Henri Storck

Henri Storck is a Cinéaste and Belgian Documentariste born with Ostend the September 5th 1907 and deceased with Uccle (Brussels) the September 17th 1999.

Author of more than sixty films, famous for short-measurings like Misery with Coal-mining , his name remains durably associated with the documentary school Belgian, a little with the manner of a John Grierson in the case of the British movement. He starts by turning of the documentary tests of avant-garde on his birthplace. Then, Henri Storck tries out the Found footage, carries out some militant films , works under the German Occupation and, with the Libération, becomes, in Belgium, a scenario writer with the quasi official statute, the Père of the documentary Belgian . He inspired by many Belgian scenario writers and the Frères Dardenne, receiving the Palme of gold for Rosetta, paid homage to him.

Biography

Henri Storck is resulting from a family of easy tradesmen. He loses his father at the sixteen years age and must stop his secondary studies to occupy himself with his mother of the family store of shoes. In 1924, he becomes president of the Association of the Merchants of Shoes of the Western Flanders but continues his education. He discovers the modern French literature and is caught passion for max Jacob. Friend of Felix Labisse, It attends the painters Ensor, Permeke and Spilliaert. He draws itself and its ambition is to make, thanks to the cinema, a plastic work equipped with the movement. The photographer ostendais Arthur Pottier initiates it with its technique. February 11th, 1927, Storck is upset by a projection of Moana of Robert Flaherty with the Club of the Cinema of Brussels. It creates in 1928 a film club in Ostend and projects there films of Eisenstein and Rene Clair.

It acquires of a professional camera 35 mm Kinamo and realizes in 1929 its first short-measuring, Images of Ostend . The following year, he becomes official “scenario writer” of the town of Ostend, from which he reports the big events. He installs his own laboratory of development and pulling. From these catches of sights of topicality, it extracts the images cocasses from the bathers who constitute the screen of Excursion trains (1930). It carries out also two films of order: a herring fishing and the rescue at the Belgian side , while turning a surrealist test, now disappeared, of which he wrote the scenario with Felix Labisse: the death of Venus . Ostend, queen of the beaches , an assembly of the thirty-five reports turned for the City, will be wired for sound later on and will profit from the one of the first musical partitions of Maurice Jaubert (1931).

At the beginning of the Years 1930, it meets Joris Ivens and Jean Vigo with the Palais of the Art schools of Brussels during programming around the experimental Cinéma ( Second international Congress of the independent Cinema ). The three Cinéaste S had turned, each one in its corner (Ostend, Rotterdam and Nice), the same kind of films (documentary test on a town of water). Images of Ostend (1929-1930) can be perceived like “a poetic and kinetic shock, without fiction nor its, which releases the cinema of its narrative obligation to return it in the world feelings that only can carry to him. ”. In 1931, it returns to the Gaumont of which it resigns quickly repudiating the mercantile policy of the studio of production.

Extremely of the experience gained in France, Henri Storck returns to Ostend in spring 1931. He there creates a production company (Ankerfilm) and makes a small film of fiction which will be wired for sound in Paris the following year: Idylle with the beach . Storck always hopes to make career in Paris, where it multiplies the contacts at the time of the completion of Idylle. To survive, it turns to Antwerp work of the tunnel of the Scheldt. It violently carries out starting from current events of 1928 (the year of the Pacte Briand-Kellogg which was to put the war out the law) a film antimilitarist, Histoire of the unknown soldier (1932, wired for sound in 1959). In this eleven minutes sarcastic load which denounces in a radical way alliances prejudicial between the financial capacities, the Church and the army, Storck opposes the pacifist speeches of the politicians and the enormous expenditure devoted to military defense. The film is prohibited by the French censure in 1932. Henri Storck said: Now had come time from the arms dealers, thanks to the policy of the large countries. But poor the unknown soldier, assassinated like an animal, one did not cease returning honors to him, one buried it in large pump… This film does not have a comment. It is a gallery of politicians and chiefs of états. Teenager Kyrou written, in the foreword with “the Short Scale”, scenarios not carried out of Storck (editions Daily-Bull), that it is “a film assembly of current events ridiculing with a very Flemish health the hypocrisy of the politicians who prepare the war while they sign pacts of friendship”. For this film, Henri Storck innovates while being one of the first scenario writers to use the technique of the Found footage.

