The self-referential cinema of Chantal Akerman as a theoretical act of displacement

• Autor(a) principal: Lago Adams, Natália
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Outros Autores: Fischer, Sandra
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Intexto (Porto Alegre)
• Texto Completo: https://seer.ufrgs.br/index.php/intexto/article/view/92275
• topic: Chantal Akerman. Deslugar. Autorreferência. Ato teórico.; Chantal Akerman. Displacement. Self-reference. Theoretical act.

The paper examines the condition of displacement focusing its critical-analytical perspective proprietarily on the universe of the filmmaker, once it is not rare, in post-modernity and contemporaneity, to see elements of the directors’ personal lives affecting their productions. This seems to be the case of Chantal Akerman, whose filmography frequently presents indications of herself in both fiction and documentary movies, where it is possible to identify, in what can be understood as displacement, the predominance of a peculiar lack of belonging expressed through constant dissatisfaction and wandering. In this sense, under the light of the reflections of Jacques Aumont concerning the film as a theoretical act, this study stems from the comparative analysis as a method to observe excerpts of Je, Tu, il, elle (1974), News from home (1976), and Les rendez-vous d’Anna (1978). Through the analysis, the research relates the self-referential thought that conducts the Belgium director’s narratives to the one that sustains the proposal of the concept of displacement. Seeking to confirm the hypothesis that the spatial and psychological dislocation can be considered as a distinctive trait of Akerman’s work, the objective of the study is to investigate if and how this characteristic spans her whole oeuvre, impregnating its creating intelligence in such a way that it directly affects the poetic and sensitive articulations. By comparing Akerman’s statements on the documentary I don’t belong anywhere (2015) with the diegesis of the corpus in question, the outcomes achieved indicate that, for now, it is possible to confirm the manifestation of a condition of displacement both in the characters and their creator.