The Co(te)lette Film is the film version of the dance production Co(te)lette. British director Mike Figgis was on board to direct this uncompromising film based on a concept and choreography by Ann Van den Broek. The film was selected for the segment ‘Belgian Cinema Today’ of the International Film Festival in Ghent (BE).
In The Co(te)lette Film three women dance in a rather intimate atmosphere, caught between desire and fulfillment. No confrontation, rivalry, story, solution or ending; the storyline in The Co(te)lette Film is restless and empty.
“Three women who are confronted by their own bodies as well as the bodies of the other women. They also want to engage the spectators standing around the podium. Thanks to the camera work, which alternates between close-ups and long shots, the cinema audience is engaged as well. All the elements add up to a confrontational performance about desire, lust, fulfillment, attraction, rejection, seduction, searching, finding and not finding. Unlike the stage production, in the film there are spectators standing around the podium. When Ann Van den Broek won a prestigious Dutch dance award for Co(te)lette, the jury called it ‘a daring and fragile choreography, raw, confrontational and gripping’. There is no better way to describe the physical power of the performance. The scars on the dancers’ bodies are visible. Figgis’s camera is merciless.”
– catalogue Film Festival Ghent
The film won awards during filmfestivals in Los Angeles (VS), Nicosia (CY), Bruxelles (BE) and San Francisco (VS).
director Mike Figgis
concept and choreography Ann Van den Broek
dance Frauke Mariën, Cecilia Moisio, Judit Ruiz Onandi
extra’s and understudy’s Erin Harty, Karen Lamberts, Emma Seresia
special extra’s Lie Antonissen, Surah Dohnke
premiere October 19, 2010, Film Festival Ghent (BE)
other contributors producers Vito Di Rosa, Bart Van Langendonck / Lighting cameraman Oliver Schofield / camera Mike Figgis / production designer Bernie van Velzen / editor Arlen Figgis / composer original music Arne Van Dongen / costume Catherine Van Bree / make up Alexandra Kourline / line producer Xavier Rombaut / co-producer Monique van Beek – WArd/waRD / producers NTR Bart Soepnel and Joost Van Krieken / associate producer Janine Dijkmeijer / first assistant director Aram Van de Rest / sound recordist Luc Cuveele / gaffer Laurens De Grande / camera assistant Kristof Meert / second assistant director Nathalie Teirlinck / constructor Merijn Sep / wardrobe assistant Charlotte Van Peel
The Co(te)lette Film is a co-production of Savage Film (BE), Red Mullet (UK), WArd/WaRD (NL/BE) and the NTR (NL). It was made with the financial support of Dutch Media Foundation (NL) and the Flemish Audiovisual Foundation (BE)
“Devastated! Quite devastated! That is how you feel after watching Mike Figgis’s film version of Ann Van den Broek’s intense, controversial and award-winning choreography Co(te)lette. Afterward the discussion can flare up, as it does after every dance film, about the filmmaker’s contribution to this unique art form. One that reaches seldom seen heights thanks to the Flemish choreographer. In The Co(te)lette Film Figgis again uses his tried and tested split-screen system. He uses it sparingly and it does not distract the viewer from the choreography itself.”
– Film Festival Ghent (BE)