| ‘I
don’t have electricity, I do have an oil lamp, but no money to buy
oil’, thus tells a Cambodian digger in the documentary ‘La
Terre des Âmes Errantes’ (The Land of the Wandering Souls). For
a pittance he digs a gully in the hard soil in which a fibreglass cable
is laid running from Frankfurt via Cambodia to China to speed up internet
connections in the world. In the film the ultramodern cable of Alcatel is
at the same time the shocking thread through the recent history of the country:
minefields and human remains of mass graves stop the diggers and they do
their work in miserable circumstances. The film by Rithy Panh was one of
the twenty-one impressive documentaries shown during the first edition of
Doc’s Kingdom from 10 till 15 October. Serpa, a beautiful and proud, sparklingly white farming village in Alentejo, one of the poorest regions of Portugal across the border from where Buñuel shot ‘Las Hurdes, Tierra sin pan’ (Land without Bread), formed the perfect setting for a concentrated confrontation with present-day creative documentary film. Making documentary films means patience, passion, observation and involvement; everywhere in the world documentaries give people voices and images that in contemporary mass media have almost completely been silenced or made invisible. Doc’s Kingdom dished up a world tour past shepherds in Kazakhstan, street poets in the favelas in Sao Paolo, a writing mother in the slums (bidonvilles) of Istanbul, farmers in Vietnam, civilian soldiers in Lebanon, China, Siberia, Serbia, Portugal … and that in very diverse and profoundly personal forms of expression reacting against the hectic demands of television and the major film industry. After the performances young and experienced filmmakers entered into debate about their work with the audience in order to discuss the ‘state-of-the-art’ of present-day documentary. The title Doc’s Kingdom, derived from a Robert Kramer film, is homage to the filmmaker who died last year. José Manuel Costa, the man who took the initiative and devised this five day meeting, organised together with AporDOC (Portugal), Amascultura (Portugal), États Généraux du Film Documentaire, Lussas (France) and the European Foundation Joris Ivens, announced that next year a second edition will follow. The audience and the municipality of Serpa are enthusiastic about this refuge; for the Foundation it is a possibility to create a meeting place for documentarists and to be an intermediary between the past and the future of the documentary art of film. |
The exhibition ‘Passages, Joris Ivens and the art of this century’ in Museum Het Valkhof drew 50,000 visitors. The 350 exhibits showed the context in which the Joris Ivens films came into being. It was exactly this panoramic cultural-historical scheme that commended itself to the public as appeared from the many positive reactions. The works by among others Pablo Picasso, Paul Strand, Kurt Schwitters, Làsló Moholy Nagy, Robert Capa, Alexandr Rodchenko, Dziga Vertov, Mart Stam, Gerrit Rietveld, Henry Cartier Bresson, Germaine Krull, Georg Grosz, Man Ray, Charley Toorop, Eva Besnyö and Robert Doisneau were exhibited from 27 November till 5 March of last year. Among the many visitors to the exhibition, which was opened by Marceline Loridan-Ivens, were among others the Dutch State Secretary of Culture Rick van der Ploeg, filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos, visual artist Ger Lataster and photographer Eva Besnyö.
| Reactions
from the press ‘Fascinating exhibition…Stufkens and Van der Schoor have wanted to lay the accent on Joris Ivens in relation to the art of this century, They have succeeded in an excellent way’, Wil Kester in De Gelderlander. ‘Very beautifully illustrated catalogue’, Hans Schoot in Skrien. ‘Excellent essays’, Sacha Bronwasser in De Volkskrant. ‘Not often can so much enthusiastic, engaged art be seen together’, Paul Arnoldussen in Het Parool. ‘The renewing artistic quality of these people is too big to exclude them permanently. Besides it is true for Ivens that we can be sure of his sincere idealism’, Bas Roodnat in NRC Handelsblad. ‘…put together with a lot of care and understanding. It is the great merit of the organisers to have brought together works of art often surprisingly close to the work of Joris Ivens. The catalogue is absolutely magnificent’, Hendrik Ollivier in ‘Brood en Rozen’. |
During the 12th IDFA (International Documentary Festival Amsterdam) editor Kees Bakker presented the first copy of the collection ‘Joris Ivens and the Documentary Context’ written in English to Marceline Loridan-Ivens and Monique de Wolf, on behalf of the Netherlands Fund for the Film.
