Roland Lethem

Shots of a car speeding down the road are intercut with kinky sex flashes (a woman with a whip rides a guy, for instance). Then the car crashes into a tree, the male driver (Christian Chaix) is decapitated and the bloody, injured female (Marie-Paule Mailleux) scoops up his head and returns to her home. There, she cleans herself and the head off, prepares dinner for herself and the head, buys the head a Ken Doll to keep it company, puts the head on a mannequin's body and then has a series of strange hallucinations, which include having sex with her bloodied lover, dancing in a room by herself with a spotlight, etc. Things culminate in her having sex with the head and then throwing it into the trash bin.

A surrealist saga in four parts: 1.) The credit sequence in which title cards show successively larger foetuses pulsating on the screen until the baby is born and cries. 2.) Etoile-directly referring to Cocteau, Lethem shows an adolescent sucking a starfish and then giving birth to a smaller starfish. A statement of inadequacy. To give birth involves an emasculation and a loss of vitality. 3.) Corps-two images of a man on a couch groping for each other, watched by a mysterious peeping Tom. As the two superimposed images come together, the heavy breathing subsides…the statement that the birth of desire is a self – realisation. 4.) Hymen – The decaying body of a girl is shot through green filters, and the final image reveals her vagina crawling with maggots and overlain with a crucifix. A representation of Catholicism preventing the free expression of desire.

Roland Lethem's first short film.

The last film prohibited by Francisco Franco. Jean-Marie Buchet plays the role of a collector of used tampons in this avant-garde comedy-adventure film.

A bourgeoisie client is transformed into a mouse and cannibalized by a prostitute in flagrante delicto with the camera changing focus in time to her breathing.

Gerda Diddens' "Sprookje, of l'homme-objet" and "Découpage" form a very funny double metaphor about cinema and machismo.

A cheeky political pamphlet.

Who wants to go to bed with Lili?

An ongoing collection of single static shot, mute, showing a view of the cinema facades where Cinematons have been screened.

Thomas, in his forties, holds an important post in a slaughterhouse. He is engaged to Marie-Rose, the daughter of the director, whom he hopes to follow later. In a routine examination in the hospital, however, he finds out that he has cancer and his days are counted. The upheaval that he suffers as a result, however, does not take long, his decision is certain: he will use the short time to clean up some bad guys. What else can he do now?

Cinématon is a 156-hour long experimental film by French director Gérard Courant. It was the longest film ever released until 2011. Composed over 36 years from 1978 until 2006, it consists of a series of over 2,821 silent vignettes (cinématons), each 3 minutes and 25 seconds long, of various celebrities, artists, journalists and friends of the director, each doing whatever they want for the allotted time. Subjects of the film include directors Barbet Schroeder, Nagisa Oshima, Volker Schlöndorff, Ken Loach, Benjamin Cuq, Youssef Chahine, Wim Wenders, Joseph Losey, Jean-Luc Godard, Samuel Fuller and Terry Gilliam, chess grandmaster Joël Lautier, and actors Roberto Benigni, Stéphane Audran, Julie Delpy and Lesley Chatterley. Gilliam is featured eating a 100-franc note, while Fuller smokes a cigar. Courant's favourite subject was a 7-month-old baby. The film was screened in its then-entirety in Avignon in November 2009 and was screened in Redondo Beach, CA on April 9, 2010.

Reel 17 of Gérard Courant's on-going Cinematon series.

This film is based on the true story of Jean Bella, who served as an officer in the Belgian Marine while being convinced, from an early age, that he was in fact a woman. Director Jean-Pol Ferbus follows Jean Bella and makes him talk about his life, psychological and spiritual experiences and reveals the true poet who remained undisclosed for most of this person's life. The film ultimately isn't about transexuality but about loneliness one can experience when he/she feels very deeply that she/he belongs to the two sexes and this in a deep, almost religious, fashion, to such an extent that sexuality itself is being erased from one's life. Jean-Gina Bella is a woman in the body of a man who bravely lived a life on the sea, eventually fighting the elements, talking to God when lost on the immense solitary ocean. This testimony is a very touching and poetic one.

Knokke, Belgium. A small mundane coastal town, home to the beau-monde. To compete with Venice and Cannes, the posh casino hosts the second ‘World Festival of Film and the Arts’ in 1949, organised in part by the Royal Cinematheque of Belgium. To celebrate cinema’s 50 year existence, they put together a side program showcasing the medium in all its shapes and forms: surrealist film, absolute film, dadaist films, abstract film,… The side program would soon become a festival in its own right: ‘EXPRMNTL’, dedicated to experimental cinema, and would become a mythical gathering of the avant-garde…

A film by Roland Lethem

Marilyn’s shine flickering into your eyes, Marilyn’s mind melting into your mind, Marilyn’s heart beating inside of your chest,…if you so wish. – R.L.Before you start the film please light a candle and after stopping the film, please blow it out. Should the candle accidentally stop burning, do not light it anew: it means that the performance is over.

A Congolese king arrives in Brussels in search of his long-lost daughter.

The episode of Gérard Courant's Carnets filmés, Crime contre le cinéma (December 25, 2006 to December 2, 2006) is divided into four parts: Colas Ricard at Centre Pompidou, Joseph Morder at La Rochelle, the Filmer à tout prix Festival in Brussels, and Michel Nedjar and Jakobois at Centre Pompidou.

