The Low Countries. Jaargang 3

(1995-1996)– [tijdschrift] The Low Countries



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In Motion Animated Film in Flanders Raoul Servais, Harpya (1979). Raoul Servais, Taxandria (1994).
Raoul Servais: the father of Flemish animated film In 1979, the then 51-year-old Flemish animated film maker Raoul Servais was awarded the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival for his film Harpya. Many years would pass before we heard of him again. For more than fifteen years he had been working on his long cherished dream: the feature-length animated film Taxandria which he completed in 1994. For budgetary reasons, however, this European co-production became a film with real actors instead of the animated film Servais had in mind. The decors are nonetheless of exceptional quality. They were executed following the ‘servaisgraphic process’ at his own Anitrick animated film studio in Ghent. Servais, a self-taught artist, began modestly with Harbour Lights (Havenlichten, 1959) and went on to create The False Note (De valse noot, 1963),
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Chromophobia (1966), To Speak or Not To Speak (1970), Operation X-70 (1970), Pegasus (1973) and The Song of Halewijn (Het lied van Halewijn, 1975) among others. His eleven films have received fifty awards at festivals all over the world. Moreover, his international reputation resulted in him being chosen as successor to the famous British animated film maker John Halas as president of the International Association of Animated Film Makers in Cannes in 1985. Raoul Servais' importance to animated film in Flanders extends beyond his unequalled reputation as a filmmaker. The fact that he has trained dozens of creative and competent young filmmakers over the years is of equal importance. This work began in 1961 when Servais, as a lecturer at the Royal Academy for the Fine Arts in Ghent, set up the Department of Animated Film. Servais evidently knew how to pass on his artistic vision and passion, his sense of professionalism and last but not least his perseverance and drive to numerous students under him. This quickly led to the creation of a type of animated film which, while exploring many different fields, tried to move away from the all-dominating norms of the Walt Disney productions. The artistic creativeness of style and concept which was to characterise their work has led to them becoming known as ‘the Ghent school of animated film makers’. Thanks to Servais' stimulating influence, this Department of Animated Film grew to become one of the largest in Europe. International recognition was not long in following.
The Ghent school Shortly after completing his studies in animated film at the Academy, Paul Demeyer received the Hollywood Student Academy Award, the Student's Oscar, for his cartoon The Muse while at the California Institute of Arts in 1977. In 1979, he created the 13-part cartoon series The Wonder Shop for Belgian television (brtn), in cooperation with other former fellow students. The international acclaim they received for this series was such that in Paul Demeyer, The Muse (1977). Paul Demeyer, The Wonder Shop (De wonderwinkel, 1979).
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1983 one of these former students, Dirk de Paepe, then working for the pen film studio in Ghent, was commissioned to create the cartoon that would introduce Blake Edwards' The Curse of the Pink Panther. The international success of The Wonder Shop also resulted in a second commission by the brtn, this time for the first full-length Flemish animated film, John the Fearless (Jan zonder Vrees, 1985). Once again Dirk de Paepe was in charge of operations at the pen film studio in Ghent and was assisted in the project by many former students of Raoul Servais. John the Fearless is based on a well-known Flemish folk tale. It is the story of a young Antwerp boy from a poor background who takes up the fight against social injustice and poverty in the Middle Ages. Thanks to his extraordinary strength, he always succeeds in defeating his opponents. He is finally knighted. More important than this not so original plot, however, is the film's artistic design, the inspiration for which was drawn from the old Flemish masters such as Hieronymus Bosch, Brueghel and Jules de Bruycker. The style of drawing, the use of colour and especially the beautiful decors all contribute towards making the film uniquely ‘Flemish’. As a result of competition from Japan and the financial difficulties of one of pen's most important contractors in France, the studio where these large animated film projects had been carried out was forced to close in 1987. Nevertheless, the training of competent film makers at the Ghent Academy continued. One of the latest talents is An Vrombaut, who after her studies in Ghent went on to work at studios in London, where she completed her studies at the Royal College of Art. In 1993 she completed Little Wolf, which was to become the discovery of the year at the renowned Annecy Festival in France and which took the prize for best first film. What is striking about Dirk de Paepe, John the Fearless (Jan zonder Vrees, 1985). An Vrombaut, Little Wolf (1993).
