship with her mother, as her parental figure uses loving but manipulative language that almost seems to attempt to guilt Akerman into returning home to her family. Perhaps my favorite shot is the final one, which takes place on a boat going out to sea during a foggy day. As the boat slowly drifts further out to sea, New York City becomes its own alienated structure alone in a sea of dense fog, a poignant visualization of the inner-turmoil and alienation felt by Akerman. Chantal Akerman's News From Home is a film that is only going to be enjoyed by more adventurous art-house viewers, but for those willing, the film offers a deeply profound portrait of alienation, capturing a woman in Akerman who is simply trying to create her own place in the world.
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June 2023
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