Raoul Servais - Short Films Collection ( The False Note (La fausse note) / Chromophobia / Sirene (Sirène) / Goldframe / To Speak or Not to Speak / Operation X-70 / Pegasus / Harpya / Nocturnal Butterflies (Nachtvlinders) / De Zandloper (The Sand Glass) / Atraksion / Harbor Lights / November ) ( Chromo phobia / Gold frame / Operation X-Seventy / Nocturnal Butter flies )

Raoul Servais - Short Films Collection (DVD) (*)

~~$20.99~~ $14.97

Original Title: The False Note (La fausse note) / Chromophobia / Sirene (Sirène) / Goldframe / To Speak or Not to Speak / Operation X-70 / Pegasus / Harpya / Nocturnal Butterflies (Nachtvlinders) / De Zandloper (The Sand Glass) / Atraksion / Harbor Lights / November
Alternate Title: Chromo phobia / Gold frame / Operation X-Seventy / Nocturnal Butter flies
Screened, competed or awarded at:
Cannes Film Festival
Fantasporto Awards
Venice Film Festival
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
English ( Mono )
French ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
Spanish ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
Spain ( PAL/Region 0 )

Running Time:
86 min + 10 min extras

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen

Special Features:
Interactive Menu
Scene Access

Movie filmed in 1950 - 2001 and produced in:
Belgium ( France, Benelux )
France ( France, Benelux )
Germany ( Germany, Central Europe )

Directed By:
Raoul Servais
Paul Delvaux

Written By:
Raoul Servais
Jean De Cock
Frank Daniel

Actors:
Werner Edebau ..... The Voice
Raoul Servais
Arthur Sharr
Charles Besterman
Arthur Sharr ..... Voice (voice)
James Humphry ..... Voice (voice)
Leonard Cohen ..... Voice (voice)
Marvin Mordes ..... Voice (voice)
Albert Eric Kaufman ..... Voice (voice)
Eric Salminen ..... Voice (voice)
Will Spoor ..... Man
Fran Waller Zeper ..... Harpy
Sjoert Schwibethus ..... Assailant
Jo Roets
Marq Rawls
Werner Edebau
Armin Mueller-Stahl ..... Karol / Virgilus
Elliott Spiers ..... Aimé Perel
Katja Studt ..... Princess Ailée
Richard Kattan ..... Jan
Julien Schoenaerts ..... Mr. Bonze
Andrew Sachs ..... André / Superintendent
Daniel Emilfork ..... First Minister
Cris Campion ..... Klooster
Robert Lemaire ..... Lamp
Joris Van Ransbeeck ..... Versalus
Ferenc Dávid Kiss ..... Taxandrian
Zsuzsa Holl ..... Leading Lady
John Truscott ..... Driver

Synopsis:

The False Note (1963) A day in the life of an organ grinder, down on his luck, who wanders the streets of Paris...
Chromophobia (1966) Soldiers take over a town, removing all color, pets, and art. Residents are imprisoned
Sirene (1968) Monsterlike cranes reign over an inhospitable harbour as prehistorical reptiles.
Goldframe (1969) Jason Goldframe makes movies, he's demanding, he wants to be first…
To Speak or Not to Speak (1970) TV interviewer asks people in the street about their opinion on the actual political situation...
Operation X-70 (1971) A man in a gas mask briefs his country's top generals on a new weapon, a gas named X-70...
Pegasus (1973) An old blacksmith is now too old to adapt to the changing technological society.
Harpya (1979) A city dweller, out for an evening stroll, hears a woman's cries for help...
Nocturnal Butterflies (1998) Serene and melancholic homage to Belgian surrealist Paul Delvaux (1897-1994)
Atraksion (2001) A couple of downcast prison inmates work their way through the most desperate of landscapes.
The Sand Glass (1950) Experimental Silent Short.
Harbor Lights (1960) A man arrives in Puerto Rico to bury his brother who has mysteriously died and is approached by gangsters...
November Diversion (1965) On a November day a man deposits a flower garland for his old car at the junk yard.
Halewyn's Song (1976) Sir Halewyn's magical song lures girls from afar to his gloomy forest...
Taxandria (1994) European produced animation/live-action fairy tale...

The False Note (1963)
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.

Chromophobia (1966)
Soldiers take over a town, removing all color, pets, and art. Residents are imprisoned; a decorative building becomes a guard tower; the cock at the top of a dome is pulled down and replaced with a raven. But irrepressible impulses remain, especially in a child with her watering can and an artist with his paintbrush. A flower gives rise to a jester who counterattacks. Is the seed mightier than the sword?

Sirene (1968)
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?

