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"Is Jeanne Dielmans' apartment on 23, quai du Commerce in Brussels a haunted house? It might well be. Because the dwelling where most of Chantal Akerman's 1975 masterpiece is set is often eerily deserted, with only the distant sounds of shuffling feet and clanging keys filling its hallways. As the camera waits for the titular protagonist to arrive (or lingers after she has left), the rooms are reduced to echo chambers. Jeanne Dielman is disembodied, a ghost even in her own domestic realm. Her visual absence in these moments represents quite literally the invisibility of her plight: a life lived in the shadows, a fate suffered just around a corner, conveniently out of view for the rest of society."

"While the vitality and stimulation of the urban environment can be pleasant, those living in or visiting densely populated areas such as New York can have wildly different experiences. The ever-present cacophony of traffic, construction, and commerce; the struggle for mental and physical space; and the anxious need for constant communication in person or via technology are relentless assaults on the senses. One wonders how locals and visitors can escape, find respite, and make peace with their space in this "city that never sleeps.""