| On 19 September
the State Secretary for Culture Rick van der Ploeg approved the policy plan
of the Foundation for the next four years. The Foundation will receive 854,000
Dutch guilders to execute the plan. The State Secretary follows the advice
given by the Raad voor Cultuur (council for culture), which gave the positive
advice as early as May of this year. The Film Committee of this council
judged that the ‘achievements of the Foundation are above expectation’
and they support the motto of the Foundation for the next four years: ‘Back
to film!’ The complete advice can be read on www.cultuur.nl The main task of the Foundation is the continued archival work: acquisition of new collections and making the inventory of newly acquired documents, such as the Hans Wegner Collection, on which work is done at the moment. After the inventory a new publication will appear in the series of books and on the Internet. The 11,000 photographs will be scanned and digitalised and paper documents are put on microfiche. Posters and objects will be preserved. The Foundation would like to be an intermediary between the past and the future of the documentary. Among the plans that are being carried out, are:
|
In the centre of Nijmegen a new cultural district has been built. On the spot where in 1945 the British Royal Air Force accidentally bombed the town, an ugly neighbourhood arose after the war on the ruins. After the demolition of the area and the new development of beautiful, modern architecture one of the largest cultural areas of Europe was established with the central municipal library, Municipal Archives, Flemish Cultural Centre, shops, galleries and the LUX film theatre. As was foreseen when the Foundation was moved from Amsterdam to Nijmegen in 1997 it will now get a place of its own in this Cultural District.
| Municipal
Archives Nijmegen In this new accommodation of the Municipal Archives the collections of the European Foundation Joris Ivens have been housed in the most modern circumstances. The original documents have been put in the safes; the inventory can be called up on the computers and consulted in the study room. In the accommodation of the archives the archival staff of the Foundation have a room of their own. Opening: Spring 2001 |
| LUX On 14 October the multifunctional building LUX with five cinemas, a large hall for film/theatre/conferences and the necessary catering services was opened. The latest state-of-the-art equipment ensures on-line connections with the hall. With 8,000 performances per year and an estimated 150,000 visitors this is the largest independent film theatre of the Netherlands. For the coming years some cinemas will be retained in the adjacent theatre Cinemariënburg. Address: Mariënburg 38 39 |
| Arsenaal,
Flemish Cultural Centre In this historic building a theatre, catering services and a centre for the exchange of Dutch and Flemish culture will be established. Apart from this several film institutions, such as the Foundation will get their own offices. Address: Mariënburg 95. Opening: 2002 |
The most important film programmes with Joris Ivens films in the period October 1999 – November 2000
1999 |
|
| October 19-25 | Yamagata,
Japan International Documentary Film festival (YIDFF): Kaze, a Joris Ivens Retrospective, 32 films |
| November
24 - December 4 |
Amsterdam,
Netherlands International Documentary Film Festivals (IDFA), AID Programm: A Valparaiso…, Misére au Borinage |
| November 27-28 | Nijmegen,
Netherlands Hanns Eisler-Joris Ivens weekend: Komsomol, New Earth, The 400 Million, Rain, with panel discussion |
| November
29 – March 5 |
Nijmegen,
Netherlands Museum Het Valkhof: ‘Passages, Joris Ivens and the art of the 20th century: continuous video performance |
