
Directing
Patrick Bokanowski
Born 1943-06-23 · Algiers, Alger, France [now Algeria]
Patrick Bokanowski is a French filmmalker who makes experimental and animated films. The film The Angel (1982) is his most prominent, fascinating, and obsessive work. It is accompanied by a soundtrack made by his wife, Michèle Bokanowski, and released during 2003 on a CD album by the label trAace under the title L'Ange. Bokanowski develops work between the traditional cinematographic genres: short film, experimental film, and animation. His manner of treating filmic material is his research at the frontier of optical and visual arts, always in an "in-between" to create. He calls into question the idea that cinema's essence should be to reproduce reality, that is, our habits of thinking and feeling. His films contradict the "objectivity" of photography that is solidly essential to most of the global film productions. Bokanowski's experiments, with the aim of opening cinema to other expressive possibilities – for example the "warping" of objective lenses (though he prefers the term "subjective") – testify to purely mental visions that ignore conventional representations, affecting reality, transforming, and giving the viewer of his films new perceptual adventures. According to Raphaël Bassan, in his article «L'Ange: Un météore dans le ciel de l'animation,» Patrick Bokanowski's work can be considered the beginnings of contemporary animation.
Acting credits
6.8A housewife is preparing a duck à l'orange in her kitchen. But the reluctant bird tries to escape from her but the woman manages to recaptures it and plucks it savagely. Once the duck is put in the oven, an alligator unexpectedly appears in the kitchen, threatening the cook.
Le Canard à l'orange
2002
In this documentary, under the gaze of Pip Chodorov, Patrick Bokanowski evokes the genesis of his films and shows, by explaining them, a certain number of his inspirations (his meeting with the painter Henri Dimier , his first photographic tests...), his tools (lenses, title bench, masks, costumes...), his attempts, such as this idea of filming the moving reflection of a mercury surface.
Patrick Bokanowski : visite à l'atelier
2017
5.8Behold the struggle between light and dark, the two principles that are at the very heart of the cinematic deed. A Solar Dream takes the seventh art’s ability to generate imaginary and phantasmagorical worlds to the limit, multiplied here by Michèle Bokanowski’s enveloping music. A precious plastic and sonic gem.
A Solar Dream
2016
7.0A Creator of the Imaginary: Patrick Bokanowski
A Creator of the Imaginary: Patrick Bokanowski - Short Film
1977
No synopsis available yet.
Paroles d'artistes
2003
7.0In his film studio, Patrick BOKANOWSKI talks about his research (audiovisual and animation techniques) for his new project ("L'Ange" which will be released in 1982). Filming scenes, and excerpts from his short film "Lunch in the morning," punctuate the interview. On a film set, Patrick BOKANOWSKI describes some scenes of his project, notably "the attack of the castle of the egg"; it evokes the influence of the painter Henri DIMIER, of which he was the apprentice, his research on photographic printing, optical systems of shooting, and objectives. - He comments on a sketch of preparation explaining the image sought, and the means implemented. - Images of the shooting of scenes of characters in the darkness and light beams, accompanied by music, punctuate the interview.
A Creator of the Imaginary: Patrick Bokanowski - Hieroglyphs
1975
Short documentary by Pip Chodorov showing Patrick Bokanowski's process in making "Un rêve solaire".
Patrick Bokanowski - Genesis of 'Un rêve solaire'
2017
Behind the camera
6.8A housewife is preparing a duck à l'orange in her kitchen. But the reluctant bird tries to escape from her but the woman manages to recaptures it and plucks it savagely. Once the duck is put in the oven, an alligator unexpectedly appears in the kitchen, threatening the cook.
Le Canard à l'orange
2002
6.8A housewife is preparing a duck à l'orange in her kitchen. But the reluctant bird tries to escape from her but the woman manages to recaptures it and plucks it savagely. Once the duck is put in the oven, an alligator unexpectedly appears in the kitchen, threatening the cook.
