Directing
Renowned architect Renaat Braem once called Belgium the ugliest country in the world. Beauty and ugliness are relative concepts, but Belgian architecture is remarkable, to say the least. The three-part documentary series Archibelge approaches Belgian architecture and spatial planning from the perspective of the identity of Belgians themselves, specifically the way we work, live, and relax. Each of these three facets is addressed in a single episode, focusing on Brussels, the countryside, and the coast respectively. The result is a compelling and visually surprising look at Belgian architecture, with testimonies from people who have strong opinions about it, such as Eric De Kuyper, Geert Van Istendael, and Hannes Coudenys. Why does Belgium look the way it does, and what should happen now?
Ariane lives with Simon in his large Paris flat. Simon is obsessed with her: he wants to know everything about her, secretly follows her when she goes out, asks questions all the time, even in the most intimate moments. Ariane seems to take it all in stride, but Simon realises that she's hiding something.
In a series of long held shots, men are observed performing simple tasks in real time, while on the soundtrack we hear excerpts from opera.
Episode about the making of "The Young Girls of Rochefort". Part of a series of 'behind the scenes / making of' films produced in Belgium
A woman suffers a subdued psychological breakdown in the wake of a devastating breakup.
After debuting in 1983 with Casta Diva, Eric de Kuyper immediately made Naughty Boys in 1984, a film that he himself described as “a sad musical comedy” in which he pays homage to the old musicals and comedies. The film is set in an unspecified time, somewhere between both World Wars in a large English country house. Six gentlemen in dinner jackets try to maintain the atmosphere of a party that has just ended. Naughty Boys was the second film De Kuyper made with friends and students, but here for the first time they were joined by a “professional” actress, Linda Polan.
A portrait of Eric de Kuyper.
An old man comes across a fascinating archive, then meets a woman who introduces him to the life of a banker, patron and philanthropist. A moving essay that is part documentary, part film diary.
A homoerotic exploration of the Odyssey mixing black and white, color, and old film clips.
In the early 90s, a Dutch dance company, ‘t Concern, asked me to join its members in devising a show. They came to me as a filmmaker, because the aim was to come up with a dance-performance that would include moving images. The company consisted of five female dancers and one male dancer. This unusual combination led me to suggest basing the show on the archetypal 1950s housewife and her everyday chores. And setting this against the ballet music of Delibes, Čajkovskij and Glazunov. (I had an aunt who had never been a ballet dancer but who listened to ballet music as she went about doing her housework). The idea was to match each professional female dancer with a non-professional male dancer. The only surviving trace of this show remains its 16mm entr’actes, shown here under the title Echte clichés. Does not every cliché contain a grain of truth to be rediscovered?
Nono, a Dutch kid lacking two days being thirteen, runs away from problems at home and, disguised as a girl, takes up with the world's cleverest thief, who unbeknownst to Nono, may hold the bizarre key to his true identity.
Documentary exploring why Belgian television doesn't invest more money in Belgian cinema as is the case in e.g. the netherlands.
A young Swiss drug addict has been imprisoned for robbery, and must wait and wait for his upcoming trial, all the while isolated and without hope of parole - the police are convinced he is a dealer and not just a user. He hears from his son that his girlfriend has a new man, and begins to despair of ever coming to trial, or of having another relationship like the one he lost. This fiction film is said to be based on a true story.
Single woman Charlotte tries to write erotic fiction despite not having any sensual experience.
Film professor Michael falls in love with one of his students and is confronted with his pupil's father, with whom he had an affair over 15 years ago. This unexpected meeting abruptly overturns the lives of all the characters. When the tutor decides to undertake a planned trip to London, not with the son but with the father, he is once again forced to choose; this time between his wife and his friend.
Six-part documentary on the making of Jacques Demy's 'Le demoiselles de Rochefort'
An analysis of the work of Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman (1950-2015), an experimental and innovative artist, both in content and form, who has left her mark on cultural memory and on the creations of other artists.
Eric De Kuyper’s first feature film in 25 years is made up of sequences that pay tribute to a range of Hollywood genres.
Knokke, Belgium. A small mundane coastal town, home to the beau-monde. To compete with Venice and Cannes, the posh casino hosts the second ‘World Festival of Film and the Arts’ in 1949, organised in part by the Royal Cinematheque of Belgium. To celebrate cinema’s 50 year existence, they put together a side program showcasing the medium in all its shapes and forms: surrealist film, absolute film, dadaist films, abstract film,… The side program would soon become a festival in its own right: ‘EXPRMNTL’, dedicated to experimental cinema, and would become a mythical gathering of the avant-garde…
A series of short vignettes set in a Berlin Mietskaserne (rental barracks for the poor), framed by Schönberg's atonal piece Pierrot Lunaire.
