Johan van Essche

Movies

CYCLE
Assistant Art Director
As we, the world and all creation are experiencing a collective transition, a new future awaits us all. Space & time become utter necessities for the acceptance of a new state of being, while our wounds slowly heal. In all humbleness, the CYCLE collection offers an alternative to help us through the now. A bright red, encouraging life force and passion for creation... an ode to love. Smoothly textured fabrics with soft caresses, sensible colors chosen to highlight the new cycle we are entering. The elements are in constant rotation.
The Treatment
Production Design
Inspector Nick Cafmeyer seems to have it all - looks, brains and a successful career. But a dark cloud hangs over his life: since the age of nine, he has been haunted by the unsolved disappearance of his younger brother, Bjorn. Plettinckx, a known sex offender, was questioned but quickly released. Plettinckx lives close by and takes fiendish pleasure in harassing Nick. Then, when a disturbing case comes to light involving a missing nine-year-old, Nick heads a massive search which turns into a relentless manhunt.
The Verdict
Production Design
When his wife's murderer is released due to a procedural error, Luc will do everything in his power to stop it from happening... He is going to take justice into his own hands and will then compete with the constitutional state which let him down.
High Heels, Low Tide
Art Direction
Four girl friends in their late twenties go on a reunion weekend to the sea, to the house where they spent their teenage years. What should have been a convivial gathering deteriorates into an unavoidable personal and mutual confrontation. They understand that they must reassess their friendship and realize that their lives have changed for ever.
Madonna's Pig
Art Direction
Traveling salesman Tony Roozen and his newest gadget, Porky (a robotic pig) end up stranded in the tiny hamlet of Madonna where deep and lasting political conflicts have disrupted village life. Tony can t wait to leave this godforsaken place but the young village teacher Maria Glorie needs his help. Who knows, maybe Porky can lend a hand?
Left Bank
Production Design
A chilling thriller about a woman, who upon moving in with her new boyfriend, becomes obsessed with the fate of the previous tenant and descends into madness.
Villa Des Roses
Art Direction
In 1913, a young woman starts work as a maid in a seedy Parisian boarding house full of eccentrics. When she falls in love with one of the guests, she must choose between her son and her new romance.
Badry's Alibi
Production Design
Ann starts a relationship wit Badry who lives in Belgium illegally.
Shades
Production Design
In this film within a film, a Belgian serial killer escapes prison and finds that a filmmaker is making a movie about his life. A maverick director, a merciless producer, an insubordinate star, and a conviced serial killer all try to survive the deadliest place on Earth: a movie set.
Blueberry Hill
Set Dressing Supervisor
Antwerp in the fifties. Robin de Hert grew up in a Catholic parochial environment; on the one hand there is his authoritarian father and the sadistic secretary of the Catholic boys technical school, on the other hand there are the 'Grieten' and the French teacher with whom Robin is getting a good band through a secret they share. If the secretary finds out about this secret, this has major implications for both the teacher and the students ...
Jan Cox, a Painter's Odyssey
Art Direction
Biographical film about the life and work of the Belgian painter Jan Cox. Cox had a tempestuous youth, during which he co-founded the Jeune Peinture Belge group and worked on the fringes of the Cobra movement.