17/06/2005 - One of the most innovative figures in cinematic – particularly Belgian, but also experimental – circles

Biography

Born in 1956 in Léopoldville (former Belgian Congo), Olivier Smolders completed his studies in Belgium. A graduate in Roman Philology (UCL) and lecturer at the University of Liège, he also teaches at INSAS (the Institut National Supérieur des Arts du Spectacle), the Brussels film school. He has written and produced his own short films via his own production company, Les Films du Scarabée.

He is currently one of the most innovative figures in cinematic – particularly Belgian, but also experimental – circles. The author of various books on literature and the cinema, he has also written numerous articles that have been published in different journals and magazines. His work as filmmaker, sustained by his background in literature, confronts text with image in a way that that challenges our perceptions. Cultivating all kinds of discrepancy, his films, dosed with derision, have about them a whiff of the “fantasy film”, in which domain Nuit Noire [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Olivier Smolders
film profile], his first full-length feature, would not seem out of place.

Filmography

Neuvaine, "film pour amuser les chaises" ("film that keeps chairs amused") - 1984
L'Art d'aimer, "film dramatique en couleurs" ("drama, in colour") - 1985
Adoration, "film anonyme" ("anonymous film") - 1987
Point de fuite, "film pédagogique"("pedagogical film") - 1987
Seuls, portraits of children in a psychiatric institution – co-directed by Thierry Knauff, 1989
La Philosophie dans le boudoir - 1991
Ravissements - 1991
Pensées et visions d'une tête coupée, "film for Antoine Wiertz" - 1991
L'Amateur, "film en forme de poire" ("pear-shaped film") - 1996
Mort à Vignole, "film solitaire" ("solitary film") - 1998

Publications

Cinéma parlant, dictionnaire d'idées-reçues sur le cinéma (The Talkies, Dictionary of Received Ideas about the Cinema), ed. Daily-Bul, 1988
Eloge de la pornographie, "où l'on comprend enfin pourquoi le cinéma pornographique est un genre charmant, sympathique, parfaitement délicieux" (Eulogy to Pornography, "from which we learn that hardcore is charming, nice and tasty into the bargain"), "De parti pris" collection, ed.Yellow Now, 1993
Fontanelle, a fairy tale illustrated by original drawings and etchings by Michel Smolders, co-edited by Le Scarabée/Yellow Now, 1994
Paul Nougé (A l'école de la ruse, Écriture et Caractère), biographical essay, in the "Archives du Futur" collection, Editions Labor
14 adages d'Erasme, d'après le manuscrit du professeur Cantarel, à la lumière de quatorze eaux-fortes originales, Les Éditions du Scarabée à la Maison d'Érasme, 1997
Eraserhead de David Lynch, ed. Yellow Now, 1998
Expérience de la bêtise, où l'on apprend à aimer les vessies autant que les lanternes, Yellow Now Editions, Liège, 2001
La part de l'ombre (Mort à Vignole et autres films), Les Impressions Nouvelles, Paris-Bruxelles, 2005

About Olivier Smolders : www.smolderscarabee.be

(Translated from French)