Gerard-Jan Claes
@gerardjanclaes.bsky.social
Filmmaker – www.claes-rochette.be –, lecturer, author, both founder and artistic director of the international film journal Sabzian / @sabzian.bsky.social, and co-founder of Avila, a film distributor and VOD-platform for Belgian cinema.
Actor Ahmed Ahmedpoor, known for his role as Mohamed Reza Nematzadeh in Abbas Kiarostami’s Where Is the Friend’s House (1987), passed away last Thursday at the age of 46. ❤️
October 28, 2025 at 7:32 AM
Actor Ahmed Ahmedpoor, known for his role as Mohamed Reza Nematzadeh in Abbas Kiarostami’s Where Is the Friend’s House (1987), passed away last Thursday at the age of 46. ❤️
“And by beauty, I mean the tendency to bring about a state or a development that arises from that which is chosen.” – Frans van de Staak
September 29, 2025 at 9:19 AM
“And by beauty, I mean the tendency to bring about a state or a development that arises from that which is chosen.” – Frans van de Staak
Een nieuwe Sabzian publicatie: 𝘞𝘏𝘖 𝘐𝘚 𝘔𝘌: 𝘋𝘪𝘤𝘩𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘷𝘢𝘯 𝘥𝘦 𝘢𝘴, geschreven door Pasolini in New York tijdens een bezoek aan het NYFF in 1966.
Nu beschikbaar via de Sabzian website en in de Passa Portabookshop.
→ sabzian.be/publication/who-is-me-dichter-van-de-as
Nu beschikbaar via de Sabzian website en in de Passa Portabookshop.
→ sabzian.be/publication/who-is-me-dichter-van-de-as
September 25, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Een nieuwe Sabzian publicatie: 𝘞𝘏𝘖 𝘐𝘚 𝘔𝘌: 𝘋𝘪𝘤𝘩𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘷𝘢𝘯 𝘥𝘦 𝘢𝘴, geschreven door Pasolini in New York tijdens een bezoek aan het NYFF in 1966.
Nu beschikbaar via de Sabzian website en in de Passa Portabookshop.
→ sabzian.be/publication/who-is-me-dichter-van-de-as
Nu beschikbaar via de Sabzian website en in de Passa Portabookshop.
→ sabzian.be/publication/who-is-me-dichter-van-de-as
Last Thursday at De Cinema, a beautiful screening of Nicolas Philibert’s Être et avoir. Still on Sabzian, two wonderful texts by him:
→ sabzian.be/text/i-never-decided-to-become-a-documentary-filmmaker%E2%80%A6
→ sabzian.be/text/en-sortant-de-l%E2%80%99%C3%A9cole
→ sabzian.be/text/i-never-decided-to-become-a-documentary-filmmaker%E2%80%A6
→ sabzian.be/text/en-sortant-de-l%E2%80%99%C3%A9cole
September 15, 2025 at 10:55 AM
Last Thursday at De Cinema, a beautiful screening of Nicolas Philibert’s Être et avoir. Still on Sabzian, two wonderful texts by him:
→ sabzian.be/text/i-never-decided-to-become-a-documentary-filmmaker%E2%80%A6
→ sabzian.be/text/en-sortant-de-l%E2%80%99%C3%A9cole
→ sabzian.be/text/i-never-decided-to-become-a-documentary-filmmaker%E2%80%A6
→ sabzian.be/text/en-sortant-de-l%E2%80%99%C3%A9cole
Tonight, the Frans van de Staak retrospective kicks off at CINEMATEK, in collaboration with Sabzian.
→ sabzian.be/event/frans-van-de-staak-retrospective
→ sabzian.be/event/frans-van-de-staak-retrospective
September 15, 2025 at 10:04 AM
Tonight, the Frans van de Staak retrospective kicks off at CINEMATEK, in collaboration with Sabzian.
→ sabzian.be/event/frans-van-de-staak-retrospective
→ sabzian.be/event/frans-van-de-staak-retrospective
Abbas Kiarostami's Taste of Cherry, still available to watch for free for a few more days on mk2curiosity.
→ mk2curiosity.com/pages/le-film-de-la-semaine
→ mk2curiosity.com/pages/le-film-de-la-semaine
August 18, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Abbas Kiarostami's Taste of Cherry, still available to watch for free for a few more days on mk2curiosity.
