Harry Kümel

Directing

Harry Kümel

Born

1940-01-27 (86)

Place of birth

Antwerp, Belgium

Known for

Directing

Credits

35 titles

Harry Kümel (born 27 January 1940) is a Belgian film director. His 1971 vampire feature Daughters of Darkness (Les lèvres rouges; Fr, "The Red Lips"), starring Delphine Seyrig became a cult hit in Europe and the United States. He also directed the film version of Malpertuis (1971), featuring Orson Welles and adapted from the 1943 novel by Jean Ray. He also directed Monsieur Hawarden (1969). From 1969 until the present, Kümel has taught cinema at several film institutes, including The Dutch Film and Television Academy - Amsterdam (NFTA), Institut des Arts de Diffusion - Brussels (IAD), Royal Institute for Theatre, Cinema and Sound - Brussels (RITS), and the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB…

Known for

Daughters of Darkness poster
6.2

Ostend, Belgium. In a decadent seaside hotel, Stefan and Valerie, a newlywed couple, meet the mysterious Countess Báthory and Ilona, her secretary.

Daughters of Darkness

1971

Malpertuis poster
6.5

A young sailor finds himself trapped in the labyrinthine mansion of his occultist uncle, along with a number of eccentric and mysterious relatives who all seem to be harboring a dark secret.

Malpertuis

1972

Tales of the Uncanny poster
7.0

A detailed look at the history of horror anthology films.

Tales of the Uncanny

2020

Horror Europa with Mark Gatiss poster
7.4

Actor and writer Mark Gatiss embarks on a chilling journey through European horror cinema, from the silent nightmares of German Expressionism in the 1920s to the Belgian lesbian vampires in the 1970s, from the black-gloved killers of Italian bloody giallo cinema to the ghosts of the Spanish Civil War, and finally reveals how Europe's turbulent 20th century forged its ground-breaking horror tradition.

Horror Europa with Mark Gatiss

2012

Europe - 99euro-films 2 poster
4.0

Second part of a short film project, where every single short film is only allowed to cost 99 Euros. This time there are not only German filmmakers, but directors from all over Europe involved...

Europe - 99euro-films 2

2003

My Nights with Susan, Sandra, Olga & Julie poster
4.7

Susan has chosen a hermit's life on a dilapidated farm over the shallowness of her previous jet set modeling life. When Anton, a hunky courier, comes along to pick her up for an assignment on the French Riviera, he's so fascinated by Susan's odd assortment of house guests that he decides to stay with them for a couple of days.

My Nights with Susan, Sandra, Olga & Julie

1975

Film credits

2010s · 2 titles

Behind the camera

Daughters of Darkness poster
6.2

Ostend, Belgium. In a decadent seaside hotel, Stefan and Valerie, a newlywed couple, meet the mysterious Countess Báthory and Ilona, her secretary.

Daughters of Darkness

1971

Daughters of Darkness poster
6.2

Ostend, Belgium. In a decadent seaside hotel, Stefan and Valerie, a newlywed couple, meet the mysterious Countess Báthory and Ilona, her secretary.

Daughters of Darkness

1971

Malpertuis poster
6.5

A young sailor finds himself trapped in the labyrinthine mansion of his occultist uncle, along with a number of eccentric and mysterious relatives who all seem to be harboring a dark secret.

Malpertuis

1972

Europe - 99euro-films 2 poster
4.0

Second part of a short film project, where every single short film is only allowed to cost 99 Euros. This time there are not only German filmmakers, but directors from all over Europe involved...

Europe - 99euro-films 2

2003

Europe - 99euro-films 2 poster
4.0

Second part of a short film project, where every single short film is only allowed to cost 99 Euros. This time there are not only German filmmakers, but directors from all over Europe involved...

Europe - 99euro-films 2

2003

My Nights with Susan, Sandra, Olga & Julie poster
4.7

Susan has chosen a hermit's life on a dilapidated farm over the shallowness of her previous jet set modeling life. When Anton, a hunky courier, comes along to pick her up for an assignment on the French Riviera, he's so fascinated by Susan's odd assortment of house guests that he decides to stay with them for a couple of days.

My Nights with Susan, Sandra, Olga & Julie

1975

The Secrets of Love: Three Rakish Tales poster
5.6

Three erotic stories from classic writers Marguerite de Navarre, Nicolas Restif de la Bretonne and Guy de Maupassant.

