I’m crazy, I’m fool, I’m nasty : James Ensor (Luc de Heusch, 1990)

From the young Ensor, brilliant artist, rebel and relatively unknown, to the esteemed Baron Ensor, who only painted scenes in which he plagiarized himself, Luc de Heusch provides an interpretation of a man and an oeuvre. A Sunday musician, out-and-out misogynist, talented utterer of curses, lover of the mermaid, seller of beach souvenirs, he left dazzling drawings and major 20th century paintings. A film on art which provides outstanding answers to the following questions: how to film a scene, how to find a dramatic structure, how to avoid narratives being too educational. The scenes are shot in full screen: the film imposes its format of continuity and narration on the museological ‘framework’. The chronology bends with the story. The narration, sometimes just a few phrases, makes way for Ensor’s forceful texts. The music is not stuck on like a coat of sound painted on a building, it is more like additional information about Ensor.