Exploring ‘Saute ma ville’: Chantal Akerman’s playful debut short film
When Chantal Akerman was just 18, she had something profound to say. With a tiny crew, a love for the cinema and a clear idea of her political views, the blossoming filmmaker made Saute ma ville or Blow Up My Town. It was 1968, and France’s political landscape was radically changing. Feminism was gaining traction, and Akerman was dedicated to the cause. It wasn’t until 1975 that she made her most famous film, Jeanne Dielman 23 Quai du Commerce 1080 Bruxelles, which saw Akerman take the ideas explored in Saute ma ville and turn them into a three-and-a-half-hour epic.
If you have 12 minutes to spare, Akerman’s debut short is worth the watch. It demonstrates her burgeoning cinematic sensibility, using mundane and domestic settings and activities to comment on the monotony of everyday life for women, who are expected to be good housewives. In the ‘60s, women’s freedom was considerably limited, and Akerman clearly felt the trappings of her gender, refusing to submit to patriarchal demand. Saute ma ville is playful and darkly comic, yet it makes excellent points about the expectations of women in the domestic sphere, with Akerman choosing a kitchen as the setting for the film.
She enters her apartment while humming rather obnoxiously, going about her day as though she’s oblivious to the world around her – as if nothing could get her down. But what if this intense humming is just a way to drown out her thoughts? She keeps humming as she starts cooking spaghetti, then she begins taping up the door. Then, things start to get a little unnerving. She desperately shovels the plain pasta into her mouth in between sips of wine before squirting some water from the tap into her mouth, making a strangely excited sound as a result.
Akerman acts increasingly erratic, her humming getting more primal as she starts making a mess of the kitchen, pulling out items that should be kept in the cupboards and shining her shoes with polish that she manages to get all over her legs. While these actions seem random, it’s clear that Akerman wants us to acknowledge the trappings of domesticity. These are the actions of someone who is so fed up that they’ve managed to go a little insane. Just as Jeanne Dielman stabs a client after three hours of washing dishes and preparing meat, Saute ma ville zooms in on a small moment of instability, where the protagonist is ready to revolt against her suffocating environment.
Yet, in doing so, everything crumbles, and she ends up dead. Clearly, attempts to break such a strong and dominating system can feel futile. As she maniacally laughs, painting her face with moisturising cream, we realise that this short can only end in one way. The screen turns black and goes silent for a few seconds, only for her humming and laughter to return, creating a playful end. Perhaps all we can do is laugh and try to have fun in the face of oppression if we want to weaken its power.
Watch Saute ma ville below.