Two mysterious men dressed in black and with cigarettes dangling from their mouths drop a large, presumably heavy (since it takes two to carry it) package off on a doorstep and walk away. When the home’s owner returns he drags the package inside, then goes about doing a few more activities before deciding to finally open it. Upon removing the paper, he notices it’s a large steel barrel. Using a blowtorch, he gets the lid off and sees it’s full of oily water… but rising out of the water is a nude, voluptuous, smiling woman, who immediately starts to entice the man by massaging her breasts. Naturally, being in a barrel for who knows how long, she needs to get cleaned off and hops into a bubble bath. While she’s lounging in the tub, the man gets into bed, lights a cigarette and starts to remove him clothes in anticipation. We get to see fantasies from both the man and “the fairy.” —The Bloody Pit of Horror

A woman and a cactus who wants to fuck...

A surrealist saga in four parts: 1.) The credit sequence in which title cards show successively larger foetuses pulsating on the screen until the baby is born and cries. 2.) Etoile-directly referring to Cocteau, Lethem shows an adolescent sucking a starfish and then giving birth to a smaller starfish. A statement of inadequacy. To give birth involves an emasculation and a loss of vitality. 3.) Corps-two images of a man on a couch groping for each other, watched by a mysterious peeping Tom. As the two superimposed images come together, the heavy breathing subsides…the statement that the birth of desire is a self – realisation. 4.) Hymen – The decaying body of a girl is shot through green filters, and the final image reveals her vagina crawling with maggots and overlain with a crucifix. A representation of Catholicism preventing the free expression of desire.

An experiment in visual perception in which a witch becomes a girl, and then returns to being a witch.

The last film prohibited by Francisco Franco. Jean-Marie Buchet plays the role of a collector of used tampons in this avant-garde comedy-adventure film.

Roland Lethem's first short film.

A bourgeoisie client is transformed into a mouse and cannibalized by a prostitute in flagrante delicto with the camera changing focus in time to her breathing.

A bourgeoisie client is transformed into a mouse and cannibalized by a prostitute in flagrante delicto with the camera changing focus in time to her breathing.

Two mysterious men dressed in black and with cigarettes dangling from their mouths drop a large, presumably heavy (since it takes two to carry it) package off on a doorstep and walk away. When the home’s owner returns he drags the package inside, then goes about doing a few more activities before deciding to finally open it. Upon removing the paper, he notices it’s a large steel barrel. Using a blowtorch, he gets the lid off and sees it’s full of oily water… but rising out of the water is a nude, voluptuous, smiling woman, who immediately starts to entice the man by massaging her breasts. Naturally, being in a barrel for who knows how long, she needs to get cleaned off and hops into a bubble bath. While she’s lounging in the tub, the man gets into bed, lights a cigarette and starts to remove him clothes in anticipation. We get to see fantasies from both the man and “the fairy.” —The Bloody Pit of Horror

A fairy flick of a lavishly lecherous and preternaturally avant-garde persuasion. A “sequel” to 1969’s La fée sanguinaire.

Who wants to go to bed with Lili?

Who wants to go to bed with Lili?

The terrible revenge of a woman who sees the man she desires with another woman...

The terrible revenge of a woman who sees the man she desires with another woman...

An actor on screen insults the audience. How will spectators react?

An actor on screen insults the audience. How will spectators react?

An actor on screen insults the audience. How will spectators react?

An actor on screen insults the audience. How will spectators react?

A tampon collector shows us his collection.

A tampon collector shows us his collection.

A cheeky political pamphlet.

A cheeky political pamphlet.

A cheeky political pamphlet.

Clairvoyant Medium on the tracks of Jules Vernes steps towards the Center of Earth.

Clairvoyant Medium on the tracks of Jules Vernes steps towards the Center of Earth.

Clairvoyant Medium on the tracks of Jules Vernes steps towards the Center of Earth.

How to take revenge on the person who murdered you...

How to take revenge on the person who murdered you...

"The greatest danger of the sin of gluttony is that it leads us to the sin of lust." (Sister Sourire) An insatiable glutton faced with succulent delicacies.

"The greatest danger of the sin of gluttony is that it leads us to the sin of lust." (Sister Sourire) An insatiable glutton faced with succulent delicacies.

Pierre lives with his mother in an antiquated house in a run-down working-class area. Every morning, Pierre takes the tram to his job at the town hall, where he listens to his colleagues' jokes over the lunch break. His only hope of banishing his boredom and frustration is a girl from the gymnastics club. One evening, when his mother is out of the house, he decides to invite her into his home [Avila].

Ana is confronted with body and desire at three key moments of her life. As a young girl, she brings her dead grandpa back to life. In her puberty, she discovers the power of decay and sexuality. Finally, she wrestles with loss and loneliness when she returns to her parental home, now derelict.

A film by Roland Lethem

A film by Roland Lethem

A film by Roland Lethem

A film by Roland Lethem

A film by Roland Lethem

A film by Roland Lethem

A film by Roland Lethem

A film by Roland Lethem

A film by Roland Lethem

Marilyn’s shine flickering into your eyes, Marilyn’s mind melting into your mind, Marilyn’s heart beating inside of your chest,…if you so wish. – R.L.Before you start the film please light a candle and after stopping the film, please blow it out. Should the candle accidentally stop burning, do not light it anew: it means that the performance is over.

Marilyn’s shine flickering into your eyes, Marilyn’s mind melting into your mind, Marilyn’s heart beating inside of your chest,…if you so wish. – R.L.Before you start the film please light a candle and after stopping the film, please blow it out. Should the candle accidentally stop burning, do not light it anew: it means that the performance is over.

A film by Roland Lethem

A film by Roland Lethem

The last film prohibited by Francisco Franco. Jean-Marie Buchet plays the role of a collector of used tampons in this avant-garde comedy-adventure film.