| December 9 – 11 | Florence,
Italy ‘Ivens 100, Il Lavoro, L’Industria, La Scienza’: Seven industrial films with discussion about Ivens in Italy with the co-operation of Virgilio Tosi |
2000 |
|
| February
26 – March 5 |
Istanbul,
Turkey International 1001 Documentary Film Festival 4th Conference of Documentary Filmmakers: retrospective Ankara, Turkey 12th International Filmfestival: retrospective |
| March
29 – April 21 |
Bologna,
Italy Cineteca del Commune di Bologna, Mostra Inernazionale del Cinema Libero: ‘The Camera and I, Il Camera di Joris Ivens’, retrospective with 31 Ivens films and introduction by Marceline Loridan-Ivens |
| April 9 –15 | Rio
de Janeiro, Brasil It’s all true International Documentary Filmfestival: Retrospective with 19 Ivens films, discussion with Kees Bakker and Claude Brunel, lecture university |
| April 12-18 | Sâo
Paulo, Brasil It’s all true International Documentary Film festival: Retrospective with 19 Ivens films, discussion with Kees Bakker and Claude Brunel, lecture university |
| Spring | Tour through France: Mulhouse, Paris, Tours, Lille |
| Throughout the year | all over the world: Cinema des Milles: Borinage |
| May 4 –5 | Porto,
Portugal Cultural Capital 2001 in collaboration with Cinemateca Portugesa: ‘Olhar de Ulisses’, 100 years of documentary, a retrospective: The Bridge, Rain, Philips Radio, New Earth, Borinage |
| May 5 | Amadora,
Portugal Amascultura ‘Uma Historia do Cinema’: Rain, The Bridge |
| May 5 | San
Francisco, United States of America San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, in connection with Germaine Krull, retrospective: ‘The Geography of Modern Life’: The Bridge, Rain |
| May 15 | Paris,
France Joris Ivens, and 50 years of being a filmmaker: The 17th Parallel |
| May 16 | Den
Bosch, Netherlands Literary cafe: The Seine Meets Paris and Spanish Earth, lecture by Josien Nooteboom, niece of Joris Ivens |
| May 18 | Cannes,
France Filmfestival Cannes, La Semaine de la Critique en la Coordination Européenne des festivals de Cinéma: L’Italia non à un Paese Povero, with introductions by Tinto Brass and Marceline Loridan-Ivens |
| May 18 – 19 | Eindhoven,
Netherlands Lighted Square de Witte Dame (The White Lady): ‘The Reproduction’, multi media spectacle with composition by Dick Raaijmakers with reference to Philips Radio |
| June 2 – 8 | Saarbrücken,
Germany 11th SaarLorLux Film and Videofestival, ‘Hommage to Marceline Loridan-Ivens’: Borinage, New Earth, Chronicle of a Summer, The 17th Parallel, from the Yu Kong series: Shanghai and Balloon, A Tale of the Wind. |
| August 11 | Aken,
Aix-la-Chapelle, Germany Filmforum Circusfilms: Le petit Chapiteau |
| September 17 – 24 | Porto,
Portugal Cultural Capital 2001: The Spanish Earth, The 400 Million, The 17th Parallel Power and the Land |
| September 21-30 | Taipeh,
Taiwan Taiwan International Documentary Festival: Masterpieces of the 20th century: Borinage and The 400 Million |
| October 10 – 16 | Serpa,
Portugal Doc’s Kingdom, seminar with documentary filmmakers |
| October 24 | Zürich,
Switzerland art cinema: Rain |
| November | Toulouse,
France Besides the Film League programme a retrospective of Joris Ivens Dutch Joris films: The Bridge, Breakers, Rain, We are Building, New Earth |
|
Raindrops patter on
the roof tiles, swirling water finds a way down in a robust stream and
plunges into the gutter…but you do not hear anything. The aesthetic
black and white pictures of the silent film Rain (1929), in which light
and shade play such an important role, give you a feeling of being wet
through. But it is exactly these impressionistic images that cry out for
sound, music. ‘With or without…?’, that is the question.
