Nobody else makes a movie like Akerman. They just have that extraordinary strength of vision. To see and be near that as a 20-year-old made me see how deep and committed an artist could be - Andrew Bujalski, thefilmstage.com
Andrew Bujalski was not only a huge fan of the late great Chantal Akerman but he was also a student of hers so it only makes sense that he took a thing or two from her films and put them in his. It wasn’t until I started watching more of his movies that I caught some major visual similarities between the two.
But after watching and rewatching a some of his films I caught a few more similarities that I found interesting.
I know I’ve opened myself up to people calling these similarities vague and/or not very unique. Fair enough. How many movies have scenes of people lying around or standing in a kitchen? But I think the fact that Bujalski was taught by Akerman and has shouted her out on a number of occasions means something a little deeper.
(This post will be ongoing and updated)
It is perhaps a little unfair to Chantal, who has the most diverse (yet consistent) portfolio of masterpieces of any auteur, that I still gravitate to her raw first feature. I can’t help it. At an impossibly young age, she’s got everything working already. Fully formed voice, piercing gaze, fearlessness, humor, invention, and—with apologies to Delphine Seyrig, Aurore Clément, Sylvie Testud—her finest leading lady - Andrew Bujalski, criterion.com
It seems like the dialogue surrounding the romantic relationships between Black men and White women are being negatively sensationalized more than ever. A professional athlete is seen with a White wife and everyone loses their mind and assumes this is not only the norm but something bad (fyi - 85%-88% of Black men that are married are married to Black women). A lot of prominent Black films and tv shows have some Get Out-ish subplot where a White woman tricks a clueless Black man in to ruining his life. There’s a very specific lane of chronically online White guys that deal with what appears to be Black male penis envy by going online to call White women with Black male partners or biracial sons things like “mud shark” or “race traitor”. As a Black man with a White wife and a biracial son, I sometimes find myself fascinated by this. When I have some down time I take a couple of minutes to comb through the comment sections of various tweets, tiktoks and IG posts thinking to myself; “I never come across these people offline”. It's weird.
On the opposite end of the bench is a very specific lane of pro-Black online pseudo activist who’s entire personality is dick-policing and penis-watching Black men in relationships with White women. They swear they don’t care who dates who but they always write some thesis-level explanation as to why they supposedly don’t care then constantly give their thoughts and opinions on interracial relationships that don’t concern them. That’s an interesting way to not care about something. And I as I stated in my review on Sinners, it’s almost always only a critique on Black men with White women but silence on just about any other interracial combination. Funny how that works. You’ve got meme-fied online figures like Dr Umar Johnson who has officially become the face of straight Black male dick-policing. Last time I checked, it’s odd behavior for straight men to concern themselves with who other straight men date. That’s something gossipy girls do. Men aren't supposed to do that. But perhaps I was just raised with a different set of values.
I say all this because Nicolas Provost's 2011 film The Invader addresses all of this and more. The basic premise follows an undocumented construction worker that becomes obsessed with a mysterious woman (it also isn’t clear if he has mental illness or is just really immature). I'm just not sure it succeeds at the end of the day. The signals are very mixed.
I saw this at the Toronto film festival 14 years ago and got so caught up in the overt racial commentary concerning Black men and White women that I completely overlooked the cinematic influences and the obvious commentary on the growing fear of African and Caribbean migrants (men specifically) entering Europe. The movie is literally called “The Invader”. I’m not sure how I missed that.
It’s been a long time since I watched this movie from start to finish but every once in a while a random scene from it will pop up in my head. Again - I don’t know if this movie is a success but there's clearly something thought provoking about it. I guess any movie that takes an unflinching and naive/borderline unrealistic look at interracial relationships and immigration is going to leave an impression.
A big chunk of The Invader is shot like a Hitchcock movie. The film's main character spends a lot of the movie stalking a woman like Jimmy Stewart in Vertigo...
Vertigo / The Invader
Vertigo / The Invader
Vertigo / The Invader
the people who brought me the most are Hitchcock, Lynch and Kubrick. To me they are the most important masters. They made me dream the most – Nicolas Provost, filmmakermagazine.com
Psycho / 2001... / Blue Velvet / The Invader
The Invader also shares a lot of coincidental similarities with Steve McQueen’s Shame and Lodge Kerrigan’s Claire Dolan. From a subject matter standpoint – The Invader would pair well with Claire Denis’ No Fear, No Die in that they’re both clearly about the fear of Black migrants coming over to Europe…
Shame / The Invader
No Fear, No Die is a much better execution of what Nicolas Provost tried to do with The Invader. A lot of the shots in Denis' film are Black migrants holding and man-handling the French national animal to represent the fear of outsiders taking over Fracnce/Europe. A little on the nose but it still works...
No Fear, No Die
No Fear, No Die
No Fear, No Die
I’m kind of glad The Invader came out in 2011 instead of today. If the right/wrong people caught wind of it, we would have gotten some of the most insufferable commentary from people who’d use this movie to fit their personal agenda. That’s sort of the problem with this movie. To be clear – it’s incredibly well-made and very thought provoking. But it’s one of those movies where the audience should be required to read at least one interview of the director so you could see where his head was at when making it. But that’s obviously unrealistic. Most people aren’t going to make the effort to read an interview with an obscure arthouse Belgian filmmaker. Nicolos Provost is incredibly liberal and anti-racist. He also doesn’t appear to be anti-immigration.
