Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, 1975
March 25, 2022 | MONETT IBRAGIMTCHAEV
In her modest Brussels apartment, Jeanne Dielman (Delphine Seyrig), the single mother of a son, Sylvain (Jan Decorte), keeps churning out a dull, repetitive life. Jeanne's days are divided between boring household tasks like shopping, cooking, and housework, as well as her part-time job as a prostitute, which keeps her afloat financially. She appears to be perfectly content with her situation until a succession of minor interruptions in her routine result in unexpected and dramatic change.
Seeing how this woman sits and stands and rolls over everyday for 3 hours until we get to the end of the movie when she kills the man she sleeps with and acts like nothing happens is quite amazing. We see how she has to provide for her family. She is both mother and father in this movie because of the death of her husband she must be the one who brings money into the house. This connects to the reading when they mention “The repeated finding of these studies is that the qualities deemed necessary for adulthood—the capacity for autonomous thinking, clear decision making, and responsible action—are those associated with masculinity but considered undesirable as attributes of the feminine self.” (Carol Gilligan, In a Different Voice) Of course in this movie we see how the mother takes on the role of being the one who has to provide and a mother will do anything to make sure that her family is set and not struggling so that she doesn’t need a man. Even at the end of the movie when she kills the man that was a powerful scene because she just gets up, kills him and then goes on with her day.
As well as connecting to this part “The stereotypes suggest a splitting of love and work that relegates the expressive capacities requisite for the former to women while the instrumental abilities necessary for the latter reside in the masculine domain.” (Carol Gilligan, In a Different Voice). I feel that this fits best because this woman is really juggling so much while so remaining to show that she is so calm. As the movie progresses we see that she is just doing what she has to do and the fact that all this happens with the life span of 3 days is just amazing. This movie shows an everyday life of a single woman and because this was never shown in any movies for the fact that it's going so unnoticed.
March 25, 2022 | TRISTAN MIRANDA
The 1975 film titled “Jeanne Dielman 23, quai du Commerce 1080 Bruxelles” is related to care ethics. The film places its emphasis on Jean Dielman, who serves as the main character. Jean is a single mother whose schedule primarily consists of cooking, cleaning, errands and participating in a variation of motherly acts that are typically found in traditional mothering. Alongside this, she also participates each day in sexual activites with males who are willing to pay her for it. The film shows her routine across the course of three days and analyzes each one.
On the first day, we get an in depth look at Jeanne’s traditional activities and how her daily routine appears to go. On the second day, we get a sense of her daily activities again, however we are able to see some alterations. Her hairstyle and her demeanor are able to be distinguished as different from the day prior. As the day progresses, we see sudden changes in her behaviors and mistakes occurring within her daily activities which did not occur on day 1.
Upon analyzing both days you can observe her ambitions are in conflict with her lifestyle. It is almost likely she is in control of very few things within her life. On the 3rd and final day, she alters her daily activities again by going shopping and engaging in greater conversations with her business partners. It appears that her circumstances and cultural processes have greatly impacted her perception of the world as she knows it. The ending seems to be expected as Jeanne is seen murdering one of her cilents with a pair of scissors. It seems that this is caused by an outrage of many indifferences she had as a female in comparison to the male clients she was dealing with daily.
This film represents Carol Gilligan’s Care Ethics in a significant way. Throughout the entirety of the film, Jeanne falls in line with the ethical values of a female set in Gilligan’s writing. Jeanne progresses throughout the various phases. First, Jeanne appears in the preconventional phase when all of her moral judgments and decisions to sell herself for sex is purely based on the willingness to survive to obtain additional income. However, as the second day rolls around, Jeanne begins to change as she becomes aware of her roles. She enters the conventional phase on day 2 as she tells her son she wants to raise him and a man isn't needed for her to do that.This begins to lead into the second transitional phase as she begins to conflict with her clients and the purpose she serves in society. Finally on the third day, she enters the post conventional phase by attempting to create peace in order by eliminating her client. As we can see, Gilligan’s concept of care ethics is essentially being utilized throughout the entire length of the film.
March 25, 2022 | MICHELLE SCHULTHEIS
This movie is about a widower who is also a mother. She goes everyday caring for others, particularly her son and the men she sells herself to. She makes her son sweaters, cooks him meals, gives him money, and provides anything and everything possible for him. But she doesn’t have anyone to provide for her. She even sells herself to men who are looking for sex. She gets money, but it doesn’t appear she gets any pleasure from it. After all, she kills a man after having sex with him. She seems troubled, but later relieved that she “let go” of him. In a way it seems like that was one of the only things she did for herself. All of this showing how she cared for people, but it was at the expense of herself. She was loving everyday doing nearly the same thing, which it’s fine to have a routine, but she didn’t have anyone to care for her. This movie did a great job of highlighting the idea of care ethics and how important it truly is to make sure you’re doing things for the right reason and not selling yourself short.