- Description:
- DVD - Region free. viewing copy. 2 videodiscs of 2.
b/w.
fullscreen. sound.
- Notes:
- A compilation of films by the first generation of avant-garde filmmakers in Belgium, including films by surrealists Henri D’Ursel and Ernst Moerman as well as future documentary filmmakers Charles Dekeukeleire and Henri Storck. Presented with new soundtracks composed for the dvd release. Supplemental materials: informational booklet with essays in French, Dutch and English.
Titles
+ Images D’Ostende
- Director:
- Storck, Henri
- Production Co:
- Fonds Henri Storck
- Running Time:
- Short. 11 minutes
- Sound:
- sound
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- Belgium
- Year:
- 1929
- Genre:
- Experimental / Avant Garde, Silent Cinema
- Notes:
- A film organized in visual chapters: the port, the anchors, the wind, the meerschaum, the dunes, the North Sea; a series of images which are completely freed of anecdote and illustration. Water, sand and waves become an integral part of the filmic vocabulary.
- Link to:
- FII catalog |
+ Pour Vos Beaux Yeux
- Director:
- Storck, Henri
- Production Co:
- Fonds Henri Storck
- Running Time:
- Short. 7 minutes
- Sound:
- sound
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- Belgium
- Year:
- 1929
- Genre:
- Experimental / Avant Garde, Silent Cinema
- Notes:
- The story of a young man who finds a glass eye in a park, becomes obsessed with the object and attempts to get rid of it by sending it through the mail.
- Link to:
- FII catalog |
+ Histoire Du Soldat Inconnu
- Director:
- Storck, Henri
- Production Co:
- Fonds Henri Storck
- Running Time:
- Short. 11 minutes
- Sound:
- sound
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- Belgium
- Year:
- 1932
- Genre:
- Experimental / Avant Garde, Silent Cinema
- Notes:
- A found footage film made of newsreels from 1928, the year when 60 nations signed a pact outlawing war, and juxtaposed this heartwarming utopia with the signs of a forthcoming conflict: burgeoning nationalism, police brutality, excessive colonialism, bellicose politics.
- Link to:
- FII catalog |
+ Sur Les Bords De La Caméra
- Director:
- Storck, Henri
- Production Co:
- Fonds Henri Storck
- Running Time:
- Short. 11 minutes
- Sound:
- sound
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- Belgium
- Year:
- 1932
- Genre:
- Experimental / Avant Garde, Silent Cinema
- Notes:
- A found footage film using newsreels from 1928, which he distorts for satiric purposes, combining images of crowds, police repression, explosions, riots and fire with images of gymnasts, music halls, models and sea lions.
- Link to:
- FII catalog |
+ Combat De Boxe
- Director:
- Dekeukeleire, Charles
- Running Time:
- Short. 8 minutes
- Sound:
- sound
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- Belgium
- Year:
- 1927
- Genre:
- Experimental / Avant Garde, Sport, Silent Cinema
- Notes:
- Based on the poem by Paul Werrie. A composition of high-speed rhythmic montage, close-ups, superimpositions, negative images, and other visual techniques and distortions depicting a violent boxing match.
+ Visions De Lourdes
- Director:
- Dekeukeleire, Charles
- Production Co:
- PDK Productions
- Running Time:
- Short. 18 minutes
- Sound:
- sound
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- Belgium
- Year:
- 1932
- Genre:
- Experimental / Avant Garde, Silent Cinema
- Notes:
- A critical reflection on a religious pilgrimages.
+ Impatience
- Director:
- Dekeukeleire, Charles
- Running Time:
- Short. 36 minutes
- Sound:
- sound
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- Belgium
- Year:
- 1928
- Genre:
- Experimental / Avant Garde, Silent Cinema
- Notes:
- Built from four series of images - ‘the motorbike, the woman, the mountain, and abstract blocks’- that serve as a starting point for Dekeukeleire to construct his film according to very precise parameters. The rhythm is given by a mathematical fragmentation of the film’s running time, divided up into temporal segments where the four repertories of images succeed each other in every possible combination with no respect for either melodic line or dramatic tension.
+ Histoire De Détective
- Director:
- Dekeukeleire, Charles
- Running Time:
- Short. 51 minutes
- Sound:
- sound
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- Belgium
- Year:
- 1929
- Genre:
- Experimental / Avant Garde, Detective, Silent Cinema
- Notes:
- A woman, concerned about the continual absences of her husband, hires a detective to follow him and report back to her. At first glance this appears to be a classic fictional device, yet this framework serves only to set up a narrative pretext for disrupting narrative itself in favor of pure cinema.
+ Perle, La
- Director:
- D’Ursel, Henri
- Production Co:
- ARC (Brussels)
- Running Time:
- Short. 33 minutes
- Sound:
- sound
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- Belgium
- Year:
- 1929
- Genre:
- Experimental / Avant Garde, Mystery, Silent Cinema
- Notes:
- Made by the nobleman D’Ursel under the pseudonym Henri D’Arche. The hero goes in search of a pearl which constantly disappears in a string of bizarre encounters reminiscent of the serial thrillers of Louis Feuillade.
+ Monsieur Fantômas
- Director:
- Moerman, Ernst
- Production Co:
- Hagen-Tronje
- Running Time:
- Short. 17 minutes
- Sound:
- sound
- Color:
- b/w
- Country:
- Belgium
- Year:
- 1937
- Genre:
- Experimental / Avant Garde, Silent Cinema
- Notes:
- Satirically utilizing the hero of the serial novels and films of the 1910s, the “Master of Crime” tours the world in pursuit of the beautiful Elvire, punctuating his travels with mischief and acts to offend proper decency. The film encompasses amour fou, the meander of dreams, fanatical anti-clericalism and a plea for subversion and adventure.