1982

Hôtel des Acacias

Directors: Yves Hanchar, Pierre Charles Rochette, François Vanderveken, Isabelle Willems, under the direction of Chantal Akerman & Michèle Blondeel.

Belgium, 1982 / 16mm / Color / 42 min
Marie-Sygne Ledoux, Marc Schreiber, Jean-Jacques Moreau, Mario Gonzales, Philippe Bombled, Nathalie Willame, Nicole Valberg, Amid Chakir, Catherine Carrera, Christine Pouquet, Bernard Yerlès, Cathy Guisard and Michel Kartchevsky. Directors: Yves Hanchar, Pierre Charles Rochette, François Vanderveken, Isabelle Willems, under the direction of Chantal Akerman & Michèle Blondeel.

Hôtel des Acacias

Belgium, 1982 / 16mm / Color / 42 min

Cast: Marie-Sygne Ledoux, Marc Schreiber, Jean-Jacques Moreau, Mario Gonzales, Philippe Bombled, Nathalie Willame, Nicole Valberg, Amid Chakir, Catherine Carrera, Christine Pouquet, Bernard Yerlès, Cathy Guisard and Michel Kartchevsky. Directors: Yves Hanchar, Pierre Charles Rochette, François Vanderveken, Isabelle Willems, under the direction of Chantal Akerman & Michèle Blondeel.

Production: INSAS - Institut National Supérieur des Arts du Spectacle et Techniques de Diffusion (Bruxelles)

Sound: Henri Morelle

Editing: Suzy Rossberg

Photography: Michel Houssiau

Several young men and women arrive one after the other at Hôtel des Acacias, full of hope, desire and vitality. In the bustle of this hotel, everyone is looking for love.

In 1982, the director of INSAS (the Brussels film school) asked Chantal Akerman to direct a film workshop. The filmmaker made the students work on a script written with Michèle Blondeel. Two young women go down to the Hôtel des Acacias. The owner is unattached and ready to fall in love with the first woman who comes along. Between them will come the hotel’s employees and clients, all of whom are wrapped up in love stories. A ball closes the story, whose moral is very similar to that of Golden Eighties, namely that love has its reasons that reason cannot understand; some are denied it whatever their qualities.

This film was remastered by Thaïs Play David at INSAS as part of a Master’s exercise in 2019-2020. The original negative was scanned by CINEMATEK.

For any request about Chantal Akerman’s Film Hôtel des Acacias, you can contact the foundation at:

works@chantalakerman.foundation