DUTCH MASTER: FRANS ZWARTJES Wednesday, October 11th 7:30pm
SORBET III (Frans Zwartjes, Netherlands, 1968, 16mm)
Description: One of the first films by Zwartjes, influenced by the filmmakers of the New American Cinema he admired. Everything centers around the glances between a neurotic camera and the just as neurotic transvestite who reaches for a sorbet and looks in unease to what lying next to him on the couch.
Description: In this film, Christiaan Manders and Moniek Toebosch play the artist and his model. Hidden safely behind his camera, the photographer can't get enough of what the glamorous model with her long eye lashes has to offer him.
LIVING (Frans Zwartjes, Netherlands, 1971, 16mm)
Description: Zwartjes' masterwork and his most favorite film. "Living has an uneasy, indefinable atmosphere. This strange swaying of the camera and the music that keeps going on and on…" Living demonstrates the cinematographic mastery of Zwartjes. He is the main character of the film and handles the camera himself, pointing it towards himself with his hand held out. Zwartjes: "I was as strong as a bear in these times." The film is part of the series 'Home sweet home', in which Zwartjes explores the house in The Hague he had just moved into at the time. His wife and muse Trix plays the other role. The two characters move restlessly through the house. The film was made using an extreme wide angle lens (a 5.7), which gives the image a strong sense of estrangement.