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Akerman's 'Jeanne Dielman' Inspires Criterion Cooking Video Contest

by Jen Yamato Sep 16th 2009 // 8:02AM

Filed under: Classics, Drama, Foreign Language, Fandom, Home Entertainment, Movie Marketing, Contests


Do you love cooking shows or consider yourself a Julie Powell-esque culinary wunderkind? Do you also have a video camera and a strong appreciation for Euro-feminist art films? Then hurry up and submit your entry to the Jeanne Dielman Cooking Video Contest to win prizes (and more importantly, bragging rights) from the Criterion-hosted competition for your homage to Chantal Akerman's celebrated 1975 film about cooking, cleaning, and the mental breakdown that comes from one woman's dogged devotion to domesticity.

Akerman's masterpiece Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles follows the daily routine of Jeanne Dielman, a single mother who follows a strict schedule of tasks each day; she cooks, she cleans, she pimps herself out to one john a day in order to provide for her son. You know, the usual. When tiny disturbances (a dropped utensil, a miscalculated shopping trip) throw her routine out of whack, Jeanne loses it. Sounds like a subject ripe for home video, no?

After the jump, watch our new favorite entry.
The best contest videos so far pay homage to Akerman's methodical camera work and unconventional framing. Check out our new fave, a piece entitled, "potato" which slyly follows its subject from the garden to the kitchen with an in-bucket POV shot, then into a boiling pot of red-hot potato angst.



Criterion's offering up two prizes for the best Jeanne Dielman cooking videos: a $100 gift certificate to the Criterion website for the most popular YouTube entry, and a PlayStation 3 for the staff-picked Grand Prize winner, on which you can watch Criterion's new Blu-ray releases. Entries must depict the cooking of Jeanne's favorite dishes: meat loaf, cutlets, or potatoes. Contest ends September 28; get the full rules over at Criterion.

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Tags: 1080 Bruxelles, 23 Quai du Commerce, criterion collection, CriterionCollection, Jeanne Dielman, JeanneDielman

 

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