Henri Storck meets in Paris the artists of avant-garde and radicalizes himself. During the summer 1933, Louis Aragon charges it with creating in Belgium the Belgian section of the Association of the Writers and revolutionary Artistes (AEAR). He creates it under the name of cultural revolutionary Association (ARC) on April 22nd, 1934. Among the surrealist founding members, intellectuals and, figure Andre Thirifays, the future director of the Cineclub of Belgium, then stimulating of the Club of the Screen in Brussels. This one is alerted by Doctor Hennebert of the misery where the minors of Coal-mining after the great strike of 1932 are plunged, which the government broke brutally. André Thirifays proposes in Henri Storck to testify to this drama by the image. Made indignant, upset, this last decides to associate with the project the Dutch scenario writer Joris Ivens, Communist convinced. And the two men will carry out together documentary the militant Misère with the Coal-mining (1933, wired for sound in 1963) which denounces the misery of the minors and the brutality of the proletarian exploitation with the Borinage.

The same year 1933, Henri Storck turns Three lives a cord (music Maurice Joubert), one of the very first films on the alpinism and is established in Brussels. He founds the company Cinema-Edition-Production (CEP), which thrives: it produces twenty films of 1934 the day before the Second world war.

In 1938, Storck only carries out another film militant the Owner died . This work of order reports the advertisement of dead of the president of the Parti working Belgian Emile Vandervelde, its funerals and the emotion of the working class. With Andre Thirifays and Pierre Vermeylen, it founds the royal Cinémathèque of Belgium.

During the Second world war, during the German Occupation, Storck continue its work of scenario writer and turn in four parts, corresponding to the four seasons, the country Symphony , anthem with nature, the ground and the work of the man.

After the war, Storck cherishes the project to return from there to the pure fiction, abandoned since Idylle with the beach . After the testing ground of a short film based on the problem of delinquent childhood ( With the crossroads of the life , 1949), it carries out a feature-length film on a scenario of Charles Spaak, the banquet of the defrauders (1951). The film is interpreted in particular by Francoise Rosay and Paul Frankeur. Faithful to the spirit of the cinema of reality, Storck illustrates a series of social problems by taking pretext of the birth of the Benelux. It treats with humor, of the embarrassments of the crossing of frontiers in a Belgian village located at the crossroads of Germany and the Netherlands. He pleads thus in a pleasant way in favor of the future European Union.

In 1959, it supervises, on the initiative of the scientific International foundation , created by the king Léopold III, the realization of a film of the German scenario writer Heinz Sielmann entitled the Lords of the forest on the end of Belgian colonization. Eager to present works where the image and the sound are proposed and the word absent, it produces, in 1961, the Gods of fire , celebrating the manufacture of steel in the blast furnaces of Wallonia, Grand Prix of the Technical Higher Commission of the French cinema, then, in 1970-71, Fêtes of Belgium , nap comprising ten shutters of reports on popular holidays.

At the end of its life, it is devoted to the conservation of the Belgian artistic inheritance and supports various structures of cinematographic formations. It projects the creation of a price Henri Storck intended to reward a documentary film making “know or discover an aspect of reality, in a strong and original way”. The concrete realization (1995) of this project is the work of the Fonds Henri Storck .

He dies blind man in 1999 at the 92 years age.

Henri Storck, actor

Henri Storck was actor in two film-key of the History of the cinema:

Zero for conduct of Jean Vigo (1933), in the role of the priest,
Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du trades, 1080 Brussels of Chantal Akerman (1975), in the role of a customer of the prostitute.