Le Canard à l'orange
2002
6.8A housewife is preparing a duck à l'orange in her kitchen. But the reluctant bird tries to escape from her but the woman manages to recaptures it and plucks it savagely. Once the duck is put in the oven, an alligator unexpectedly appears in the kitchen, threatening the cook.
Le Canard à l'orange
2002
7.2Reworked and colored images of people playing at the seashore.
The Beach
1992
7.2Reworked and colored images of people playing at the seashore.
The Beach
1992
7.2Reworked and colored images of people playing at the seashore.
The Beach
1992
8.4Walking towards the fire. In a ceaseless stream of light, people, landscapes and objects lead us to mysterious regions. French filmmaker Patrick Bokanowski’s work is hard to classify - and all the richer for it. Together with his wife Michèle, whose musique concrète compositions form the basis of the sound design, Bokanowski offers a prolonged, dense and visually visceral experience of the kind that is rare in cinema today. Difficult to define and locate, its strangeness is quite unique.
Solar Beats
2008
8.4Walking towards the fire. In a ceaseless stream of light, people, landscapes and objects lead us to mysterious regions. French filmmaker Patrick Bokanowski’s work is hard to classify - and all the richer for it. Together with his wife Michèle, whose musique concrète compositions form the basis of the sound design, Bokanowski offers a prolonged, dense and visually visceral experience of the kind that is rare in cinema today. Difficult to define and locate, its strangeness is quite unique.
Solar Beats
2008
8.4Walking towards the fire. In a ceaseless stream of light, people, landscapes and objects lead us to mysterious regions. French filmmaker Patrick Bokanowski’s work is hard to classify - and all the richer for it. Together with his wife Michèle, whose musique concrète compositions form the basis of the sound design, Bokanowski offers a prolonged, dense and visually visceral experience of the kind that is rare in cinema today. Difficult to define and locate, its strangeness is quite unique.
Solar Beats
2008
6.8The climbing of an immense staircase made up of the most varied stairs. Symbolic scenes occur on different levels where characters seem to be prisoners of their deeds and of their own folly. The steep staircase leads little by little towards the zones of great light where human beings and nonhuman beings meet.
The Angel
1982
6.8The climbing of an immense staircase made up of the most varied stairs. Symbolic scenes occur on different levels where characters seem to be prisoners of their deeds and of their own folly. The steep staircase leads little by little towards the zones of great light where human beings and nonhuman beings meet.
The Angel
1982
6.8The climbing of an immense staircase made up of the most varied stairs. Symbolic scenes occur on different levels where characters seem to be prisoners of their deeds and of their own folly. The steep staircase leads little by little towards the zones of great light where human beings and nonhuman beings meet.
The Angel
1982
7.8Relentlessly reworking ‘real’ images, using techniques borrowed from painting and animated film, Patrick Bokanowski is an author of stature, capable of creating an insane and cataclysmic universe of unquestionable beauty.
Breakfast
1974
7.8Relentlessly reworking ‘real’ images, using techniques borrowed from painting and animated film, Patrick Bokanowski is an author of stature, capable of creating an insane and cataclysmic universe of unquestionable beauty.
Breakfast
1974
7.8Relentlessly reworking ‘real’ images, using techniques borrowed from painting and animated film, Patrick Bokanowski is an author of stature, capable of creating an insane and cataclysmic universe of unquestionable beauty.
Breakfast
1974
7.0Experimental film by Patrick Bokanowski.
Un rêve
2014
7.0Experimental film by Patrick Bokanowski.
Un rêve
2014
7.0Experimental film by Patrick Bokanowski.
Un rêve
2014
7.0Choreography of an imaginary journey.
Soar
2018
7.0Choreography of an imaginary journey.
Soar
2018
7.0Choreography of an imaginary journey.
Soar
2018
6.5Memories split in the space.
Flammes
1998
6.5Memories split in the space.
Flammes
1998
6.5Memories split in the space.
Flammes
1998