Week 37/2023

This week, we’ve selected three exciting film evenings that combine cinema, music and performance. This month and next, Cinema Nova in Brussels is presenting a focus on Iranian cinema, and a thematic film program on the relationship between humans and non-humans. During the Bestiarium Melting-Pot film evening, you will be treated to an “alcoholic lecture” by Dr. Lichic who will explain how to abandon your cumbersome canine companion during the holidays. After that, Laure Belhassen will present her bestiary of animal women. Femmes animales traces the history of depictions of women as animals. Finally, we will follow the artist duo Peter Fischli and David Weiss who, dressed up as a rat and a bear, have many adventures. 

On 15 and 16 September, Monokino presents once again  ‘SHHH’- a festival of silent films screened at the seaside, featuring work by Jasper Rigole, Isabelle Cornado, Helga Fanderl and many others. Film researcher Steven Jacobs will guide us through Ostend’s art and film history with an eye-catching film program. The starting point is Pour vos beaux yeux (1929) that Henri Storck made together with the surrealist Felix Labisse. We will see eyes and their gaze set against the backdrop of Belgian surrealism. Casper Jacobs will provide a live soundtrack. 

German director and animation pioneer Lotte Reiniger is best known for her 1928 masterpiece The Adventures of Prince Achmed for which she cut the silhouettes herself and photographed them to make stop-motion films. Reiner's dreamy images find a musical pedant in Pak Yan Lau's free sound palette. This Brussels-based musician took some mysterious films such as Caliph Stork (1954) and The Magic Horse (1953) as a starting point and, while improvising with an arsenal of instruments and electronics, will perform a beautiful fairy-tale film concert for young and old.