→ mk2curiosity.com/pages/le-film-de-la-semaine
→ mk2curiosity.com/pages/le-film-de-la-semaine
Reposted by Gerard-Jan Claes
“Cinema is a promise to be one day a citizen of the world.” – Serge Daney
Read the introduction to our new issue on Daney’s cinephilic internationalism, by Arta Barzanji and @gerardjanclaes.bsky.social
Read the introduction to our new issue on Daney’s cinephilic internationalism, by Arta Barzanji and @gerardjanclaes.bsky.social
A Citizen of the World, Arta Barzanji, Gerard-Jan Claes, 2025
Just months before his death, in response to a question of Régis Debray about the images “that looked at you when you were a child”, Daney was unequivocal: “the first image that counted for me, almost...
sabzian.be
July 2, 2025 at 8:59 AM
“Cinema is a promise to be one day a citizen of the world.” – Serge Daney
Read the introduction to our new issue on Daney’s cinephilic internationalism, by Arta Barzanji and @gerardjanclaes.bsky.social
Read the introduction to our new issue on Daney’s cinephilic internationalism, by Arta Barzanji and @gerardjanclaes.bsky.social
Reposted by Gerard-Jan Claes
This issue was compiled by Arta Barzanji and Gerard-Jan Claes (@gerardjanclaes.bsky.social), and appears in conjunction with an eponymous film programma at ICA London, starting at the end of August!
→ ica.art/serge-daney
→ ica.art/serge-daney
June 25, 2025 at 1:22 PM
This issue was compiled by Arta Barzanji and Gerard-Jan Claes (@gerardjanclaes.bsky.social), and appears in conjunction with an eponymous film programma at ICA London, starting at the end of August!
→ ica.art/serge-daney
→ ica.art/serge-daney
Reposted by Gerard-Jan Claes
New issue on Sabzian!
Serge Daney and the Promise of Cinema
With contributions by Pierre Eugène, Mónica Delgado, Mohammad Reza Amiri, Emmanuel Burdeau, Christine Pichini, Jun Fujita Hirose, Daniel Fairfax, and a new Daney translation.
Serge Daney and the Promise of Cinema
With contributions by Pierre Eugène, Mónica Delgado, Mohammad Reza Amiri, Emmanuel Burdeau, Christine Pichini, Jun Fujita Hirose, Daniel Fairfax, and a new Daney translation.
Serge Daney and the Promise of Cinema
Serge Daney (1944–1992) remains one of the 20th century’s most influential film critics. As a country that was “still missing” from his map, cinema embodied a deeply felt promise of universality for D...
sabzian.be
June 25, 2025 at 1:19 PM
New issue on Sabzian!
Serge Daney and the Promise of Cinema
With contributions by Pierre Eugène, Mónica Delgado, Mohammad Reza Amiri, Emmanuel Burdeau, Christine Pichini, Jun Fujita Hirose, Daniel Fairfax, and a new Daney translation.
Serge Daney and the Promise of Cinema
With contributions by Pierre Eugène, Mónica Delgado, Mohammad Reza Amiri, Emmanuel Burdeau, Christine Pichini, Jun Fujita Hirose, Daniel Fairfax, and a new Daney translation.
Fifty years ago today – 22 May 1975 – ‘Jeanne Dielman’ had its world premiere in Cannes.
May 22, 2025 at 12:30 PM
Fifty years ago today – 22 May 1975 – ‘Jeanne Dielman’ had its world premiere in Cannes.
My longer text about the work of Johan van der Keuken, taking the “sweet form” of Herman Slobbe as its starting point, is now also available in English on @sabzian.bsky.social.
See You Later, Sweet Form, Gerard-Jan Claes, 2024
Van der Keuken makes a world exist, he creates a reality. Describing then is not representing something that already exists but rather realising “a” reality. By creating forms, he creates a world of t...
sabzian.be
May 9, 2025 at 7:14 AM
My longer text about the work of Johan van der Keuken, taking the “sweet form” of Herman Slobbe as its starting point, is now also available in English on @sabzian.bsky.social.
“This is May 4th.” – Jonas Mekas
May 4, 2025 at 3:26 PM
“This is May 4th.” – Jonas Mekas
Very glad to have translated Jean-Michel Frodon’s wonderful interview with Isabelle Huppert on her work with Hong.
“Hong Sangsoo Works like a Painter Composing His Palette”, Jean-Michel Frodon, 2025
After In Another Country [2012], shaped day by day in Korea, and Claire’s Camera [2017], filmed in Cannes as if in a dream, Isabelle Huppert reunites with Hong Sangsoo for A Traveler’s Needs, winner o...
sabzian.be
May 1, 2025 at 10:09 AM
Very glad to have translated Jean-Michel Frodon’s wonderful interview with Isabelle Huppert on her work with Hong.
