Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles

Chantal Akerman’s ambitious 1976 drama Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles is an epic in that it clocks over three hours; but it’s not a conventional epic in that, well, not very much happens. A seemingly normal single woman goes about her many daily chores, peeling potatoes and setting tables. That she happens to prostitute herself to afford her modest lifestyle is treated almost as an afterthought, and the film unfolds as if in real time, giving viewers a taste of the boredom and quiet, existential misery that pervades Jeanne Dielman’s life.