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this children's cartoon in which the traditional roles of evil wolf and little innocent lamb are inverted is that the humour mainly lies in the exceptionally lively rhythm of the animation itself. This filmmaker of the Ghent school is now working on a tv series called 64 Zoo Lane, a 14-part cartoon currently being made in London. Another tv series, which will also be created by former students of Raoul Servais, is Eb & Flo. In charge here are Annemie Degryse as producer, Stefaan Vermeulen as director and Jeroen Jonckheere as chief animator. Vermeulen and Jonckheere have already demonstrated their talents in Going Home on the Morning Train (1992) and Female Trouble (1991). Their series on the tender and dotty adventures of an old maid and her inseparable cat, which runs to fifty-two episodes of six minutes each, is the first major Flemish production to be created thanks to the support of the European Union's media project Cartoon. In stark contrast with the Ghent school's current achievements are such purely commercial productions as the Bob and Bobette (Suske and Wiske) series, based on the comic-strips by Flanders' most famous comic-strip artist Willy Vandersteen. Because of its poor artistic quality, the 30-part series The Mad Musketeers (De dolle musketiers, 1990) went practically unnoticed both at home and abroad. Belgium, be it in the French-speaking or in the Dutch-speaking part, has a remarkable tradition of comic-strip artists, but, with the exception of the work by French-speaking artist Picha, few have provided material exciting enough for animated film.
The talent and drive of Frits Standaert The many former students of Servais who make up the internationally famous Ghent school of animated film makers have no trouble finding work doing commercial productions for studios in Brussels. They are doing well abroad too, in countries like Luxembourg, Great Britain, France and even the United States where the most talented of Servais' former students, Oscar Frits Standaert, Jailbirds (1989). Frits Standaert, Wundermilch (1991).
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winner Paul Demeyer, is presently working. Because of the lack of prospects and funding at home, however, they are usually obliged to forget about purely creative work. This explains why artistic animated film in Flanders is usually developed and propagated in the film schools. The animated film maker Frits Standaert is an exception to this state of affairs. As a student in Ghent he produced Jailbirds, of which he was able to make a professional 35 mm copy in 1989 with the help of the Horlait-Dapsens Foundation. This 5-minute long cartoon relates the grotesque story of a prisoner on a lonely rocky island where release literally turns into a nightmare. Full of panic and anxiety, he tries everything he can to resist his amnesty. For, unlike his guard, he is never bored. So violent is his desperate reaction to release that he becomes entangled in his chains during his sleep and involuntarily strangles himself. Because of this, his guard's life loses all meaning. Discouraged, he leaves the island pulling with him the lines of the image as if they were those of his very life. This means his end as a cartoon character and of course the end of this ingenious cartoon. His Wundermilch (1991) is a seemingly naïve cartoon about a cow called Rosamunde who, because of the exceptionally vital qualities of her milk, ends up being an enormous commercial success. Her owner and the whole of society benefit from her, but eventually Rosamunde is milked dry. Standaert produced this 3.5-minute long off-beat advertising film on an extremely low budget. Wundermilch inspired him to create a 13-part series (Rosamunde) which he hopes to sell to television. Frits Standaert was given another opportunity of creating on a professional level with Kiss the Moon (1993). This film is a gentle satire on the human urge to succeed. Unhappy with their egalitarian existence, Earth's inhabitants go in search of a more beautiful planet. They spare nothing in their attempts to reach the nearest planet first and have no qualms whatsoever about destroying each other in doing so. But all their various attempts are in vain. One by one the desperadoes fall to their destruction. In the end we learn that the planet they desired so much was exactly the same as the one they had been living on for centuries. Frits Standaert, Kiss the Moon (1993). Jacques Lemaire, Axis Mundi (1993).
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Kiss the Moon is beautifully made. The artistic originality with which the characters and decors have been drawn, the perfect rhythm of the sequences and the exceptionally well-timed sound effects and musical accents are all outstanding. In short, the sober play of colour-pencil lines on tracing paper found in Jailbirds, the colour drawings of Wundermilch with their deliberate element of caricature and the highly competent cel animation of Kiss the Moon all illustrate the range of skills and techniques the young artist had mastered. It is little wonder that his films have been shown at all the main festivals and have been bought by most tv stations throughout Europe.
