I have watched the first 17 minutes of Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles. Who was Jeanne Dielman? For Chantal Akerman, a Belgian, Jeanne was her address. That was where she lived as a widow, made home for herself and her teenage son and turned tricks to make ends meet.
I then switched films and watched 14 minutes of Citizen Kane. Who was Citizen Kane? For Orson Welles, Kane was first a "Citizen". Citizen Kane lived many places, in a rundown house in his early years, in Xanadu "on the Florida Gulf Coast" at the height of his wealth. Kane was not identified by any of the places he lived as Jeanne Dielman was, although both Kane's humble residence as a youth and Xanadu became symbols of who he was. "I'm an American", Kane says in the film. A Citizen, Welles says, that is an Everyman.
Charles Foster Kane was his full name. His name was not who Citizen Kane was. The English have a rule, and they follow it: "Tell me what a man does and I'll tell you who he is." Thus Gardener, Chamberlain, Miller, etc. Citizen Kane was known for what he did, and if Welles had followed the English rule, Citizen Kane's surname, his "real" name, would have been Tycoon. But Welles inverts the English practice: "You see, Thompson, it isn’t enough to tell us what a man did. You’ve got to tell us who he was."
Citizen Kane and Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles are considered at the top of the greatest films of all time, numbers three and four, respectively, by one site. The films are set in different eras 34 years apart, in two very different locations, directed by two very different directors, an American man and a Belgian woman. Yet both of these acclaimed films explore the question of identity. And we have many identities. We are many selves.
