Henri Storck

Directing

Henri Storck

Born 1907-09-05 · Oostende, West Flanders, Belgium

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Henri Storck (1907, Ostend – 17 September 1999) was a Belgian author, film-maker and documentarist. In 1933, he directed, with Joris Ivens, Misère au Borinage, a film about the miners in the Borinage area. In 1938, with Andre Thirifays and Pierre Vermeylen, he founded the Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique (Royal Belgian Film Archive). He was an actor in two key films of the history of the cinema: Jean Vigo's Zéro de conduite (1933) in the role of the priest, and Chantal Akerman's Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quay Commercial, 1080 Brussels (1976) in the role of a customer of the prostitute. Jacqueline Aubenas wrote about him, in her expository work, It's been going on for 100 years: a history of the francophone cinema of Belgium: "There emerges forcefully the personality of a cineaste who is not a militant in the sense that this term had in the 1930s for Soviet directors who held an ideology, but in the sense of a generous man who will never choose the wrong side and who will be, in ethics as well as in esthetics, in the first line of battle". Description above from the Wikipedia article Henri Storck, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Acting credits

Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles poster
7.4

A lonely young widow lives with her son following an immutable order: while the boy is in school, she cares for their apartment, does chores, and receives clients in the afternoon.

Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles

1976

My Conversations on Film poster
3.2

This distinctly personal journey into the artistic possibilities of independent film is not to be missed. Jonas Mekas, Jean-Pierre Gorin, Robert Kramer and many other visionaries and mavericks of the silver screen – as well as a book seller, a critic and a psychoanalyst – discuss what cinema has meant to them, what it is and what it could be and, implicitly, how it has changed over the 18 years in which this film was shot. Director Boris Lehman leads the charge, drawing in moments of absurdist humour and inventive camera work; he keeps things raw and spontaneous. His encounters with the now much-missed Jean Rouch and Stephen Dwoskin are particularly touching and stand testament to their personal playfulness and candour. An engaging, absorbing, epic odyssey of a movie.

My Conversations on Film

2013

No artwork available
NR

Three pioneers of documentary filmmaking – Joris Ivens, Henri Storck, and the man behind the camera, Jean Rouch – recall the early days of the documentary genre and speak about their creative methods and sources of inspiration. This lively discussion between the directors is shot in cinéma vérité style and spliced with footage from their older films.

Ciné-mafia

1980

Zero for Conduct poster
6.9

In a repressive boarding school with rigid rules of behavior, four boys decide to rebel against the director on a celebration day.

Zero for Conduct

1933

Janssen & Janssens draaien een film poster
7.0

A documentary celebrating 25 years of flemish subsidised cinema.

Janssen & Janssens draaien een film

1990

Henri Storck, ooggetuige poster
9.0

Robbe de Hert’s Henri Storck, ooggetuige (1986) is a brilliant cinematic homage to the founding father of Belgian documentary cinema. Filmed around Storck’s 80th birthday, the film eschews standard biographical formulas. Instead, De Hert crafts an intelligent, vibrant collage that synthesizes rare archival footage with intimate anecdotes told by Storck himself.The documentary excels at tracing Storck’s evolution from an Ostend avant-garde poet to a fierce social activist. De Hert’s signature rebellious tone shines through in bold creative choices, such as overlaying John Lennon's "Working Class Hero" onto the silent, gritty footage of Misère au Borinage (1933). This creates a powerful bridge between 1930s labor struggles and modern social critique

Henri Storck, ooggetuige

1986

Stars Meet in Moscow poster
NR

Documentary essay about the First Moscow International Film Festival, held in August 1959, about its participants and guests - Soviet and foreign actors, directors who came to the film forum.

Stars Meet in Moscow

1959

Les variations Dielman poster
NR

Found footage using Chantal Akerman's Jeanne Dielman.

Les variations Dielman

2010

Behind the camera

Herman Teirlinck poster
NR

A portrait of the belgian writer Herman Teirlinck by Henri Storck.

Herman Teirlinck

1953

Peasant Symphony poster
7.5

From 1942 to 1944, Henri Storck composed his Symphonie paysanne, in which he describes the day to day life and rituals of the farmers on the rhythm of the seasons. The film is a poem to nature, a lyrical masterpiece on life and death, on animals and plants, on man and his labour.

Peasant Symphony

1944

Peasant Symphony poster
7.5

From 1942 to 1944, Henri Storck composed his Symphonie paysanne, in which he describes the day to day life and rituals of the farmers on the rhythm of the seasons. The film is a poem to nature, a lyrical masterpiece on life and death, on animals and plants, on man and his labour.

Peasant Symphony

1944

Peasant Symphony poster
7.5

From 1942 to 1944, Henri Storck composed his Symphonie paysanne, in which he describes the day to day life and rituals of the farmers on the rhythm of the seasons. The film is a poem to nature, a lyrical masterpiece on life and death, on animals and plants, on man and his labour.

Peasant Symphony

1944

Pilgrimage to Hell poster
6.5

Biopic about Father Damian and his life and work on the island of Molokai.

Pilgrimage to Hell

1946

Rubens poster
5.8

This surreal abstract film falls into three sections, or movements, the first taking place on the ground, the second in the air and the third again on the ground. In the first movement various motifs or themes are introduced, which are again picked up and developed in the third movement. Six spheres, evolved in the first movement, become the sole subject matter–or “dancers”–of the second movement, which consists of a simple type of ballet using the floor-plan choreography or traditional ballet as a basis of interest.