The Animation Art of Jacques Lemaire The work of Jacques Lemaire is of a completely different nature. As painter and animator he belongs to what is known in the usa as Animation Art. His animated films are a logical extension of his own development in the plastic arts. As an artist he was initially influenced by movements such as Pop Art, New Realism and Minimal Art, but from 1972 onwards he started to develop his own language of signs, based on archetypical forms to which he ascribed metaphysical connotations. The basic elements of Lemaire's language of image consist of the primary colours red, yellow and blue, elementary forms like the cross, the square and the circle and the basic duality between horizontal and vertical lines. He combines these graphic components with the natural elements earth, air, fire and water. Lemaire's interest in light and movement led him to animated film: the ideal means for developing his archetypical forms and signs in one continuous movement. In 1984, he painted his own personal vision in Cosmogony (Kosmogonie), an animated film which caused him considerable difficulty because of his lack of training in animated film techniques. Lemaire nevertheless achieved his aim: the film, a continuous harmonious flow of forms, lines and colours, was acclaimed as highly innovative at a number of festivals. As far as technique is concerned, this film maker / painter works according to the oldest methods. His hundreds of drawings are filmed drawing by drawing, and transformed during projection into a wonderful and well-executed flow of images, with an original soundtrack built on percussion. Lemaire's latest film Axis Mundi was to follow in 1993. It is a synthesis of his artistic changes and developments during the 1980s. The tree of life is central to the film, an axial constant which mediates between heaven and earth while at the same time transforming itself into figurative as well as abstract symbols. At the beginning and the end of Axis Mundi, real-life images of the tree are shown. Lemaire leads the viewer from the visible material world via a finely syncopated movement of photographic and pictorial forms and signs into an invisible world of energy. Even more than in Cosmogony, the musical structure, in this case the Stabat Mater by Pergolesi, determines the changes, the build up and the rhythm of his pictorial language. The silences that accompany the live images of the tree provide the contrast. At the moment, this unique Flemish representative of animation art is working on a third film, Omega, which is based on the theme of ‘the eternal present’ and will form the third of his triptych of films.

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An Oscar for Nicole van Goethem The work of Nicole van Goethem is quite different again. She studied at the Antwerp Academy for Fine Arts and first made a name for herself with her drawings, cartoons and posters. From 1974 on she worked as a decor and colour specialist on several animated film projects such as Tarzoon (1974) and The Missing Link (1980), both by the French-speaking Belgian comicstrip artist Picha, as well as on the first Flemish animated feature film, John the Fearless. Her first film, A Greek Tragedy (Een Griekse tragedie, 1985), received no less than four first prizes at the prestigious animated film festival at Annecy in France. In 1987, she was presented with the highest film award of all for this 6-minute-long film, the much-coveted Oscar. Contrary to what the title might suggest, this story about the last days of a temple in Athens is full of spicy and original inventiveness and naughty and ironic detail and never fails to surprise the viewer. Three Caryatids (columns in the form of women with long drapery) in a Greek temple have been resisting the effects of erosion, archaeologists and tourists for centuries. One day they decide they have had enough. One by one they become interested in life and decide to leave. The story of how these three Caryatids finally, with great difficulty, succeed in escaping is magnificently portrayed. The original way in which the three women are characterised, the timing and the pictorial quality of the soft pastel colours are, along with its cheerfully provocative, lively tone, the basic ingredients that made this film such a popular success. Encouraged by this unexpected success, Van Goethem completed her second film Full of Grace (Vol van Gratie) two years later, in 1987. It is a somewhat naughty satire on three nuns who end up buying a number of ‘candles’ in a sex shop. Back at the convent chapel they discover that the ‘candles’ only give off thick black smoke. Unhappy about their purchase, Nicole van Goethem, A Greek Tragedy (Een Griekse tragedie, 1985). Rudi Mertens, Dog Eat Dog (1993).
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the sisters return to the sex shop to speak to the manager. Having learned how the ‘candles’ should be used, they follow his instructions and end up in a state of ecstasy they had never experienced before. This film, which has been considered by some to be rather provocative, makes remarkable use of richly coloured decor both in the red light area and in the church. Once again the animation is full of slap-stick humour and the characters are brilliantly portrayed. At the moment, Nicole van Goethem is working on Living Apart Together. We are all looking forward to seeing this third production of hers. As a filmmaker, she is slightly provocative and anarchic by nature and this gives her contributions to animated film in Flanders a particular ‘adult’ character.
