Raoul Servais

Documentary on the Belgian animation filmer Raoul Servais.

Inspired by the poem “Le Tank” by Pierre Jean Jouve, this film is a free interpretation of the first tank attack during the first World War.

Winter Days is a 2003 animated film, directed by Kihachirō Kawamoto. It is based on one of the renku (collaborative linked poems) in the 1684 collection of the same name by the 17th-century Japanese poet Bashō. The creation of the film followed the traditional collaborative nature of the source material – the visuals for each of the 36 stanzas were independently created by 35 different animators. As well as many Japanese animators, Kawamoto assembled leading names of animation from across the world. Each animator was asked to contribute at least 30 seconds to illustrate their stanza, and most of the sequences are under a minute (Yuriy Norshteyn's, though, is nearly two minutes long).

A group of convicts slowly drag their balls and chains through a desolate landscape. One of them discovers a strange structure and decides to climb it.

A group of convicts slowly drag their balls and chains through a desolate landscape. One of them discovers a strange structure and decides to climb it.

Nocturnal Butterflies is Servais' serene and melancholic homage to Belgian surrealist Paul Delvaux (1897-1994), whose architectural paintings serve as the basis for the mise-en-scène for the film, and whose opaquely gazed women represent the enigmatic, silent witnesses who guard the secrets of the eccentric artist's curious world of precisely rendered, hermetic construction.

Nocturnal Butterflies is Servais' serene and melancholic homage to Belgian surrealist Paul Delvaux (1897-1994), whose architectural paintings serve as the basis for the mise-en-scène for the film, and whose opaquely gazed women represent the enigmatic, silent witnesses who guard the secrets of the eccentric artist's curious world of precisely rendered, hermetic construction.

A lighthouse guardian leads a young prince towards an imaginary world, Taxandria, where the boy learns about the power of love and the value of liberty. A totalitarian regime has forbidden time: time watches have been confiscated, photo cameras are illegal as they freeze a point in time. A typical Servais theme: a power is oppressed by a constraint that denies what is best in the individual, and therefore has to be twisted in various ways, to establish an entirely artificial world, that has rules that may question some of the rules of our world at this side of the mirror.

A lighthouse guardian leads a young prince towards an imaginary world, Taxandria, where the boy learns about the power of love and the value of liberty. A totalitarian regime has forbidden time: time watches have been confiscated, photo cameras are illegal as they freeze a point in time. A typical Servais theme: a power is oppressed by a constraint that denies what is best in the individual, and therefore has to be twisted in various ways, to establish an entirely artificial world, that has rules that may question some of the rules of our world at this side of the mirror.

Short film on Raoul Servais' Servaisgrafie process/invention.

An unknowing man rescues a rather aggressive and demanding harpy.

An unknowing man rescues a rather aggressive and demanding harpy.

An unknowing man rescues a rather aggressive and demanding harpy.

Sir Halewyn’s magical song lures girls from afar to his gloomy forest, from where none returns. Based on a medieval song.

A farmer accidentally creates a self-procreating iron Pegasus.

A farmer accidentally creates a self-procreating iron Pegasus.

A powerful nation has experimented with a new gas, which does not kill or injure the asphyxiated subjects, only puts them in a lethargic and mystical state. X-70 gas bombs will be dropped by mistake over Nebelux and provoke an unexpected mutation of the population of this friendly little country. (miff.com.au)

A powerful nation has experimented with a new gas, which does not kill or injure the asphyxiated subjects, only puts them in a lethargic and mystical state. X-70 gas bombs will be dropped by mistake over Nebelux and provoke an unexpected mutation of the population of this friendly little country. (miff.com.au)

In a world where people are easily indoctrinated by speech, a reporter wants to know what people think about the actual political situation?

Jason Goldframe, a film producer, is always the best and the first! It's his ambition to be the very first to achieve the inconceivable: making a 270mm film. Obsessed as he is, he even wants to be faster than his shadow. One evening he succeeds…

Jason Goldframe, a film producer, is always the best and the first! It's his ambition to be the very first to achieve the inconceivable: making a 270mm film. Obsessed as he is, he even wants to be faster than his shadow. One evening he succeeds…

Monsterlike cranes reign over an inhospitable harbour as prehistorical reptiles. The only human being they accept is a lonesome fisherman. He is to witness a strange encounter between a ship's mate and a mermaid. Imagination or reality?

Monsterlike cranes reign over an inhospitable harbour as prehistorical reptiles. The only human being they accept is a lonesome fisherman. He is to witness a strange encounter between a ship's mate and a mermaid. Imagination or reality?

An invading army destroys all color in a harmless town and brings it in a state of depression. Then a jester arrives.

An invading army destroys all color in a harmless town and brings it in a state of depression. Then a jester arrives.

On a November day a man deposits a flower garland for his old car at the junk yard. But the place appears to be a labyrinth in which he gets lost.

On a November day a man deposits a flower garland for his old car at the junk yard. But the place appears to be a labyrinth in which he gets lost.

A day in the life of an organ grinder, down on his luck, who wanders the streets of Paris, dreaming of what might be. He can't help but crank out the occasional false note, just often enough to enrage his listeners and discourage any donations. He dreams of playing a large pipe organ. The juke box drowns him out at a cocktail bar, a church organ drowns him out on a street, pinball machines drown him out at Luna Park. The city's neon lights and commercial posters overwhelm his small art. At the end of the day, he captures the tear of a calliope horse - his sole earnings for the day - which may prove magical.

A day in the life of an organ grinder, down on his luck, who wanders the streets of Paris, dreaming of what might be. He can't help but crank out the occasional false note, just often enough to enrage his listeners and discourage any donations. He dreams of playing a large pipe organ. The juke box drowns him out at a cocktail bar, a church organ drowns him out on a street, pinball machines drown him out at Luna Park. The city's neon lights and commercial posters overwhelm his small art. At the end of the day, he captures the tear of a calliope horse - his sole earnings for the day - which may prove magical.

In a coastal village a faulty street lantern lands on the rubbish yard. During a storm a fishermen's boat is in trouble. The big lighthouse has fallen asleep, but the street lantern saves the boat.

In a coastal village a faulty street lantern lands on the rubbish yard. During a storm a fishermen's boat is in trouble. The big lighthouse has fallen asleep, but the street lantern saves the boat.

November 1914, the front in Flanders. In a partially destroyed aid station, the wounded French soldier François is the only one left. He lies on a field bed and has an open wound in the side. Suddenly, he sees the silhouette of a figure with a pointed helmet on its head looming.