There is a tiny plaque outside 23 Quai du Commerce in Brussels. It marks one of the most famous addresses in film history.
It was here, in 1975, that the Brussels film-maker Chantal Ackerman made the film Jeanne Dieleman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles.
It was a modest feminist film that covered three days in the life of a Brussels prostitute played by Delphine Seyrig. Ackerman shows Dieleman performing dull domestic chores such as peeling potatoes as well as having sex with a client every afternoon.
Not a blockbuster, you might argue. Hardly anyone had heard of the film until it was unexpectedly voted the best film of all time in a 2022 poll of international film critics by the movie magazine Sight and Sound.
The forgotten Belgian film beat Citizen Kane, which held the top spot for 50 years, as well as all the other film classics. It can now be found on the main streaming platforms, although you really need to watch it in a cinema.
Derek Blyth’s hidden secret of the day: Derek Blyth is the author of the bestselling “The 500 Hidden Secrets of Belgium”. He picks out one of his favourite hidden secrets for The Brussels Times every day.
