Roland Lethem
Biography: Roland Lethem (born 1942) is a Belgian filmmaker and writer. Influenced at his beginnings by Buñuel , Cocteau , the surrealists and by the Japanese cinema ( Seijun Suzuki , Ishirō Honda , Kōji Wakamatsu , Yoko Ono ), stunned by the Festival of the experimental film of Knokke in 1967 and by May 1968, Roland Lethem wants to push the people to look at the things of which they say they are freed, it's to say to place them in front of their responsibilities. Even if sometimes the results leaves much to be desired, the idea of each one of his films is seductive and exemplary. A fact is certain, his films are disturbing, they are sometimes unpleasant to look at. The narcissistic and provocative play of the debut turned itself into direct, visual, and verbal insult, and in slandering. His dream was one moment to be able to film the intimate life of the pope or the sexual plays of the Belgian sovereigns. Through violence, pornography and cruelty of some scenes, Roland Lethem is a gentle, generous man with a lot of humor. The work of Roland Lethem evolves, becomes political, ecological. The Ballad of the cursed lovers, 1966 or The Bloodthirsty Fairy, 1968 still tell stories. The Sufferings of a ravaged Egg , 1967, poem of love in several parts (Étoiles/Stars, Corps/Bodies, Hymen/Marriage or Hymen (ambiguous in French), Oeuf/Egg) dedicated to all who conceive and to all who are conceived, irresistibly makes you think at the Histoire de l'oeil (Story of the Eye, 1928) of Georges Bataille .
Place of Birth: Not available
Birthday: January 05, 1942
Deathday: N/A
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Known For
Jardins clandestins
2012-08-24
Jardins clandestins
Overview:
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 2012-08-24
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Cold Head
1970-05-01
Cold Head
Overview: Shots of a car speeding down the road are intercut with kinky sex flashes (a woman with a whip rides a guy, for instance). Then the car crashes into a tree, the male driver (Christian Chaix) is decapitated and the bloody, injured female (Marie-Paule Mailleux) scoops up his head and returns to her home. There, she cleans herself and the head off, prepares dinner for herself and the head, buys the head a Ken Doll to keep it company, puts the head on a mannequin's body and then has a series of strange hallucinations, which include having sex with her bloodied lover, dancing in a room by herself with a spotlight, etc. Things culminate in her having sex with the head and then throwing it into the trash bin.
Genres: Horror
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1970-05-01
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Les souffrances d'un oeuf meurtri
1967-12-27
Les souffrances d'un oeuf meurtri
Overview: A surrealist saga in four parts: 1.) The credit sequence in which title cards show successively larger foetuses pulsating on the screen until the baby is born and cries. 2.) Etoile-directly referring to Cocteau, Lethem shows an adolescent sucking a starfish and then giving birth to a smaller starfish. A statement of inadequacy. To give birth involves an emasculation and a loss of vitality. 3.) Corps-two images of a man on a couch groping for each other, watched by a mysterious peeping Tom. As the two superimposed images come together, the heavy breathing subsides…the statement that the birth of desire is a self – realisation. 4.) Hymen – The decaying body of a girl is shot through green filters, and the final image reveals her vagina crawling with maggots and overlain with a crucifix. A representation of Catholicism preventing the free expression of desire.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1967-12-27
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La Double Insomnie
1963-01-01
La Double Insomnie
Overview: Roland Lethem's first short film.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1963-01-01
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In Memoriam Alfons Vranckx
1974-01-01
In Memoriam Alfons Vranckx
Overview: The last film prohibited by Francisco Franco. Jean-Marie Buchet plays the role of a collector of used tampons in this avant-garde comedy-adventure film.
Genres: Fantasy Comedy Action Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1974-01-01
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Le sexe enragé
1970-09-16
Le sexe enragé
Overview: A bourgeoisie client is transformed into a mouse and cannibalized by a prostitute in flagrante delicto with the camera changing focus in time to her breathing.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1970-09-16
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Sprookje, of l'homme-objet
1972-01-01
Sprookje, of l'homme-objet
Overview: Gerda Diddens' "Sprookje, of l'homme-objet" and "Découpage" form a very funny double metaphor about cinema and machismo.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1972-01-01
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Le Vice et la Vertu
1973-09-07
Le Vice et la Vertu
Overview:
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1973-09-07
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Super huître
1974-01-01
Super huître
Overview:
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1974-01-01
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Lili au lit
1965-01-01
Lili au lit
Overview:
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1965-01-01
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Grève et pets
1975-01-01
Grève et pets
Overview:
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1975-01-01
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Cocktail Morlock
1981-01-31
Cocktail Morlock
Overview:
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1981-01-31
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Le journal de Joseph M.
