De Nooijer: Dutch Masters

Two men in chairs by the open hearth; photos move in front of their heads.

First film by Paul de Nooijer, in collaboration with his artistic father Frans Zwartjes. Moving Stills shows a series of photographs by Françoise de Nooijer, which are joined, by means of editing and colour effects, and turned into a moving picture. The erotic image gets an explosive charge. (filmcommission.nl)

Exit is a flashback by a man of fifty. He remembers the moment when, as a young photographer, he was realising an exhibition of his own artistic work when he was unexpectedly commissioned to make a music video. The offer at first seems like the answer to his financial and personal woes, but during the preparations, a childhood trauma he has not come to terms with ensures unexpected complications and everything threatens to turn into a fiasco.

The maker registers his muse on camera and Polaroid

1984 short by Paul de Nooijer

Two men in a shop window paint each other.

Experimental short film.

An experimental short film by Paul de Nooijer.

In a domestic setting, two men in suits with rather glassy and listless facial expressions sit at a table with two mocha cakes on it. A classic slapstick element in an experimental setting.

Directed by Paul de N

Short film about two men in a car

To mark his ninetieth birthday, EYE has restored Zwartjes’ very first film, originally shot on Super-8 and long thought lost. Zwartjes started his career as a violinist and visual artist. He took photographs, made music and built instruments – but only really broke through with his equally craftsmanlike films.

It’s always party time with the De Nooijer family at home. Innocent pleasure or a political film?

What was young gets old, what was healthy is sick. Uncertainty has crept in. What started out tough ends in melancholy. In that sense, this is a farewell.

2005 short by Paul de Nooijer

Menno de Nooijer had previously collaborated on Paul's films, but this one marks the launch of a directors' team that lasts until today. Two man stick their heads through a decor, photographs revolve around their heads. Unfettered reflection on their own work, the basic assumption being a quote from 18th-century writer Horace Walpole, which also appears in other titles of their films: 'Nobody had informed me that at one view - I should see a palace, a town, a fortified city, - temples on high places […]'. In 1989, this film was granted the jury award at the Holland Animation Film Festival. (filmcommission.nl)