Films issued by the Belgian Centre for Animated Film Alongside the Centre for the Study of Animated Film in Ghent, which has been promoting the work of the Dept. of Animated Film at the Academy since 1971, and the Raoul Servais Foundation which since 1989 has been archiving and promoting the pioneer work of Raoul Servais and his coworkers, the Belgian Centre for Animated Film produces and distributes work by qualified animators. Since it was founded in 1976, this Centre has been playing a leading role in the field. It has been able to help many talented young animators, thanks in part to the support of the Ministry for Culture of the Flemish Community. And here again international recognition soon followed. The brilliant film The Country House (Het landhuis), created by the late Josette Janssens and produced by the Centre for Animated Film, won the first prize at the Ottawa Festival in 1982. This little masterpiece is part of the first series of films produced by the Centre. During 1984, a second series was issued which included such remarkable films as Cosmogony (Jacques Lemaire), Same Player... (Stef Viaene), Cubic (Kubiek, by Pierre Leterme) and Oleander's Spring Birds (De lentevogels van Oleander, by Suzanne Maes). These films were not only shown at all the festivals, they also received numerous awards. Artistic animated film in Flanders was, despite its lack of funding, at its zenith. However, the bankruptcy of pen Film in 1987 also meant some hard years for the Centre. In 1989 it had to move to Brussels, where it was given a new lease of life under the inspiring leadership of Robert Vrielynck and producer Ivan D'hont. Thanks to the Centre, since then Frits Standaert and Jacques Lemaire have been able to create Wundermilch and Kiss the Moon and Axis Mundi respectively. The Centre also released the exceptionally well-made Big Bad Little Willy (1992) by Danny van Roy, a welldirected and unconventional story about Santa Claus in Flintstone style, as well as the remarkable Dog Eat Dog (1993) by Rudi Mertens. Both filmmakers studied at the Animation Department of the College for Communication Media in Brussels. Dog Eat Dog, the Centre's latest production, is a tribute to the Dutch graphic artist M.C. Escher (1898-1972), famous for his two-dimensional representations of complex geometric forms. Escher's work is both the object of Mertens' study and his source of inspiration. He has developed his own Escherian models, using as his point of departure three dogs who are biting each other's tails in never-ending violent embrace.
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Characters emerge from the film's phenomenal decor in a spiralling movement only to be reabsorbed by the same decor. Dog Eat Dog has been masterfully drawn and is pictorially impressive, with its rhythm derived from original music of Jan Goovaerts. This film truly reflects its creator's talent. In order to make animated film known to a larger audience, the Centre for Animated Film now runs exhibitions on the history of film and of animated film in particular. Its Animation Machine, a remarkable exhibition of the private collection of pre-cinema equipment belonging to Robert Vrielynck which has since toured the Japanese cities of Hiroshima, Tokyo and Osaka, is yet another means of putting Flemish animated film into the spotlight.
Prospects for the future Six years ago, the European Community began to worry about the flood of junk cartoons from the usa and Japan being shown on European screens. pen Film was certainly not the only studio that had to throw in the towel when confronted with these cheap poor-quality products. In order to stem this tide, the European Union set up the ‘Media Program Cartoon’ a few years ago and since then has been granting financial aid to all worthwhile European projects. This initiative has not been without result. The demand for quality is on the increase among many tv producers and stations. This is particularly the case in Great Britain and France and even in Germany, where until recently there has been little interest in animated film. Thanks to the efforts of Channel 4, for example, British animated film has now attained a level of quality unknown in the past. Unfortunately, however, there is no Channel 4 in Flanders. Quite to the contrary, neither the national radio and television station brtn nor the commercial tv station vtm have shown any interest either in children's films or in adult films. Moreover since the setting up of a fund for film production following the new decree on film of 1 January 1994, the genre of short films to which most animated films belong has been seriously threatened. In the meantime, the so-called ‘de-taxation scheme’ which made the distribution of Flemish short films financially interesting for distributors and cinema owners has been scrapped. Confronting this growing problem is the unique artistic character of Flemish animated film. In the long term it is in precisely this area that Flemish film has the capacity to prove itself internationally. wim de poorter Translated by Peter Flynn.