Rubens

1948

Rubens poster
5.8

This surreal abstract film falls into three sections, or movements, the first taking place on the ground, the second in the air and the third again on the ground. In the first movement various motifs or themes are introduced, which are again picked up and developed in the third movement. Six spheres, evolved in the first movement, become the sole subject matter–or “dancers”–of the second movement, which consists of a simple type of ballet using the floor-plan choreography or traditional ballet as a basis of interest.

Rubens

1948

Rubens poster
5.8

This surreal abstract film falls into three sections, or movements, the first taking place on the ground, the second in the air and the third again on the ground. In the first movement various motifs or themes are introduced, which are again picked up and developed in the third movement. Six spheres, evolved in the first movement, become the sole subject matter–or “dancers”–of the second movement, which consists of a simple type of ballet using the floor-plan choreography or traditional ballet as a basis of interest.

Rubens

1948

No artwork available
NR

A day-of record of 30 December 1938 as Belgium mourns Emile Vandervelde—“the Boss”—with massed corteges, banners, and eulogies for the Belgian Labour Party leader, statesman, and pillar of international socialism.

The Boss is Dead

1938

Feesten in België poster
NR

Henri Storck: “The General Commissariat for Tourism had organized a ‘Year of Folklore’ and, on that occasion, asked me to make a series of films devoted exclusively to this form of popular culture.” 1.Carnaval van Oostende - 2.Vastenavond te Aalst - 3.Carnaval van Malmédy - 4.Straattoneel in Malmédy - 5.De Gilles van Binche - 6.Meiboomplanting en Passiespel door de marionetten van Toone in Brussel - 7.Heilige Bloedprocessie in Brugge - 8.De 'witte Moussis' van Stavelot en de kermis van Bergen - 9.Passiespel in Lessen en Ligny. Halfoogst-feesten in Outre-Meuse (Luik) - 10.De Chinels van Fisse-la-Ville. De 'Grootjes' van La Louvière. Het ontploiffen van Kruipotten in Luik.

Feesten in België

No artwork available
6.5

On Ostend’s North Sea shore, a sudden squall pushes two strangers under a bathing hut; when the sun returns, their flirtation blossoms into a playful, near-wordless seaside idyll of sand, surf, and shells.

Romance on the Beach

1931

Outside the Border of the Camera poster
9.0

A montage of images from newsreels; Storck's edit contains comical, poignant, even chilling juxtapositions.

Outside the Border of the Camera

1932

Meeting of Artists poster
6.0

A family film, a short summer film, made to record the joy of being together. But what a family! Léon Spilliaert, Paul Delvaux, Edgar Tytgat and his wife Maria, Luc and Paul Haessaerts. A garden, some seats and a camera that films the group of friends. They talk (given all the jollity, laughter and gestures seen it is a shame that it is a silent film). A period document only a few minutes long, a witness that puts names to faces, a reminder of a sunny afternoon. Emotion that loses itself in the moment.

Meeting of Artists

1945

No artwork available
NR

Film edited and directed by Luc de Heusch using images never used that Henri Storck turned in Ostend in 1930 while he was "cinégraphiste" of the city.

Ostende 1930

2004

Vacances poster
7.0

This trailer for the pleasures of living between La Panne and Le Zoute testifies to the post-1936 euphoria that came with paid holidays, with sun and rest for everybody.

Vacances

1938

No artwork available
NR

An UN produced French documentary attempting to illustrate the many causes of juvenile delinquency with particular reference to adverse environmental influence.

Crossroads of Life

1949

Borinage poster
6.3

Henri Storck and Joris Ivens’ landmark of social documentary, blending staged scenes with locals and on-the-spot reportage to depict the 1932 miners’ strike in Belgium’s Borinage—evictions, hunger, and police repression—transforming outrage into a call for solidarity.

Borinage

1934

Borinage poster
6.3

Henri Storck and Joris Ivens’ landmark of social documentary, blending staged scenes with locals and on-the-spot reportage to depict the 1932 miners’ strike in Belgium’s Borinage—evictions, hunger, and police repression—transforming outrage into a call for solidarity.

Borinage

1934

No artwork available
6.5

Departing Ostend for the North Sea grounds, a fishing boat casts its herring nets until a drift into French waters prompts a boarding by the coast guards—a brisk portrait of hard work at sea and the thinness of a maritime border.

Herring Fishers

1930

The Open Window poster
6.0

One of the first European films commissioned by the countries that signes the Brussels treaty and filmed in the museums of Brussels, Amsterdam, Paris, London, Ghent and The Hague. The film shows, by means of 59 works of art, how painting discovered the landscape once it left the strictly religious context behind. Henri storck wrote, "We have tried to eliminate the artificiality of filming. We have tried to hide the camera in order to immerse the audience in the world of the painting and the landscape that it depicts. We want the viewer to discover the feeling of nature for himself, through the artists.... It is not our ambition to make a critical or informative work." This iconic journey from Bosch to Manet and Turner is accompanied by music by Georges Auric.

The Open Window

1952

Thursday We Shall Sing Like Sunday poster
7.8

A bitter-sweet story of a young sales assistant and a truck driver trapped between their dreams and the economic depression.

Thursday We Shall Sing Like Sunday

1967

Pleasure Trips poster
7.0

The beach and the bathers, poses and gestures. A series of sketches and portraits, little touches that build up into a wry, affectionate portrait of a Sunday at the beach.

Pleasure Trips

1930

No artwork available
8.3

Documentary about the inhabitants, both human and animal, of the Belgian Congo.

Lords of the Forest

1958

Summer by the Sea poster
NR

A lyrical promotion of Belgium’s North Sea coast that alternates teeming promenades and playful beach games with elegant seafront vistas; shot by John Fernhout and set to Marcel Poot’s score, with commentary by Éric de Haulleville.

Summer by the Sea

1931