I wanted to create a feeling where this story is not just an anti-hero story. It’s also about our projection on immigrants. It becomes the monster that we project on immigrants, sometimes. I’m not trying to judge anyone. That’s what I hope is clear with the film, that I’m not taking parts. I’m not trying to come up with a voice for the immigrants, and I’m not blaming the Western world. It’s a tragic situation – Nicolas Provost, filmmakermagazine.com
But without doing some quick research on the director and his personal views, one might think his film was an anti-immigration/anti-interracial relationship propaganda movie. This is potentially dangerous. That doesn’t necessarily make it Provost’s fault. Most people are either very stupid or disingenuous or a combination of both. Like I said earlier – people are way more in to making art fit or speak to their own personal agendas. Someone could watch The Invader and think it’s a nationalist tool to promote hatred towards Black men and their “invasion” of Europe. If you’ve been keeping yourself up to date with current events, then you know immigration is a hot topic all over the world (especially concerning darker-skinned migrants). Folks online, specifically the archetypes I laid out at the start of this entry, want to believe those negative stereotypes about migrants. They want to believe the taboos concerning Black men and White women. The Invader is the type of film that might give those people validation to go “I KNEW IT!”. The opening scene alone, where the lead Black male is ogling a naked White woman on a beach, is enough to fuel their insecure beliefs.
At the end of the day this movie kind of leaves you wondering “so…what was the point of all this? The message seems a little mixed.” Normally, a mixed message or something left up for different interpretations isn’t always a bad thing. But when you take the director’s own words and put them up against the movie itself – certain things don’t align.
No matter how much of a mixed message this movie sends, I certainly encourage any and all viewers with the ability to think abstractly to seek it out. If you’re able to find a digital copy and come out confused, I think that’s perfectly understandable. If you’ve seen this and think I’m off or missing something, please let me know.
In this entry we look at Chantal Akerman's influence on everyone from Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird) & Kelly Reichardt (Wendy & Lucy) to newcomers like Kyle Edward Ball (Skinamarink) & Charlotte Wells Aftersun).
Enjoy...
A Chantal Akerman film is a real inspiration because it's so restrained and restraint. What you see in it in real time is what every other movie would cut out - Todd Haynes, Bomb Magazine
Jeanne Dielman / Dark Waters
Chantal Akerman's JEANNE DIELMAN was a big touchstone for me. I love that movie and I also love the time she takes with tasks - Greta Gerwig, Vanity Fair
Jeanne Dielman / Lady Bird
Jeanne Dielman / Lady Bird
Jeanne Dielman / Lady Bird
The above comparisons make me wonder if part of the inspiration for Gerwig's Barbie film came from Akerman's Golden Eighties...
The Golden Eighties / Barbie
Nobody else makes a movie like Akerman. They just have that extraordinary strength of vision. To see and be near that as a 20-year-old made me see how deep and committed an artist could be - Andrew Bujalski, The Film Stage
Saute Ma Ville / Mutual Appreciation
Chantal Akerman's work definitely influenced it - Kyle Edward Ball, Fangoria
Hotel Monterey / Skinamarink
Hotel Monterey / Skinamarink
Hotel Monterey / Skinamarink
Hotel Monterey / Skinamarink
Hotel Monterey / Skinamarink
La Chambre / Skinamarink
One for the primary references I was looking at was JE TU IL ELLE by Chantal Akerman, especially the beginning of that movie - Jane Schoenbrun, ebert voices
Je Tu Il Elle / We're All Going To The World's Fair
The comparison & quote above makes me wonder if this was also intentional...
Saute Ma Ville / We're All Going To The World's Fair
One was JEANNE DIELMAN (1975), the Chantal Akerman film, because of all these ordinary actions that Delphine Seyrig carries out in the film and that our protagonist, Albert, also carries out - Lucile Hadžihalilović, BFI
Jeanne Dielman... / Earwig
Jeanne Dielman... / Earwig
Jeanne Dielman... / Earwig
I have a Chantal Akerman book with me now that I’ll just mention [Chantal Akerman: Moving Through Time and Space]. I had the book on me when I was shooting. It’s just stills from some of her movies - Chantal Akerman, reclaim the frame
Jeanne Dielman / Night Moves
News From Home / Wendy and Lucy
The Day When / Night Moves
La Chambre / Night Moves
There is [also] a tracking shot in down a hotel corridor that is very directly inspired by Hotel Monterey - Chantal Akerman, Criterion
Hotel Monterey /
Aftersun
La Chambre is a short that she made in New York in 1972; it was the inspiration for the last shot of my film, which is kind of a 360-degree pan - Chantal Akerman, Criterion
La Chambre /
Aftersun
Akerman's influence on Wells started well before he feature film debut. One of her short films is almost a loose remake of News From Home...
Chantal Akerman I adore, especially News From Home - Charlotte Wells, The Guardian
News From Home /
Laps
News From Home /
Laps
News From Home /
Laps
The comparisons above makes me wonder if Wells was inspired by other similar shots from Akerman's films...
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