It also revolves around managing my own time and itinerary. Going to the cinema on my own means more to me than just watching the film. But I do absolutely remain an old-fashioned film viewer who experiences projections on a big screen more intensely and regards his cinema visits as inextricably bound up with the city centre. ![]() And three film events I was really looking forward to have stayed with me: the Courtisane festival (Kevin Jerome Everson in particular), Manon De Boer’s Downtime exhibition at the Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon and the Belgian premiere of Victoria by Sofie Benoot, Isabelle Tollenaere and Liesbeth De Ceulaer at Docville.ĭo you have a favourite place or setting to watch films?įor some years now, I mainly watch films on TV and laptop screens. To name but a few: An Elephant Sitting Still, Liberty: An Ephemeral Statute, Muidhond, Parasite, Terminator: Dark Fate, Portrait de la jeune fille en feu, Marriage Story, Wasp Network. The question of which films I have watched is closely related, I feel, to the question of which films I have missed and still want to see. On a variety of screens: smart TV or laptop. On a variety of platforms: streaming through MUBI, Netflix, Proximus, Popcorn-Time, UbuWeb or on DVD. But I’ll give it a go, in no particular order: Dark Waters, Mon oncle d’Amérique, Richard Jewell, La chatte à deux têtes, I Can’t Go Back to Yesterday, Numéro deux, When Harry Met Sally, General Report I & II, Juste un Mouvement, Mrs. I should write them down, really, because I always have a hard time calling to mind what I’ve seen recently. Which films, series and other audiovisual works have you watched since? If I include the screenings in my film studies classes right before the school closed, Chronique d’un été, Riddles of the Sphinx and Lemonade are also on the list. And Projection Instructions, at Anouk De Clercq’s book presentation ( Where is Cinema?, 2019) in CINEMATEK. Perhaps Martin Eden at Cinema Palace? Not long before the lockdown, I definitely saw Miroir Séb Fragile! and Euphoria at the 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080/1000 Bruxelles exhibition at ARGOS. I really don’t remember which film I saw. Herman Asselberghs: That must have been somewhere in the beginning of March. ![]() Gerard-Jan Claes: When did you last go to the movies? ![]() He makes films, writes about film, teaches at the film department of LUCA School of Arts/Sint-Lukas Brussels and is co-founder of the artist-run production and distribution platform Auguste Orts. The series takes off with Herman Asselberghs as guinea pig. ‘One spectator among others’ attempts to see the trees for the wood through a simple observation: we watch. Our social life is punctuated by (pressing) questions, (cautious) recommendations and (resolute) judgments about the films available: “Did you watch this? And have you seen that? Not to be missed! Make sure to check it out! Overrated!” With all of the viewing pleasure, but also the overchoice, overkill or forbearance that entails. Down the street, someone is sitting on a bench, moved by the emotional denouement of an old romcom, or excited at the trailer of the next superhero movie. Waiting for the metro, someone bursts out laughing at who knows what on their smartphone. The film spectator has taken to the street. We may watch the same films but not necessarily at the same time. We look in a fragmented but not necessarily aimless way. Never before have people watched so much, at all imaginable times and places, in all conceivable positions and relations. Never before have there been so many opportunities to shape one’s own viewing practice. Professional spectators and Sunday viewers, economical viewers and polyviewers, always-and-everywhere-viewers, legal and illegal viewers, model viewers, social viewers, solitary viewers, solidary viewers, distracted viewers, enchanted viewers, youthful viewers, adult viewers, secret viewers, onlookers, eccentric viewers, gloomy viewers and peepers. But always also merely one spectator among others. Which customs and habits, regulations and prohibitions, places and patterns are part of their viewing practice? What place does film-watching have in their professional and personal lives? And is the movie theatre (still) part of their relationship with film? The series offers an introspective view of spectatorship as an activity and attitude, as a tenacious practice of watching, listening, reading, feeling, doing and thinking, with the spectator as a writer of their own singular story, with their own personal style, vocabulary, and idiosyncratic use of accents and punctuation. Filmmakers, artists, critics, researchers, authors, programmers, cinemagoers, TV enthusiasts, Netflixers, YouTubers, torrent users. ![]() In the series ‘One Spectator Among Others’ Herman Asselberghs and Gerard-Jan Claes invite various passionate film lovers to elaborate on their viewing practice by email.
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