“At the end of the day, making movies is all about sunlight.” - Pasolini
March 29, 2025 at 12:16 PM
“At the end of the day, making movies is all about sunlight.” - Pasolini
Reposted by Gerard-Jan Claes
“Caught in the construction of his own realism, everything remains coloured by an impossible probability. Above all, Cooper seems intent on defusing the fiction itself.”
@gerardjanclaes.bsky.social on Bradley Cooper's Maestro (2023)
@gerardjanclaes.bsky.social on Bradley Cooper's Maestro (2023)
A Visit to the Factory, Gerard-Jan Claes, 2025
Jean Baudrillard described obscenity as an excess of visibility, an excess of transparency in which nothing more is suggested or concealed, where there’s no room for seduction as a game of distance an...
sabzian.be
March 20, 2025 at 8:42 AM
“Caught in the construction of his own realism, everything remains coloured by an impossible probability. Above all, Cooper seems intent on defusing the fiction itself.”
@gerardjanclaes.bsky.social on Bradley Cooper's Maestro (2023)
@gerardjanclaes.bsky.social on Bradley Cooper's Maestro (2023)
Reposted by Gerard-Jan Claes
Mirror of Life, a ten-film Manoel de Oliveira retrospective featuring the North American premiere of numerous restorations, begins at BAM on March 28.
Mirror of Life, a Ten-Film Manoel de Oliveira Retrospective, Comes to BAM on March 28
98% of interviews follow the same pleasantries-exchange / question-and-answer / pleasantries-exchange format, yet there are those rare times an incredible opportunity arrives. Which is to say that whe...
thefilmstage.com
March 18, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Mirror of Life, a ten-film Manoel de Oliveira retrospective featuring the North American premiere of numerous restorations, begins at BAM on March 28.
Reposted by Gerard-Jan Claes
A Katharine Hepburn series curated by Molly Haskell, plus: Prewar Naruse, Nordic noir, Lewis Milestone, music docs, Willi Forst, a 1925 sampler …
Preview of this year’s Il Cinema Ritrovato ! festival.ilcinemaritrovato.it/en/aspettand...
Preview of this year’s Il Cinema Ritrovato ! festival.ilcinemaritrovato.it/en/aspettand...
March 19, 2025 at 2:02 AM
A Katharine Hepburn series curated by Molly Haskell, plus: Prewar Naruse, Nordic noir, Lewis Milestone, music docs, Willi Forst, a 1925 sampler …
Preview of this year’s Il Cinema Ritrovato ! festival.ilcinemaritrovato.it/en/aspettand...
Preview of this year’s Il Cinema Ritrovato ! festival.ilcinemaritrovato.it/en/aspettand...
The screening of De grote vakantie [The Long Holiday] (2000) yesterday marked the end of the Johan van der Keuken retrospective in Brussels, jointly organized by @sabzian.bsky.social and @cinematek.bsky.social. Thank you to all the audience members who have followed the program since November!
March 1, 2025 at 2:55 PM
The screening of De grote vakantie [The Long Holiday] (2000) yesterday marked the end of the Johan van der Keuken retrospective in Brussels, jointly organized by @sabzian.bsky.social and @cinematek.bsky.social. Thank you to all the audience members who have followed the program since November!
« Les drogues nous ennuient avec leur paradis.
Qu’elles nous donnent plutôt un peu de savoir. »
Henri Michaux, Connaissance par les gouffres
Qu’elles nous donnent plutôt un peu de savoir. »
Henri Michaux, Connaissance par les gouffres
February 17, 2025 at 10:38 AM
« Les drogues nous ennuient avec leur paradis.
Qu’elles nous donnent plutôt un peu de savoir. »
Henri Michaux, Connaissance par les gouffres
Qu’elles nous donnent plutôt un peu de savoir. »
Henri Michaux, Connaissance par les gouffres
Reposted by Gerard-Jan Claes
I never knew Paulo Rocha worked as an assistant to Renoir
February 14, 2025 at 11:09 PM
I never knew Paulo Rocha worked as an assistant to Renoir
I am looking for the origin of this quote by Jean Grémillon: “Who could fail to sense the greatness of this art, in which the visible is the sign of the invisible?” Anyone have an idea where I could find it?
February 15, 2025 at 4:49 PM
I am looking for the origin of this quote by Jean Grémillon: “Who could fail to sense the greatness of this art, in which the visible is the sign of the invisible?” Anyone have an idea where I could find it?