Peter Delpeut

Tragic love story about the photographer and explorer Felice Beato who travelled back to Japan in 1895 to seek his former wife O-Kiku. On the way he describes in a nostalgic letter to his brother how much he yearns for his lost love O-Kiku and how impotent he feels in an ancient Japan subject to rapid change. The journey takes him to Nagasaki and Moji, Onomichi, Mount Fuji, Yokohama and Tokyo. Places he once visited with his beloved and where he now no longer understands the people. Felice...Felice... is inspired by hand-coloured nineteenth century photos taken by e.g. Felice Beato, Sjimooka Renjo and Baron von Stilfried. In this film, shot entirely in a studio, the photos depict Felice's journey. Awarded the Golden Calf for Best Feature film in 1998. (NFF)

In this mesmerizing collage of silent Italian melodrama, found-footage filmmaker Peter Delpeut (Lyrical Nitrate) affectionately captures the spirit of the World War One-era cinema diva. In all-but-lost gems such as La donna nuda (1914), and Tigre reale (1916), superstars such as Lyda Borelli and Pina Menichelli portrayed heroines teetering dangerously between defiant indulgence in sexual passion and hysterical remorse at their own cruelties. Delpeut’s inventive celebration of Black Romanticism is both striking and heartbreaking in its composition—a beautifully woven narrative of tempted fate and self-torment, elegantly guided by Loek Dikker’s original score. Zeitgeist Films is proud to present Delpeut’s stunningly experimental work in all its heaving bosomed, luridly tinted glory.

Archive documentary about Ritwik Ghatak.

Cyprus, July 1974. President Makarios has been ousted in a coup, and a Turkish invasion is imminent. A pilot recounts the very last flight to Nicosia Airport: should he land or not?

In 1941, an Irish documentary filmmaker hears of a man named J.C. Sullivan, who may know the fate of the Hollandia, a Norwegian ship that sailed to Antarctica in 1905 and disappeared. Sullivan was the carpenter on that ill-fated voyage and is the last known surviving crewmember of the Hollandia. When interviewed, Sullivan presents the filmmaker with canisters of old film footage which back up his unbelievable tale.

Compilation of film clips from 1905-1915, found footage of silent movies and documentaries from the Jean Desmet Archive of the Netherlands Film Museum. Jean Desmet was one of the first Dutch film distributors. Lyrisch nitraat is a tribute to the craftsmanship of early filmmakers, but also shows the brittleness of old nitrate films. Composed as an opera about love and death, set to music by Bizet, Masek and Puccini.

Tragic love story about the photographer and explorer Felice Beato who travelled back to Japan in 1895 to seek his former wife O-Kiku. On the way he describes in a nostalgic letter to his brother how much he yearns for his lost love O-Kiku and how impotent he feels in an ancient Japan subject to rapid change. The journey takes him to Nagasaki and Moji, Onomichi, Mount Fuji, Yokohama and Tokyo. Places he once visited with his beloved and where he now no longer understands the people. Felice...Felice... is inspired by hand-coloured nineteenth century photos taken by e.g. Felice Beato, Sjimooka Renjo and Baron von Stilfried. In this film, shot entirely in a studio, the photos depict Felice's journey. Awarded the Golden Calf for Best Feature film in 1998. (NFF)

In this mesmerizing collage of silent Italian melodrama, found-footage filmmaker Peter Delpeut (Lyrical Nitrate) affectionately captures the spirit of the World War One-era cinema diva. In all-but-lost gems such as La donna nuda (1914), and Tigre reale (1916), superstars such as Lyda Borelli and Pina Menichelli portrayed heroines teetering dangerously between defiant indulgence in sexual passion and hysterical remorse at their own cruelties. Delpeut’s inventive celebration of Black Romanticism is both striking and heartbreaking in its composition—a beautifully woven narrative of tempted fate and self-torment, elegantly guided by Loek Dikker’s original score. Zeitgeist Films is proud to present Delpeut’s stunningly experimental work in all its heaving bosomed, luridly tinted glory.

