Henri Plaat

Henri Plaat

History

Henri Plaat was born in the Netherlands in 1936. He studied at the Rietveld Academy in the mid-1950s before going on to work as a topographic designer. In the early 1960s, Plaat decided to concentrate on painting and watercolour. In 1966 he started to make short fiction films and travelogues, usually with a small 16-millimeter handheld camera.

Profile

Henri Plaat

Movies

Other Thoughts 4
Director
Late era assemblage short film by Henri Plaat.
A Fleeting Dream
Director
Henri Plaat | A Fleeting Dream | 2004 | b/w & color | sound | 10 min.
Moroccan Lights
Director
Film about a journey made by Henri Plaat through the mountains and deserts of southern Morocco. This film is one of a series of idiosyncratic and candid visual travelogues by Plaat. When filming the landscape, his use of colour and composition reveals Plaat as a painter.
Other Thoughts 3
Director
Other Thoughts is a series of portraits of people linked together by tranquil images - a surreal world that is not strange, but is comprised of fragments of dreams.
La Muerte en Vivo
Writer
A meditation on death.
La Muerte en Vivo
Editor
A meditation on death.
La Muerte en Vivo
Director
A meditation on death.
2nd War Hats
Director
Somewhere in a bombed city: transvestite heads show beautiful ladies hats. We see the latest fashion and hear cheerful music while the war continues.
Fragments of Decay
Director
From the left-overs of the films Henri Plaat made during his many travels, he made this film as an improvisation on deterioration and decay. A world of time passed and nostalgia.
Spurs of Tango
Director
On his travels to South-America, Plaat tried to capture the omnipresence of Carlos Cardel, the king of Tango. The film stands out in composition, light and colour in combination with the tango music.
Fashion from New York
Director
Realistic images of New York alternate with surrealistic indoor shots and posing fashion models, with references to aphroditism and transvestism.
Der Graf von Rü
Director
Now That You Are Gone
Director
A surreal encounter at Père Lachaise cemetery between brightly coloured jelly pudding and Mickey Mouse.
Postcards
Director
Landscapes, cities and people pass by in a small pile of postcards.
Laughter in the Rosary!
Director
Two schoolgirls act as society ladies, evoking an atmosphere of the roaring twenties. A transvestite tries to read while spaghetti descends on his head.
Absürd
Director
An absurd short film in which music - a mix of Beethoven symphonies and German poetry - is the starting point. There are also fragments of Real Fine Tea from Berlin.
El Cardenal
Director
In his study a cardinal is surrounded by bizarre props in an atmosphere of decay.
The Strange But Unknown Star
Director
A ten-year-old girl dressed as a 1920s star gives a performance. She wears a rubber mask, sits in a large, red armchair, and reads magazines that revive actresses from the past. Annette Hanshaw sings in the background. Marlene Dietrich is bombarded with egg, chocolate powder, powdered sugar and currants.
I Am an Old Smoking, Moving Indian Movie Star
Producer
A veiled Indian lady talks to the camera (silent). Her story is told in images.
I Am an Old Smoking, Moving Indian Movie Star
Director
A veiled Indian lady talks to the camera (silent). Her story is told in images.
Hitler Stay Away from My Door
Director
In a series of photo collages and coloured static photographs, a portrait of Hitler as a crazy fool. To a soundtrack of cabaret music, the images are edited in an associative sequence and appear to be moving while being saturated in smoke.
El niño perverso y el tío
Director
A frightening film in which a boy and an uncle try to outdo each other in terms of perversity, with a giant Côte d’Or toffee. By means of enlargements and reductions in size, which are enhanced in black and white images, the film becomes something of a surreal dream.