2000-02-15
Le journal de Joseph M.
Overview:
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 2000-02-15
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Cinéma
1997-12-12
Cinéma
Overview: An ongoing collection of single static shot, mute, showing a view of the cinema facades where Cinematons have been screened.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1997-12-12
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2 ou 3 choses que je sais de Joseph Morder
2007-11-01
2 ou 3 choses que je sais de Joseph Morder
Overview:
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 2007-11-01
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Beef Cattle
1979-01-01
Beef Cattle
Overview: Thomas, in his forties, holds an important post in a slaughterhouse. He is engaged to Marie-Rose, the daughter of the director, whom he hopes to follow later. In a routine examination in the hospital, however, he finds out that he has cancer and his days are counted. The upheaval that he suffers as a result, however, does not take long, his decision is certain: he will use the short time to clean up some bad guys. What else can he do now?
Genres: Thriller Drama
Original Language: nl
Release Date: 1979-01-01
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Cinématon
1978-12-20
Cinématon
Overview: Cinématon is a 156-hour long experimental film by French director Gérard Courant. It was the longest film ever released until 2011. Composed over 36 years from 1978 until 2006, it consists of a series of over 2,821 silent vignettes (cinématons), each 3 minutes and 25 seconds long, of various celebrities, artists, journalists and friends of the director, each doing whatever they want for the allotted time. Subjects of the film include directors Barbet Schroeder, Nagisa Oshima, Volker Schlöndorff, Ken Loach, Benjamin Cuq, Youssef Chahine, Wim Wenders, Joseph Losey, Jean-Luc Godard, Samuel Fuller and Terry Gilliam, chess grandmaster Joël Lautier, and actors Roberto Benigni, Stéphane Audran, Julie Delpy and Lesley Chatterley. Gilliam is featured eating a 100-franc note, while Fuller smokes a cigar. Courant's favourite subject was a 7-month-old baby. The film was screened in its then-entirety in Avignon in November 2009 and was screened in Redondo Beach, CA on April 9, 2010.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1978-12-20
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Cinématon XVII
1982-05-04
Cinématon XVII
Overview: Reel 17 of Gérard Courant's on-going Cinematon series.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1982-05-04
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Jean-Gina B.
1984-01-01
Jean-Gina B.
Overview: This film is based on the true story of Jean Bella, who served as an officer in the Belgian Marine while being convinced, from an early age, that he was in fact a woman. Director Jean-Pol Ferbus follows Jean Bella and makes him talk about his life, psychological and spiritual experiences and reveals the true poet who remained undisclosed for most of this person's life. The film ultimately isn't about transexuality but about loneliness one can experience when he/she feels very deeply that she/he belongs to the two sexes and this in a deep, almost religious, fashion, to such an extent that sexuality itself is being erased from one's life. Jean-Gina Bella is a woman in the body of a man who bravely lived a life on the sea, eventually fighting the elements, talking to God when lost on the immense solitary ocean. This testimony is a very touching and poetic one.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1984-01-01
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EXPRMNTL
2016-10-08
EXPRMNTL
Overview: Knokke, Belgium. A small mundane coastal town, home to the beau-monde. To compete with Venice and Cannes, the posh casino hosts the second ‘World Festival of Film and the Arts’ in 1949, organised in part by the Royal Cinematheque of Belgium. To celebrate cinema’s 50 year existence, they put together a side program showcasing the medium in all its shapes and forms: surrealist film, absolute film, dadaist films, abstract film,… The side program would soon become a festival in its own right: ‘EXPRMNTL’, dedicated to experimental cinema, and would become a mythical gathering of the avant-garde…
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2016-10-08
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La tête d'un frère
1975-01-01
La tête d'un frère
Overview: A film by Roland Lethem
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1975-01-01
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Marilyn's La(te)st Love Song
1978-01-01
Marilyn's La(te)st Love Song
Overview: Marilyn’s shine flickering into your eyes, Marilyn’s mind melting into your mind, Marilyn’s heart beating inside of your chest,…if you so wish. – R.L.Before you start the film please light a candle and after stopping the film, please blow it out. Should the candle accidentally stop burning, do not light it anew: it means that the performance is over.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1978-01-01
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