Cinema on art

Henri Storck is also one of the pioneers of film on Article Since 1944, it films some tables of Paul Delvaux, of which it evokes with intensity the oneiric universe. The soundtrack of this film, in black and white, is a mixing of the original music Of Andre Souris and poem that Paul Éluard devoted to Delvaux, the voice even of the poet answering the images of the painter ( the world of Paul Delvaux , 1944, wired for sound in 1946). It will devote another film later, colors this time, with the same artist ( Paul Delvaux or defended women , 1969-1970). Realized with the art critic Paul Haesaerts, which wrote the scenario of it, Rubens (1948) is a long sometimes didactic exploration, sometimes lyric, work of the great painter baroque. Its innovation was worth the Grand Prix to him of documentary Festival of Venice in 1949. the open Window (1952), an order of the five countries signatories of the Treated of Brussels, plunges the spectator in the most famous landscapes, painted by the artists Belgian, French, English, Dutch. In 1962 it presents in two shutters the universe of the painter Felix Labisse ( happiness to be liked , misfortunes of the war ). Lastly, it coréalise in 1984-1985, with Patrick Conrad, a film on the Flemish expressionnist Permeke.

Storck and occupation

Some reproached Storck for having continued to work during the German occupation and to be itself affiliated at organizations of the new Order, namely Association of the directors of cinemas of Belgium and the Belgian Employers' federation of the film distributers.

In 1999, Frederic Sojcher, in his book the heroic Village fair of the Belgian cinema announces some disconcerting facts concerning the implication of Storck with the German occupant during the Second world war. He recalls that Henri Storck was named temporary chief of the Guild of Film, body rexist of control of the Belgian cinema. In the film Country Symphony (1942-1944), a Voice out-field known as: The wheat is the cereal par excellence of the man of white race. There is no wild wheat. Where there is wheat, there is homme.

Is it about normal activity of realizer working under the occupation or more personal implication? On request of the the French Community of Belgium, the Center of studies and documentation war and companies contemporary (CEGES) works out, in January 2007, a draft study intended to bring a scientific answer to the problems of the activities of Storck during the Second world war.

Private life

Henri (Henricus Josephus Desiderius) Storck was the husband of Simone Callebaut. The couple had two girls: Marie and Siska. Widower, it married Joséphine de Brocas de Lanause, then was the companion of Virginia Haggard-Leirens which was its assistant photographer.

Catalog of films

1927-1928

Films of amateur on Ostend

1929-1930

For your beautiful eyes - 8 '
Images of Ostend - 12 '

1930

a herring fishing - 15 '
Service of rescue at the Belgian side - 18 '
Ostend, queen of the beaches - 11 '
Festivals of the Centenary - 7 '
Excursion trains - 8 '
abstract Films drawn on film
the Death of Venus - 10 '
Suzanne with the bath - 10 '

1931

a idylle with the beach - 35 '

1932

Work of the tunnel under the Scheldt - 20 '
History of the unknown soldier - 10 ' (a wired for sound version exists since 1959.)
On the edges of the camera - 10 ' 1933
Three lives and a cord - 33 '
Misery with Coal-mining - 28 ' (realized with Joris Ivens. A wired for sound version exists since 1963.)

1934

Creation of artificial ulcers in the dog - 15 '
selective Production of the network to 70 kVA - 20 '

1935

Electrification of the line Brussels-Antwerp - 20 '
the Easter Island - 26 '
the Three-masted ship Mercator - 23 '
Cape in the South - 25 '
the Industry of the tapestry and the piece of furniture carved - 13 '
Cotton - 13 '

1936

the Chimes - 13 '
Plays of the summer and the sea - 14 '
On the roads of the summer - 15 '
Regards on old Belgium - 20 '

1937

new Belgium - 26 '
a public enemy - 27 '
Houses of misery - 30 '

1938

As a letter at the post office - 25 '
the Wheel of fortune - 15 '
Ground of Flanders - 11 '
Holidays - 11 '
the Owner died - 31 '
For the right and freedom with Courtrai - 13 '

1940

the International exhibition of Brussels - unfinished

1942-1944

country Symphony: Spring - 31 '
country Symphony: the Summer - 23 '
country Symphonie: Country weddings - 19 '
country Symphony: the Fall - 20 '
country Symphony: the Winter - 22 '

1945

Meeting of artists - 7 '

1946

Le Monde of Paul Delvaux - 11 '

1947

Joy of reviving - 13 '