The Secrets of Love: Three Rakish Tales

1986

The Arrival of Joachim Stiller poster
6.5

An Antwerp journalist finds his daily life increasingly disrupted by unexplained phenomena, such as an authentic letter from 1919 that refers to an event taking place at a much later date. Because these disturbances are consistently linked to the name “Joachim Stiller,” the journalist becomes obsessed with it. The resolution, which is closely tied to his traumatic experiences from the Second World War, takes place with a psychiatrist—and later at an abandoned railway station in an Antwerp suburb. Interwoven with this is a subplot about an Antwerp art dealer who believes he can become rich through a new form of painting. To achieve this, he takes a mentally disabled artist hostage. The narrative also follows various romantic entanglements involving the journalist, which ultimately lead to his happy experience of fatherhood.

The Arrival of Joachim Stiller

1976

The Arrival of Joachim Stiller poster
6.5

An Antwerp journalist finds his daily life increasingly disrupted by unexplained phenomena, such as an authentic letter from 1919 that refers to an event taking place at a much later date. Because these disturbances are consistently linked to the name “Joachim Stiller,” the journalist becomes obsessed with it. The resolution, which is closely tied to his traumatic experiences from the Second World War, takes place with a psychiatrist—and later at an abandoned railway station in an Antwerp suburb. Interwoven with this is a subplot about an Antwerp art dealer who believes he can become rich through a new form of painting. To achieve this, he takes a mentally disabled artist hostage. The narrative also follows various romantic entanglements involving the journalist, which ultimately lead to his happy experience of fatherhood.

The Arrival of Joachim Stiller

1976

Eline Vere poster
6.3

This melodramatic film follows Eline Vere, as she attempts to break free from the confines of her narrow existence in The Hague through three tumultuous and ultimately disastrous courtships. Adaptation of Louis Couperus' novel Eline Vere.

Eline Vere

1991

Josef von Sternberg, A Retrospective poster
9.0

An interview with film director Josef von Sternberg, produced for Belgium television.

Josef von Sternberg, A Retrospective

1969

Josef von Sternberg, A Retrospective poster
9.0

An interview with film director Josef von Sternberg, produced for Belgium television.

Josef von Sternberg, A Retrospective

1969

Paradise Lost poster
4.9

The Mayor of a small Flemish town is determined at all costs to save a unique bird sanctuary from a ruthless businessman who advocates a housing development on the site. The main story, though, centres on a childhood trauma that unites the two men and a dark femme fatale whom one desires and the other attempts to manipulate.

Paradise Lost

1978

Paradise Lost poster
4.9

The Mayor of a small Flemish town is determined at all costs to save a unique bird sanctuary from a ruthless businessman who advocates a housing development on the site. The main story, though, centres on a childhood trauma that unites the two men and a dark femme fatale whom one desires and the other attempts to manipulate.

Paradise Lost

1978

The White Slave poster
4.3

A man visits his girlfriend in Amsterdam after the war. He soon finds himself, for inexplicable reasons, in a country house where two women as 'white slaves' have to learn all kinds of erotic skills, and where a private detective, who has sold his own wife to an Arab in Tangier, comes to investigate.

The White Slave

1969

The Warden of the Tomb poster
6.8

An nobleman question an aged grave warden, whose sickness seems to be due to the ghosts who haunt his workplace.

The Warden of the Tomb

1965

The Warden of the Tomb poster
6.8

An nobleman question an aged grave warden, whose sickness seems to be due to the ghosts who haunt his workplace.

The Warden of the Tomb

1965

Monsieur Hawarden poster
6.4

A woman disguises herself as a man to avoid prosecution for murdering her lover fifteen years ago. She is the last living member of a wealthy Vienna family, and has spent the years after the murder traveling Europe with her female servant. Her travels provide her with an anonymous cloak that allows her freedom of movement but little peace of mind. Nearing middle age, the guilt and weariness of an empty life has her contemplating suicide as the only way out of her dilemma.

Monsieur Hawarden

1968

Anna the Maid poster
NR

Short film by Harry Kümel based upon a poem by Jean Cocteau.

Anna the Maid

1958

Anna the Maid poster
NR

Short film by Harry Kümel based upon a poem by Jean Cocteau.

Anna the Maid

1958

Aether poster
5.5

A woman is picking up her boyfriend at his flat as suddenly a red ball appears... .

Aether

1960

Aether poster
5.5

A woman is picking up her boyfriend at his flat as suddenly a red ball appears... .

Aether

1960