the new formalism: images awash in the midst of personal history

chantal akerman's debut shorts (saute ma ville, la chambre, and hotel monterey, respectively) were all exercises in mapping out the varied geography of the modern space (the kitchen, the furnished bedroom, the densely populated hotel) and the people within them. akerman frames these spaces as sites of living-via-doing; we see the woman performing household chores in saute ma ville, we see the woman eating in la chambre, and we see…