In 1941 composer Hanns Eisler wrote a composition for Rain, but how is
it possible that for decades this music has been 90 seconds longer than
the film? What had Eisler wanted with this music and what did Ivens himself
think of the musical accompaniment to his originally silent film? The
fascinating history of the various film and music versions of Rain was
the subject of a panel discussion during the Ivens-Eisler weekend in Nijmegen
on Sunday 28 Novembver. The International Hanns Eisler Gesellschaft and
the European Foundation Joris Ivens had brought together major specialists
under chairmanship of musicologist Dr Albrecht Dümling: the members
of the panel Claude Brunel, Kees Bakker, Professor Günter Prox and
Berndt Heller had an animated discussion with the audience about their
conflicting views… He became more enthusiastic for the film music by Hanns Eisler, who provided the music for Song of Heroes in 1932, for New Earth in 1934 and for The 400 Million in 1938. When Eisler, who had fled Germany in 1941 and had gone to America, was granted money by the Rockefeller Foundation for the Film Music Project he selected four films with which he might be able to demonstrate his view of film music among which was Rain. That is not to say that only the film inspired Eisler, on the contrary, he carefully composed synchronously with the tempo of the pictures. But he forced a structure and a dramatic nature of its own on his music which is not illustrative and does not always follow the change of the scenes. ‘Vierzehn Arten den Regen zu beschreiben’ (Fourteen ways to describe the rain) was a once-only assignment, a demonstration of Eisler’s dialectic view of film music, with Ivens’ permission, but never meant to always accompany the film Rain. The difficult circumstances in which Eisler wrote the music in 1941, exiled and at time of war, were responsible for a melancholic character, which does not correspond with the impressionistic atmosphere in which Ivens had portrayed the rain in 1927-1929. That is what is most disturbing when the two are performed simultaneously: atmosphere and music do not correspond. Eisler, however, was so enthusiastic about his composition that he called it ‘his best piece of chamber music’ and dedicated it to his teacher Arnold Schönberg. Moreover he described the composition as a successful example of film music in the influential book ‘Composing for the Films’, which he published in 1947 together with Theodor Adorno. The film version of Rain that was made available to Eisler through Heleen van Dongen of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMa) to be used during the composing assignment has disappeared, just as the very first recording of the chamber music on ‘Nadelton-disc’ and the rhythmic score. Moreover the publication of the chamber music is somewhat different from the film music version, which makes a performance of the two together rather difficult. Supported by Igor Stravinsky, Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copland a simultaneous performance of Rain with Eisler’s music was performed in Carnegie Hall in 1947 and 1948.In 1967 a simultaneous performance was organised in Leipzig and in 1980 Joris Ivens gave permission for a performance in Berlin. Their Berndt Heller had succeeded in making a scientifically reliable reconstruction of the original film and sound material. Heller told that he became convinced during the research that the silent version of Rain as it was used and authorised by the Netherlands Film Museum could not be complete. Some pictures and rushes were absent, so that the music went on while the film had already ended. It had already drawn Ivens’ attention when after years he saw Rain again and he remarked to Jan de Vaal, the then director of the Film Museum: ‘Where has the little dog gone?’ The silent version of Rain was made more complete during the restoration project of the Ivens nitrate collection of the Film Museum in 1994. Not only the film and music versions changed, Kees Bakker established that also Ivens’ view of the silent film and musical accompaniment had been changing as years went by. Marceline Loridan-Ivens emphasised this: as a result of using the new synchronous sound excessively in the sixties, Ivens returned to silence as can be heard in the music score of Une Histoire de Vent (1988). As far as his early films are concerned he also began to appreciate the silent version more and more. The last few decades Rain has always been performed without music and permission for a joint performance has been refused. Marceline Loridan-Ivens stated that for requests of a new joint performance of Rain she will give her permission on the condition that first the silent version will be shown, then Eisler’s chamber music will be performed separately and then the two together. Out of consideration for the artists and their works and to offer the audience the possibility to judge for themselves what they think of the quality of the separate works and the possible combination. Her suggestion was received with applause. |
|
|
André Stufkens |
|
|
Thanking Petra Hildebrandt and Annemiek Nobel for the rendering of the discussion. Lit: ‘Berndt Heller: The Reconstruction of Eisler’s Film Music: “Opus III, ‘Rain’ and ‘The Circus’. Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Vol. 18, No 4, 1998. |
In the Berlage Exchange the Dutch Chamber Orchestra conducted by Alexander Liebreich played a programme of film music ‘From Ivens to Haanstra’ on the 11 and 17 March. Film music by among others Eisler from New Earth and The 400 Million were performed animatedly. The performance emphasised once more that film music often consists of such beautiful compositions that they can be enjoyed without the film itself.
