SYNOPSIS

A young girl shuts herself away in her apartment and goes about her business in a strange way, as she wastes the night in her apartment.

Program Note

 line-height:115%;mso-ascii-font-family:\" 맑은=\"\" 고딕\";mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin;=\"\" mso-fareast-font-family:\"맑은=\"\" 고딕\";mso-fareast-theme-font:major-latin;mso-hansi-font-family:=\"\" \"맑은=\"\" 고딕\";mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin\"=\"\">This is the debut film of Chantal AKERMAN,
 a filmmaker who dropped out of film school at the age of 18 and produced this
 film with the money she had earned by trading diamond shares at a stock
 exchange. This film is the first to capture the kitchen space as its setting,
 which has been a recurring motif and main cinematic setting for her major film Jeanne Dielman as well as her last
 film, No Home Movie. The film
 portrays Ms. AKERMAN, initially showing her appearing to hum cheerfully and
 lightheartedly, dance in the kitchen while doing household chores such as
 cleaning, cooking, and shining her shoes. When she then goes on to seal the
 door and window with tape and blow up the kitchen by lighting the gas. What AKERMAN
 blows up is not the ‘town’ mentioned in the title of the film, but a kitchen. The
 kitchen is the confinement that has become an oppressive space for women caused
 by patriarchy. The merry and happy song that plays in the background of the
 blackened screen after the sound of the explosions seems to hint that
 liberation has taken place by means of destruction. However, this doesn’t mean
 things are always unhappy and miserable in the kitchen. AKERMAN’s cheerful
 humming, almost acting as a poetic contradiction, could be seen as a way of
 paying respects to the labor and hard work of women, who work and take care of
 household affairs in the kitchen. [CHO HeyYoung]