From Real to Surreal: Flemish Artists, Belgian Cinema 1910s - 1980s
Sunday 28 February, 2016
7:30 - 9:30pm, $0
Columbia University, Dodge Hall
2960 Broadway, Room 511
In the late 1940s, Belgium saw a return of the surreal, though one can argue that it never really went away. Flemish authors Johan Daisne and Hubert Lampo spearheaded the magical realism movement and cinematic adaptations of their work required a director with a feel for the material, so it seems only apt that Johan Daisne’s De Man die zijn haar kort liet knippen (The Man who had his hair cut short) was adapted to the screen in 1965 as the feature film debut of Flemish filmmaker André Delvaux, son of famous Surrealist painter Paul Delvaux. The film follows girls’ school teacher Govert Miereveld (Senne Rouffaer) as he falls in love with a pupil and starts to lose his mind. Delvaux jr. would become renowned for his Surrealist films in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, leading to three Palme d’Or nominations at the Cannes film festival and a lasting legacy in Belgian cinema. The film will be preceded by the Palme d’Or winning short Harpya (1979) by Flanders’ most celebrated animator Raoul Servais.
Vito Adriaensens is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Columbia University’s School of the Arts, where he teaches in the Film Department, and a postdoctoral Fellow of the Belgian American Educational Foundation. He holds a PhD from the University of Antwerp and has also taught at the VU University in Amsterdam and the School of Arts, University College in Ghent. His research focuses on the interaction between cinema and visual and performing arts.