1948

Rubens - 65 ' (realized with Paul Haesaerts)

1949

With the crossroads of the life - 28 '

1950

Carnivals - 15 '

1951

the Banquet of the defrauders - 90 ' with Francoise Rosay, Raymond Pellegrin, Arthur Devère, Paul Frankeur, Jean-Pierre Kérien, Marguerite Daulboys, etc

1952

the open Window - 18 '

1953

Hermann Teirlinck - 55 '

1954

Belgians and the sea - 15 '
Doors of the nation - 15 '

1953-1954

the Round the world tour in boat-stop - 20 '

1955

the Treasury of Ostend - 24 '
Ten reports on Belgian Congo, Argentina and Brazil

1956

December, month of the children - 21 ' 30

1957

Color of fire - 45 '

1960

Gestures of silence - 15 '

1961

Gods of fire - 12 '

Energy is with you - 20 ' (realized with Philippe Arthuys)

1962

Variations on the gesture - 23 '

Happiness to be liked or Felix Labisse - 14 '

Misfortunes of the war - 11 '

1963

Plastic

1964

new Matters - 17 '

sociological Investigation in Yugoslavia

1965

the alive Museum - 34 '

1970-1971

Paul Delvaux, or defended women - 18 '

Festivals of Belgium: the Carnival of Ostend - 12 ' 30
Festivals of Belgium: fatty Tuesday with Alost - 11 ' 30

Festivals of Belgium: the Carnival of Malmédy - 12 ' 30
Festivals of Belgium: the Theater of streets with Malmedy - 11 ' 30

Festivals of Belgium: the Gilles de Binche - 26 '

Festivals of Belgium: the Plantation of Meyboom and the theater of Toone to Brussels - 14 ' 30
Fêtes of Belgium: the Procession of Saint-Blood in Bruges, the penitent ones of Furnes - 12 ' 45

Festivals of Belgium: the White Moussîs de Stavelot and Ducasse of Mons - 13 ' 30
Festivals of Belgium: the Passion of Christ with Stinginesses and Ligny
Festivals of Belgium: Festivals of Outremeuse to Liege - 14 ' 30

Fêtes of Belgium: Chinels de Fosses

Festivals of Belgium: Them Large-my of Louvière

Festivals of Belgium: the Shooting of Camp in Liege - 12 '

1975

Fifres and drums among Sambre and Meuse - 21 '

Walkers of Holy Rolande - 17 '

Merry tromblons - 16 '

1978

Song of the painter - 11 '

1985

Permeke - 90 ' (realized with Patrick Conrad)

Titles

Honorary doctor of Vrije Universiteit Brussel (1978) and of the Universit3e libre de Bruxelles (1995)
cofounder with Andre Thirifays and Pierre Vermeylen, of the Cineclub of Belgium (1938)
honorary president of the Belgian Association of the Authors of Films and Television (1992),
founding member of the International association of the Documentalists (AID, 1963) and a time
professor at the Institute of Arts of Diffusion (stable-lad) in Brussels (1966-1968),

Bibliography and sources

Bula Matari : a dream of Henri Storck; Books Henri Storck n° 1 , Geens Vincent. - Crisnée: Yellow Now, 2000
Henri Storck , Emile Cantillon, Paul Davay, Josette Debacker, Jacques Polet, Daniel Sotiaux… Al ''. Brussels: Association of the professors for the promotion of cinematographic education
Henri Storck: avant-garde with documentary social the , Laura Vichi; Transl. of Italian by Helene Bernier and Salvatore Manzone. - Crisnée: Yellow Now, 2002
Henri Storck or the crossing of the cinema , Jean Queval. - Brussels: National festival of Belgian Film, 1976
Homage to Henri Storck : films 1928/1985: catalog analytical. Brussels: General police station with the international relations of the the French Community of Belgium, 1995
Report of RTBF of the Friday, August 4, 2006
Interview, by Fabienne Bradfer, of the historian Florence Waistcoat published in the newspaper the Evening of August 6th, 2006
Luc de Heush, Biography of Henri Storck, Funds Henri Storck.

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