In addition to preserving her films, CINEMATEK also holds the archives belonging to Chantal Akerman and Paradise Films. These are currently in the process of being catalogued, inventoried and digitised with the aim of preserving and protecting the work of Chantal Akerman in all its entirety and diversity.
These archives bring together, by means of film, book or installation, her scripts, notes of intent, research, on-set photographs, press articles and dossiers, interviews, subtitles and general documents relating to production.
the archives belonging to Chantal Akerman and Paradise Films.
Also found are those projects that remained unfilmed by the director as well as her personal archives. Each of these valuable elements play a role in the wishes and efforts of the Fondation Chantal Akerman to establish a deep, scientific knowledge of her work and to provide answers to the many questions and demands of those researchers who are studying her work, programmers who are presenting it or artists and filmmakers who are stimulated by it.
The restoration of Jeanne Dielman was carried out in 2014 at CINEMATEK from an original negative for the image. Which is the best option. In the eighties a new print was made at the request of CINEMATEK.
Colour and soundtrack of that print were still in perfect condition and could be used as a reference for the image as well as for the digitisation of the sound. One reel of the original negative was in bad condition, with large stains that had to be removed digitally. Due to damage years ago, a sequence was replaced with dupe neg. But in general the negative was in good condition with only small scratches and stripes.
The grading has been done in cooperation with Chantal Akerman herself. It was one of the few titles where her input could help the staff to determine the right colour combination and she wanted to emphasize that the colours of the interiors were subordinate to the colour of the hair and skin of Delphine Seyrig. Because of this, it seems as if there are different ‘faux-raccords’ between the shots, but Chantal Akerman didn’t really care about that. As long as the colour of Delphine’s hair and skin was the same each time.
