No Home Movie

No Home Movie, the final work from the great Belgian director Chantal Akerman, depicts her mother's last months on earth. There's no melodrama, because that wasn't Akerman's way, but rather a dispassionate depiction of a genial octogenarian going about her day-to-day routine. This isn't a depressing film, since Chantal prioritizes life over death. What you remember is her mother, Natalia, saying, "When I see your smile, it makes me happy." After Natalia's death, Akerman suffered her own decline, culminating in her suicide last October. As she puts it in Marianne Lambert's documentary I Don't Belong Anywhere, "My mother was at the heart of my work." Some believe the divided reception of No Home Movie also played a part, but it's a mystery she took with her when she died. The way her aquamarine eyes light up the screen makes this the sadder film of the two, because it's hard to imagine that anything but time could put an end to her boundless curiosity.

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by Kathy Fennessy