Goldframe (1969)
Jason Goldframe is a god in Hollywood. He makes movies, he's demanding, he wants to be first, there are at least five phones on his desk. At the end of a day in which he has been driving his staff to finish a picture in 270 millimeters (another first, if he can pull it off), he visits a sound stage and directs a lighting technician to project a bright light on his back so he can cast a large shadow on a white wall. Goldframe then sets about with great energy and manic action to move faster than his shadow: 'I must be first.' Has he met his match in his two-dimensional doppelganger?

To Speak or Not to Speak (1970)
A seemingly benign TV interviewer asks people in the street (and under the street), 'What's your opinion about the actual political situation?' Several people fumble, one won't talk, and an older man who sits in an easy chair says, 'Make love.' A government representative pushes aside the announcer and asks the man in the street to elaborate. Soon 'love' appears everywhere; then it's replaced by 'buy,' which gives way to 'pro patria' and war: the power of good ideas, as government appropriates them for their own uses. But what's in store for our old man? Can he continue to think, speak his mind, and stay out of trouble with the authorities?

Operation X-70 (1971)
A man in a gas mask briefs his country's top generals on a new weapon, a gas named X-70 that quickly turns ''rats and Asiatics'' into lethargic, comatose, contemplative lumps. The victims do not die, explains the scientist, so the weapon is within the country's Christian tradition. Bombers are immediately sent toward the enemy (unnamed, but it is the Vietnam era). A sex-crazed in-flight computer gives the pilot bad coordinates, and he lets loose bombs of X-70 on what turns out to be a friendly Western nation, Nebelux. A mask-wearing squadron goes to Nebelux and finds unexpected damage. How will the soldiers, the generals and the scientist react?

Pegasus (1973)
An old blacksmith is now too old to adapt to the changing technological society. Frustrated, he creates his own universe in which he eventually also becomes obsolete.

Harpya (1979)
A city dweller, out for an evening stroll, hears a woman's cries for help and rescues her from an assailant who is trying to drown her in a public fountain. However, when our mild-mannered hero pulls her from the water, she proves to be not a woman but a harpy - with a woman's face and breasts and the body of bird of prey. He takes her home and treats her like a human, but she is true to her nature, mercilessly and ravenously taking command of the household, dispatching his pet, and trying to make sure he can't leave. When he does manage, by a clever ruse, to get out of the flat and enjoy a snack, things don't go as he'd hoped.

Nocturnal Butterflies (1998)
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. Opening to the image of a lone butterfly accidentally - or perhaps deliberately - setting into mechanized motion the arcade rhythm of a magical ballroom waltz, Nocturnal Butterflies inhabits the fleeting, fragile, and mysterious waking dream world of these transfixed women as they perform their graceful, rhapsodic rituals until a butterfly collector deboarding the train (a reference to Trains Du Soir) catches sight of the ballroom's unassuming architect and stumbles into their clandestine soirée. Continuing in his studies of integrating live action and animation, Servais further experiments with traditional mixed media (oils, pastels, inks, and watercolors) to create a remarkably tactile, sublimely haunting, and elegant choreography of texture, precision, plasticity, and movement.

Atraksion (2001)
A couple of downcast prison inmates work their way through the most desperate of landscapes. One of them ventures to look up towards a shining light. Is that their deliverance? He decides to go for it.

The Sand Glass (1950)
Experimental Silent Short.

Harbor Lights (1960)
A man arrives in Puerto Rico to bury his brother who has mysteriously died and is approached by gangsters and a pretty girl about a diamond which he happens to have.

November Diversion (1965)
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.

Halewyn's Song (1976)
Sir Halewyn's magical song lures girls from afar to his gloomy forest, from where none return. Based on a medieval song.

Taxandria (1994)
This European produced animation/live-action fairy tale will appeal to both children and adults. The frequently surrealistic work took 15 years to make and cost $15 million. It is the tale of young Prince Jan, who has been sent to a quiet coastal resort to study for his final exams, but instead Jan spends most his time with his new friend the lighthouse keeper. Jan ignores the warnings of the locals who claim that the loony lighthouse man eats sea gulls for breakfast. Maybe he is crazy, but this does not prevent the prince from entering the keeper's dream-land Taxandria, a phantasmagorical place devoid of time, memory, and progress. The land is ruled by a two-headed prince and his policemen who insure that everyone there lives in the Present (it is illegal to discuss the past or future). While at first, Taxandria seems a magical, wonderful place, Jan soon sees the darker sides of this strange world. The people are not happy living only in the present; it is repressive. Soon he sees that many suffer from extreme paranoia. One young man, Aime, seems to be a catalyst for change in Taxandria as he is obsessed with learning about the country's past. Later Jan falls in love with Ailee who is trying to free herself from the paradisiacal confines of the Garden of Mirth, where women are kept away from men.

This product was added to our catalog on Sunday 02 October, 2011.

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