Archive documentary about Ritwik Ghatak.

Cyprus, July 1974. President Makarios has been ousted in a coup, and a Turkish invasion is imminent. A pilot recounts the very last flight to Nicosia Airport: should he land or not?

In 1941, an Irish documentary filmmaker hears of a man named J.C. Sullivan, who may know the fate of the Hollandia, a Norwegian ship that sailed to Antarctica in 1905 and disappeared. Sullivan was the carpenter on that ill-fated voyage and is the last known surviving crewmember of the Hollandia. When interviewed, Sullivan presents the filmmaker with canisters of old film footage which back up his unbelievable tale.

In 1941, an Irish documentary filmmaker hears of a man named J.C. Sullivan, who may know the fate of the Hollandia, a Norwegian ship that sailed to Antarctica in 1905 and disappeared. Sullivan was the carpenter on that ill-fated voyage and is the last known surviving crewmember of the Hollandia. When interviewed, Sullivan presents the filmmaker with canisters of old film footage which back up his unbelievable tale.

Compilation of film clips from 1905-1915, found footage of silent movies and documentaries from the Jean Desmet Archive of the Netherlands Film Museum. Jean Desmet was one of the first Dutch film distributors. Lyrisch nitraat is a tribute to the craftsmanship of early filmmakers, but also shows the brittleness of old nitrate films. Composed as an opera about love and death, set to music by Bizet, Masek and Puccini.

Compilation of film clips from 1905-1915, found footage of silent movies and documentaries from the Jean Desmet Archive of the Netherlands Film Museum. Jean Desmet was one of the first Dutch film distributors. Lyrisch nitraat is a tribute to the craftsmanship of early filmmakers, but also shows the brittleness of old nitrate films. Composed as an opera about love and death, set to music by Bizet, Masek and Puccini.

One Hand Clapping is a found footage film in which the hands of five chief conductors of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra perform a dazzling dance. The images are taken from historical concert recordings on which Peter Delpeut and editor Menno Otten have extremely zoomed in. Spread across five frames these conducting hands perform a choreography of encouraging and holding back, detaching themselves gradually from the conductors and transforming into one flying, boxing and dancing body. The captivating music by Dutch composer Harry de Wit enhances the mind boggling energy.

Part of the series made for VPRO TV comprising films from the silent era. This part is a compilation of short films restored by the Netherlands Film Museum from the period 1897 to 1899. They were made by the Biograph & Mutoscope Company in Holland and abroad. The films were shot on the 68mm format that soon went out of fashion.

An English travelogue by Stef Tijdink and Peter Delpeut

An English travelogue by Stef Tijdink and Peter Delpeut

This documentary is an offbeat "road movie" in which acclaimed documentarian Heddy Honigmann travels with, and thereby discovers the stories of, taxi drivers in Lima. In the early 1990s, in response to Peru's inflationary economy and a government destabilized by corruption and Shining Path terrorism, many middle-class professionals used their own cars to moonlight as taxi drivers in order to weather the financial crisis.

Peter Delpeut, regular dramaturge of dance troupe LeineRoebana, this time enters the studio as a filmmaker. The result: a cinematographic choreography of close-ups and expressions in the intimacy of the rehearsal room.

Peter Delpeut, regular dramaturge of dance troupe LeineRoebana, this time enters the studio as a filmmaker. The result: a cinematographic choreography of close-ups and expressions in the intimacy of the rehearsal room.

Documentary about the myth of the west.

Documentary about the myth of the west.

A series of short vignettes set in a Berlin Mietskaserne (rental barracks for the poor), framed by Schönberg's atonal piece Pierrot Lunaire.

A series of short vignettes set in a Berlin Mietskaserne (rental barracks for the poor), framed by Schönberg's atonal piece Pierrot Lunaire.