Maniac Summer

2009 0h 34m FR

🙌

8.0

BANGER

★8.0TMDB · 1

Documentary

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Maniac Summer consists of images and sounds recorded in Paris in the summer of 2009. It is a sprawling triptych without a beginning or end and with no specific subject or topic. The camera is positioned in front of a window and left running. It observes movements, registers noises coming from the street or nearby park, captures Chantal Akerman going about her business in her apartment: smoking, working, talking on the telephone. Fragments from the artist’s everyday life are featured in the installation’s central video, while the adjoining panels are more symbolically charged; in them, various images from the former have been isolated, modified and repeated. These abstract afterimages act as a kind of memory, looking back to the images in the installation’s centrepiece as so many shadows of its reality.

“Some stories are better left unspoiled.”

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Cast

Chantal Akerman
Self

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Chantal Akerman
Languages: French
Countries: France

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Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 5

RUNTIME

Did you know

Tight 34-minute runtime — shorter than most television pilots.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 5

ERA

Did you know

Released 17 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 5

RUNTIME

Did you know

Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 5

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Chantal Akerman shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 5

WILD

Did you know

Only 1 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Chantal Akerman directs. Chantal Akerman cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in France. Dialogue in French.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Tight 34-minute runtime — shorter than most television pilots.
2Released 17 years ago.
3Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.
4Editor Chantal Akerman shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
5Only 1 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.