The Man with the Suitcase

MOVIE #2,187 • SCORE 8/10 • 12.05.24
SERIES: ALBERT & AKERMAN

When I embarked on this journey it felt like (and was!) the stupidest thing imaginable. But over time, I've come to associate these two filmmakers so closely (by force, yes) that something transcendent seems to be happening. I need to workshop my endgame and make sure these 50 installments truly will align / add up (and enough of what’s left is even accessible), but I've created a new way to process cinema — I’m certain of this. It's completely contrived and born of the ether, and that's fine. That mode fits me (and maybe only me).


On The Man with the Suitcase, a shade over 60 minutes micro-feature that aired on French TV: I can appreciate this level of seeking solitude and being an antisocial freak. I often dream of a similar life, also void of the hunky roommate however. It’s also nice to see Chantal out in front of the camera again. That she perhaps misses this young stud is the most interesting aspect of The Man. Is this Chantal with one foot in two worlds? Seeing the appeal of the straight and beautiful life (the ease it provides) while also being repulsed by it? How will it pair with Albert Pyun’s proto-VR gaming thriller, Arcade? That’s the more important question. So let’s find out!

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CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ MOVIE #2,186 - (YOU ARE HERE) - MOVIE #2,188 ⫸

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A sensitivity to sounds coming from the activities of an unwelcome guest in the close quarters of an apartment is only one important component in this atmospheric, avant-garde drollery by Chantal Akerman. When the apartment owner comes home, her guest is settled in and at first, the slightly reclusive host decides simply to eat her breakfast in her room instead of having to face morning conversation with her guest. Sounds of the toilet flushing, the bath water running and splashing, footsteps pacing, and furniture moving invade the hostess’ refuge in her bedroom like the frontrunners of an all-out offensive. She locks herself up for 28 days, life’s detritus accumulating around her, just so she does not have to go out to face the nemesis that lurks beyond her door. It was released on Sep 5, 1984.