| Description | Maps: Belgium since 1831, 15th century Flanders. Caption: "Tout est flamand, sauf la langue que j’utilise accidentellement. Ma position d’écrivain «d’expression française» en un pays belge où il n’existe pas de langue belge est celle de papegay sur sa perche. Je ne suis pas un écrivain belge, ni un écrivain de Belgique, ni un écrivain en Belgique. Je suis un homme qui écrit dans une chambre." Translated VO.
Window in door of prison cell. VO: "Each one sees, each one hears what pleases him… Caption: "1924. Le Cavalier Bizarre (The Eccentric Cavalier). Sketch in one act. Extract." Puppet windmills, man on horseback, monsters. Ghelderode’s VO talking about plays for an imaginary audience. Actor announces a city in Flanders "of the 16th and 20th centuries simultaneously", and the character of Faust who "appears to be a clown to whom a tragedian’s role has been entrusted". Caption: "1925. La mort du docteur Faust. Tragedy for the music hall in a prologue and three episodes. Extract." Faust in a mask with objects including a skull and a humming top: "Past worlds, future worlds – forward!" Tailors dummies, an explosion, the Devil outside the window. Footage of Ghelderode walking into theatre. Caption: "Born Adhémar Adolphe Louis Martens at Ixelles in Brussels of Flemish parents. In 1918 shortly after his entrance into literature he signs for the first time Michel de Ghelderode." Ghelderode in the theatre. Caption:"At the centre of the Ghelderode’s theatre, a figure who is a mask of the playwright himself." Ghelderode’s words VO saying that he "put on a thousand masks so as not to sneer". The sea; VO talking about Christopher Columbus "becoming a synthesis … of all travellers … of all ages". Caption: "1927. Christophe Colomb. Dramatic fairytale in three scenes. Extract." Columbus interviewed by a journalist. |
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