Directors and Influences: Chantal Akerman and Charlotte Wells

Directors and Influences is a series of visual essays with accompanying written components, offering a direct comparison between the work of two filmmakers. For the first edition of this series, Jacob Gandy examines the relationship between Chantal Akerman and Charlotte Wells, two unique figures who have (re)surfaced in the film world this year; Wells released her first feature Aftersun to wide acclaim, and Akerman’s most well-known work, Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles is currently enjoying renewed celebrity after topping the latest Sight and Sound: The Greatest Films of All Time poll.

I noticed Charlotte Wells talking about Akerman in a recent interview and it clicked for me.

I immediately recognised that sense of stillness, the attention to detail within daily life, and a heightened sense of realism. When I say, ‘a heightened sense of realism’, their films are painfully realistic, and often utilise long takes that allow their grounded lead performances to breathe. But simultaneously, their camera placement and framing is utilised to explore just as much about the character’s emotional state; heightened realism.

Within the essay, I include three interviews that I felt best summarise the similarities between the respective filmmakers’ work: as Paul Mescal puts it, “restraint”, and as Claire Denis puts it, “a trust in the frame, and the time”, although it’s Wells herself who acknowledges it best; when talking about casting Frankie Corio as Sophie, she described her casting decision after watching her cry in an audition: “It wasn’t the tear, it was the stillness”.

I feel that Wells and Akerman both find greater power in the moments that surround emotional turmoil, as opposed to the dramatic culmination of it. It is what hides beneath the every day, that stillness.

Notes:

1. None of this series is meant to demerit the work of contemporary directors. It is merely to acknowledge where inspiration stems from, and where filmmakers continue conversations across time and space.

2. Wells certainly has other influences- Joanna Hogg and Lynne Ramsay have left a clear impact- though Akerman’s felt the most prevalent to me within Aftersun.