Rumbling, banging, whistling and thundering sounds, pictures and fire filled the square behind the Witte Dame (White Lady), the former Philips factory in Eindhoven. Hundreds of people witnessed a spectacular multimedia project with the title ‘De Weergave’ (The Reproduction). The pictures projected metres high against the walls of the factory and the high bursts of flame and the loud noises gave the project epic dimensions. Dick Raaijmakers (1930), well-known composer and one of the pioneers of electronic music in the Netherlands realised this project together with students of the Design Academy who nowadays inhabit the Witte Dame. In 1931 Joris Ivens recorded the pictures and the sounds of labourers assembling radios and sweating glassblowers surrounded by fire and glass in the same building. With Philips Radio, the first Dutch sound film, Philips presented itself to the world as a modern company with a complex production process. In the fifties Raaijmakers himself worked there on the assembly line. He studied sound engineering and later wrote the soundtrack of a new Philips promotion film. With the Soundscape project ‘De Weergave’, in which sound, pictures and the historic and the three-dimensional surroundings complement each other, Raaijmakers wanted to return the sounds and pictures to the labourers in a symbolic way. The European Foundation Joris Ivens managed to recover the 150 page long original composition, written by Lou Lichtveld (pseudonym of writer/politician composer Albert Helman. The heirs gave Raaijmakers permission to use it. Karel Dibbets, lecturer at the University of Amsterdam and having obtained his doctorate with a dissertation on Dutch sound film for which he did extensive research on Philips Radio, lectured on the evening before the spectacle after the integral showing of the film.
| Ewa
Fiszer On the 16th of January 2000 the Polish poet Ewa Maria Fiszer died in Warsaw. She was 73 years old and died in the same house she moved into with Joris Ivens after their marriage in 1951. They had met a year before; it was love at first sight. Her dying wish what should happen with what she left behind, she had told her brother Ludwik Fiszer. Ewa had kept a diary from the end of the thirties onwards. It will be published in Poland. She left all the material related to Joris Ivens to the Foundation. Through the good care of the Fiszer family and Gerdien Verschoor, cultural attaché of the Dutch Embassy in Warsaw this material has arrived in Nijmegen. It consists of private letters, photographs (among other things of a tour of China of Fiszer and Ivens in 1958) and several personal documents and films. The films, made by local filmmakers, show political meetings in Trieste, Tunis and Australia, probably with the intention to be used in the film Peace Will Win or Song of the Rivers. The collection, which will be added to earlier donations by Ewa Fiszer made in the sixties and in 1998, also contains the original parchment document of the International Peace Prize 1954 that was awarded to Ivens in Vienna in 1955. |
| Jan
Veenhuizen The filmmaker and journalist Jan Veenhuizen was present in Rotterdam for the shooting of Rotterdam-Europort, the film that Ivens made in October 1965 by order of the Rotterdam Harbour Interests. The film, a super 8 colour film taking 10 minutes made by Veenhuizen, shows director Ivens and camera man Eddy van der Ende, director-assistant Marceline Loridan-Ivens and Tineke de Vaal. The leading actor, sculptor Carel Kneulman, played the Flying Dutchman. Ivens, who as usual when he was ordered to make a film somewhere in a country, had initially had Jan Wolkers in mind for the leading part. But it became Carel Kneulman, who did not suffer from fear of heights during shooting the film in the cranes. Jan Veenhuizen has donated the reel of film to the Foundation. |
| Marceline
Loridan-Ivens Together with a large collection of foreign newspaper clippings from the eighties and nineties Marceline Loridan-Ivens has donated books from the shelves of Ivens and Loridan. Of some interest are film books and film catalogues as well as two copies of the book ‘The Legend of the Flying Dutchman’. This book from 1921 discusses the origin of the theme of the wandering ships captain and its many variants. Ivens had always wanted to film the theme, possibly already in 1927, after his friend the poet Hendrik Marsman had written a prose poem. The pencil notes in this book show what passages Ivens thought fascinating. |
