Werckmeister Harmonies

"It’s an amazing movie that I was unaware of until Gus [Van Sant] showed it to me. It was right before we went to Argentina to start shooting Gerry. He said, “I want you to see this because they don’t cut often, and they come back to the same angle when they come back in a room.” If you’re in this room and we’re talking, the camera would be there. Every time we’d come into this room, in any particular scene, the camera would still be there. So the rooms are presented from the same shot angle, height, and lens. And it plays out pretty much in real time. And he wanted me to see that it was okay that people weren’t in the shot. They walked out, they came back. That was a profound experience for me. It’s a powerful movie. And I think the viewer generates some of the power. After seeing it, I found cutting really disruptive to me as a viewer. It kind of stops you. If you’re not cutting, you’re just watching and processing.”

— Harris Savides on Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman

Divine Intervention | Elia Suleiman | 2002