An itinary of hotel rooms, train stations interstitial spaces and chance meetings during which the protagonist comes home to spend a night with her mother. Another journey film a refusal to stay still, Chantal Akerman choses motion

‘Anna’s Meetings’ is a highly personal tale of a female filmmaker travelling in Europe to promote a movie.

The titular Anna lives in a bleak and sterile world – urban, grey and uniform with a stark symmetry that is utterly beautiful in its own way. The protagonist meets a man, then kicks him out. She talks to, or rather listens to, a war veteran for a while. She meets her mum in Paris. In between, she travels in taxis and on trains and spends a lot of time staring at things.

However, slowly but surely, a portrait is created and this is the films genius. We realise that we are experiencing Anna’s emptiness too, and we might even realise that our own lives are full of bleak, unfulfilling encounters and endless drudgery. Yes, even filmmakers!

In ‘Rendez-Vous D’Anna’, it is the characters she meets that make the film so watchable. Anna takes a back seat and allows the other performers to hold forth on their passions and beliefs, in much the same way a documentary filmmaker has to take a step back and allow the subject room to express themselves.

This is a film about emotion and expression of the sort you only see in everyday life, and Chantal Akerman has captured it beautifully.