| Museum
Het Valkhof After the exhibition ‘Passages, Joris Ivens and the art of this century’ the museum donated the exhibition material to the Foundation. Banners, enlarged photographs, posters and videotapes of the introductory film Passages made by Dan van Golberdinge and MIK-productions. |
| Marion
Michelle After having donated all her photographs of Ivens and many documents before, the American photographer Marion Michelle (1913) has now donated an important collection of private correspondence to the Foundation. They are the (love) letters that Joris Ivens wrote to her in the period from January 1944. Michelle, who first followed Ivens to Australia, shot Indonesia Calling and then left with him for Europe where she wrote the script for The First Years, influenced Ivens to a great extent especially at the end of the forties and in the fifties. She supported the many sides of film making both morally and from a point of organisation (also distribution) in the difficult years when Ivens was in the Eastern Bloc. After that she remained a loyal friend Ivens could always rely on. The material also includes the screenplay of Masters of the Rain, the film Michelle made in order to see what had become of the villagers in the same village of Radollivo where the Bulgarian episode of The First Years had been made. |
| Eva
Siao The German photographer Eva Siao (born Sandberg) has donated dozens of photographs she took of Ivens from1952 to the Foundation. Eva Siao, born in Breslau in 1911, lived in Beijing from 1949 and photographed Joris Ivens, who when working in China, regularly visited the family. She described her fascinating life story in the book ’China, ein Traum, ein Leben’ (China, a Dream, a Life). In 1938 she met the Chinese poet Emi Siao in the Crimea. She followed him to Yanan in 1942, where she lived in the cave dwellings of the head quarters of the CCP. She knew MaoZeDong and ZhouenLai and Zhu De from that time on. After a difficult ramble with her children through Russia she returned to her husband in Beijing in 1949. In 1952 she met Ivens in Prague. Besides photographs, which were exhibited in China, Russia as well as in western museums, she made documentary films of among others the Dalai Lama and Ye Pi. During the Cultural Revolution she and her husband were imprisoned for seven years, but rehabilitated afterwards. In 1979 she and ZhouenLai’s widow attended the dinner offered to Joris Ivens on the occasion of his eightieth birthday. Her photographs show a sympathetic and humane view of daily life in China. The Ludwigmusem in Cologne possesses an extensive collection of her Chinese photographs. |
| Staff In January 2000 Elles Erkens left the Foundation to become assistant manager of the Cinematheque in Nijmegen. Annemiek Nobel, graduating from the institute Film and Performing Arts of the Catholic University of Nijmegen, has taken her place in the secretariat. Elles thanks for everything you have given during the past hectic years. From 1 October Huub Jansen works for 32 hours per week to support the archival work such as making the inventory of the Hans Wegner collection. Huub studied history at university where he also worked for some time. Annemiek and Huub welcome and good luck! |
| Ed d’Hondt After being the mayor of Nijmegen for ten years Ed d’Hondt accepted a new job as chairman of VSNU, the United Co-operating Netherlands Universities. At the same time he cancelled all his managerial functions connected with being a mayor. From July 1997 he was a member of the board of the Foundation and played a major role in moving the Foundation from Amsterdam to Nijmegen and its Municipal Archives. Meanwhile the board has thanked him for the pleasant co-operation. |
| Non-realised
films Annemiek Nobel has researched non-realised Ivens films. In a voluminous study she noticed 65 film projects, from vague ideas about French wine growers to completely worked out scripts, such as the script about the cultural history of Florence. Various subjects are mentioned such as the Canadian doctor Norman Bethune, the Italian playwright Dario Fo, the Northern Arctic sailing route, Malraux’s book The Human Condition, Continental Engineering, Dutch painting in the 16th and 17th century, roofs in Paris, the Dutch Football Association, Erasmus’s book Praise of Folly or the Bata shoe factory. It shows that also the non-realised film plans are fascinating enough and they will be an integral part of the extensive filmography that the Foundation is preparing. To achieve this a European network of film institutions and film researchers will be established to do the research in the coming years. |
