“Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai Du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles,” was directed by Chantal Akerman. It is the kind of movie where you know what it is going to be about, but when you see it you realize that you were completely wrong. I thought it was going to be a movie about the French lifestyle, the everyday life of a French woman. But I was completely wrong. It wasn't that at all, it was a movie about a single French mom who is a prostitute. The movie takes place in the course of three days.

The first day, starts in the afternoon, and Dielman is cooking dinner. She puts some food on the stove. Then we hear a knocking on the door and an old gentleman comes in. Dielman takes his hat and coat, and they go into the bedroom, then the lights outside turn off in that old fashioned way - where you actually know that someone turned the light off and you hear the sound of the switch. They do it to indicate night time.

Then they come out, still not saying a word. She gives him his hat and coat and he gives her money and says see you next week, and leaves. Then she goes into the dining room, where on the table is a white and blue pot where she puts the money.

Then she goes into the bedroom again to straighten outs the sheets, and opens the windows to air out the room. Then she goes to the kitchen to see how dinner is coming. Then she goes into the bathroom and bathes, after that she puts on her clothes and cleans the bathtub. Then goes back to the kitchen, to get dinner ready, then we hear the door opening, a young man comes in and Dielman rushes to get his coat and scarf.

Then he sits down in the living room, while Dielman brings out dinner. Then they both have their dinner. Later he takes out a book from his bag, and that's when we realize that he is her son. She helps him with his homework, after that he starts reading a book, while knitting and listening to the radio. A few minutes later they get up not saying a word to each other, get dressed and go out for a walk. Later they come back, and they get ready for bed, we find out here that they are probably not a rich family because the son sleeps in a couch that turn into a bed, which is in the living room.

The second day, we are shown what their life is like from the morning. Dielman wakes up first, and goes to the living room, lights the heater and goes into the kitchen to prepare breakfast. She comes back to the living room and wakes up her son, who of course slowly wakes up. In the next scene, they are in the kitchen, his mom is serving him breakfast, then leaves and we see him spreading something on his bread.

Then we see them both by the door. He is putting his coat on, and his mom has his scarf in her hands. Before he leaves she gives him money for the day. Then she gets ready for the day, she goes out shopping for groceries and then goes into a coffee store which we suspect she has gone to before - because without saying a word, the waitress brings her coffee and biscuits.

Then she goes back home, and it's the afternoon. The whole process from the first day starts over. She prepares food, the doorbell rings and a middle-aged man enters, she takes his coat and hat. Then they go into the bedroom, the lights change again and they come back out. She hands him his coat and hat, and he gives her money and says see you Thursday.

She puts the money in the bowl, airs out her room, checks on dinner, takes a bath and washes the tub. Then she goes back into the kitchen and prepares dinner and her son comes. They sit down to eat and he goes back to reading while she turns on the radio and knits. Later they go out for a walk, come back and get ready for bed.

On the third day everything goes wrong. It's almost as if she is tired of a life. When she wakes up she looks depressed, when she is putting on her nightgown she forgets a button by her chest, which her son reminds her of. She is forgetting to do stuff, she is just bored of life. Nothing is going her way.

She goes to run her errands, but when she gets to the post office she see it's closed. When she goes to the tailor to find a button they say they don't have it, and tell her to try somewhere else. When she goes into the coffee shop she finds that someone is in her seat, and then she finds that the waitress that gets her order isn't there. When she goes home she pours some tea for herself, but she doesn't like it and tries different methods to make it better and eventually gives up.

Then we hear a doorbell, but this time we don't see the scene with the door, we see them in the bedroom. Afterward Dielman is still depressed and tired of her life, so she does something out of the blue. She grabs a pair of scissors which she hid. She goes over to him and silently stabs him in the chest and he dies right there. At the end of the movie she is shown sitting at the dinner table with the scissors in her hand and blood on her shirt. That's how the movie ends.

Showing a movie like this, in this time, is completely out of the question. No one would have watched it. But if you do stick around and watch the movie, it gets really interesting in the middle and the end literally came out of the blue. This movie might not be seen by many people, but I really like it. It was worth watching the whole movie.