André Delvaux
1926 - 2002Appointment in Bray
André Delvaux
Anna Karina, Mathieu Carrière
In 1917, the First World War is raging. Julien is from Luxemburg, so instead of having to go to war he studies piano in Paris. One day his friend Jacques, also a musician and now a fighter pilot on the front, invites him to spend a few days in his family's empty house in Bray. The housekeeper, a beautiful stoic woman lets Julien in, but his friend is late and he is obliged to wait. In the meantime, he starts reminiscing of the pre-war days spent with his friend and Jacques' girlfriend Odile.
Appointment in Bray
To Woody Allen from Europe with Love
André Delvaux
Woody Allen, Mariel Hemingway
Initiated by producer-director Pierre Drouot, Woody Allen for the very first time agrees to let a filmmaker, Belgium's André Delvaux, film him during one of his own productions, Stardust Memories. Woody talks about his work, always steering clear of the anecdotal or the private.
To Woody Allen from Europe with Love
L'oeuvre au noir
André Delvaux
Gian Maria Volonté, Jacques Lippe
The Inquisition is in full swing in 16th century Flanders. Wanted for his dissident writings, the alchemist doctor Zeno has been wandering Europe under an assumed name for twenty years. But he remains a non-conformist. He returns to his native Bruges, where he thinks he has been forgotten. In this silent labyrinth where the faces of the past resurface, he rediscovers his identity and thus signs his death warrant.
The Abyss
Un soir, un train
André Delvaux
Yves Montand, Anouk Aimée
The Belgian linguistics professor Matthias is going through a difficult period in relations with his girlfriend Anne. She is French, he is Belgian, and, oddly enough for an enlightened Europe and a doubly enlightened university environment, this small difference is a shadow on the couple’s personal life. One day, during a train ride, Anne disappears and Mathias goes looking for her in an unknown city.
One Night... a Train
De man die zijn haar kort liet knippen
André Delvaux
Senne Rouffaer, Beata Tyszkiewicz
Govert Miereveld is a lawyer from a small Flemish town who also teaches in a school for girls. He harbors a secret love for one of his young students, Fran, whom he loses touch with after her graduation. Some time later, Miereveld has to attend an autopsy, and the shock of the experience deeply affects his mental balance. He finds out - or he believes so - that Fran has become a popular singer. He arranges to meet her to finally reveal his feelings. An ambiguous but perhaps tragic denouement follows which might be a figment of the protagonist's disturbed mind.
The Man Who Had His Hair Cut Short
Benvenuta
André Delvaux
Fanny Ardant, Vittorio Gassman
A passionate affair set against the intense encounter between a film-maker and a novelist. The story begins with young scriptwriter François tracking down the author of a once-scandalous novel. His aim is to adapt the work for the screen but several elements of the novel he finds difficult to comprehend. The author, Jeanne, is initially cautious of relaying information, insisting the presumably autobiographical book in no way relates to her personal life. However, eventually she takes the man into confidence to tell the background of Benvenuta.
Benvenuta
1001 Films
André Delvaux
Louise Brooks
An ode to film preservation, it presents a night-time visit to a seemingly depopulated repository (presumably the Royal Film Archive of Belgium), juxtaposing a series of images of observation, reconstruction, and projection using film fragments - from the hand-painted, altered image frames of Georges Méliès' Kingdom of the Fairies to the iconic image of Louise Brooks - to turn the archive into a temporal wonderland of novel discoveries, hidden treasure, re-awakened curiosity, and critical re-assessment.
1001 Films
Een vrouw tussen hond en wolf
André Delvaux
Marie-Christine Barrault, Rutger Hauer
Lieve is a Belgian woman who marries just as World War II is beginning. When the Germans invade, her husband goes off to fight them, but he swiftly returns home after the invasion succeeds. Later, he decides that the Germans are on the right side of things, and goes off to fight for them on the Eastern Front. Soon afterward, a resistance fighter is stranded on her doorway, and she hides him. The two of them fall in love, and the conflicts and joys of this relationship cause Lieve continued grief well after the end of the war.
Woman Between Wolf and Dog
Sur la terre comme au ciel
Marion Hänsel
Carmen Maura, Jean-Pierre Cassel
Maria Garcia (Carmen Maura) is a television journalist and she's about to be a single mother. Her career foremost in her mind, she doesn't slow down even for a minute, despite her pregnancy. She is, however, taking Lamaze classes and is quite competently coping with the romantic attentions of a man she's not very interested in. It's not at all irrelevant that her news beat includes stories on terrorism, the greenhouse effect, pollution and genetic engineering, because when her baby's due date comes and goes, she starts hearing from her infant from in the womb. It is telling her that it and many other babies are refusing to be born into such a horrible world. She learns that this is true, and that the children born through induced labor are dying.
Between Heaven and Earth
Fellini
Dominique Delouche, André Delvaux
Federico Fellini, Pier Paolo Pasolini
A four-part documentary series about the Italian director Federico Fellini. Episode 1: His Childhood, His Beginnings; Episode 2: His First Films; Episode 3: His Films with Giulietta Masina; Episode 4: "La dolce vita" and Neorealism.
Second Look: Fellini