| Film
education To familiarise new and younger generations with Ivens’ oeuvre the Foundation will set up an educative project. Film education has seen a social revival in our society, after it soared for the first time in the seventies as part of ‘social relevance’ and awareness and almost disappeared again after that. At the moment film education is back on the agenda because great interest is attached to media education, handling the new media. The Foundation offers: workshops for groups and classes on the documentary and prepares a CD-ROM that can also be used in schools. Besides film educational material about separate Ivens films will be put on the Internet and the Foundation is working on the release of a video pack of five tapes with Ivens classics. The Foundation is a member of the platform for media education and partner of IF (Intermediary for film education) a new national umbrella organisation of 16 Dutch institutions that are willing to stimulate film education together. A historic chance we support whole-heartedly. |
| The
17th Paralle The Japanese film company Zazi-Film will release the Japanese version of The 17th Parallel. The film was shot in 1968 in the firing line of the Vietnamese war. The interest in Ivens’ work has grown in Japan after last year’s retrospective during the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival. More than 2,500 visitors saw 32 films and the catalogue was already sold out during the festival. |
| BIFI –
la Bibliothèque du Film (the film library) – in Paris contains
an extensive collection of Ivens documents donated by Ivens himself to Henri
Langlois, the legendary director of the Cinémathèque FranVaise,
in the fifties. Three posters of the film Till Eulenspiegel (1956) from
this collection show something of the problems Ivens was faced with during
shooting the film. In 1954 Joris Ivens, on behalf of DEFA (the East German State Film Company), and the popular French actor Gérard Philipe agreed on making a joint French-East German production of Till Eulenspiegel. This Flemish villainous character, a 19th century creation of the author Charles de Coster, took a stand against the Spanish catholic oppressor. Jan den Hartog wrote the first script, Marion Michelle and Catherine Duncan also made an attempt, but finally Philipe himself wrote the script together with René Wheeler. During filming Gérard Philipe’s position became more and more important, he already played the leading part, but also took over directing and colleagues even saw a note on the doors to the film studio announcing ‘forbidden for Mr Ivens’. Ivens did not feel very comfortable on the set with the actors. Afterwards he called the film an ‘instructive escapade’. Only the East German poster mentions in small print: ‘unter Mitwerkung von Joris Ivens’. The French and Italian posters do not mention his name at all. The design of the French copy clearly shows Philipe’s ambition: a showpiece made to Hollywood standards. In spite of the rich staging and special effects the film got stuck in a caricatural stereotype. The co-production had also been intended as an opening in East-West relations, but the opening night could not but be more miserable: on the day of the Russian invasion of Hungary. Notwithstanding the film was a moderately commercial success, but not in Holland. For although the Dutch leader of the rebels, William of Orange, played a positive role, the film did not pass the Dutch censor. Compared to the heroic and clever prince and his guerrillas the Sea Beggars the generals of Orange and Catholic Church servants were portrayed as clumsy cowards and dunces. All in all the film did not become what Ivens had expected. The Belgian filmmaker Stijn Conincx (Daens) recently finished a new version under the revealing title of ‘Till, a rebel with a cause’. The inventory of the Ivens-collection in BIFI can be found under www.BIFI.fr. |