Aurore Clement recalls the chaos at the Paris premiere of Les Rendez-vous d'Anna (Meetings With Anna), a 1978 film by Chantal Akerman. The film follows Anna's European journey, revealing her existential solitude and refusal to conform to societal expectations. Its feminist themes were too avant-garde for the era, leading to audience backlash. Now, part of a retrospective at the BFI, the film is gaining recognition as audiences are increasingly receptive to its complex narrative and themes of absence, presence, and historical malaise, enhancing its relevance today.
The film was undoubtedly a challenging, elusive film—a series of haunted confessions heard by this film-maker protagonist from lovers, family and wayfarers while on her travels promoting an unknown work.
People weren't ready to accept it at the time, its feminism, says Clement of the film, which was released in 1978.
Nearly 50 years on, audiences seem finally ready to embrace it. Meetings With Anna is part of a major retrospective of Akerman's work at the BFI in London.
A malaise, a sense of history and inheritance weighing on ordinary lives permeates the narrative, making it deeply resonant with contemporary audiences.
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