Marion Hänsel
French-born Belgian film director, producer and screenwriter Marion HÄNSEL (1949-2020) grew up in Antwerp. She attended the French Circus School and studied at Lee Strasberg Actor’s Studio in New York and dramatic arts in Brussels and Paris, which started her career as an actress. In 1977 she created the production company Man’s Films. Her second feature film, Dust, an adaptation of a Coetzee novel, was awarded the Silver Lion at Venice in 1985. Il maestro won the Audience Award at San Sebastian in 1990. Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea (1995) was selected for the Golden Palm competition at the Cannes Film Festival. She has co-produced several films, such as No Man’s Land (2001) and L’enfer (2005). Hänsel made deeply personal films that most often explore adult-child relationships, including her latest film, Il était un petit navire (2019). IFFR has always praised Hänsel’s work and in 2020 presented a retrospective of her feature and short films.
Filmography
Equilibres (1977, short), Sannu bature (1979, short), Rakti (1979, short), Hydraulip II (1979, short), Gongola (1979, short), Le lit/The Bed (1982), Dust (1985), Les noces barbares/Cruel Embrace (1987), Il maestro (1990), Sur la terre comme au ciel/On Earth as in Heaven (1992), Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea (1995), The Quarry (1998), Nuages – Lettres à mon fils/Clouds – Letters to My Son (2001, doc), Si le vent soulève les sables/Sounds of Sand (2006), Noir océan/Black Ocean (2010), La tendresse/Tenderness (2013), En amont du fleuve (2016), Il était un petit navire/There Was a Little Ship (2019)
More info:
Marion Hänsel
Wikipedia, Marion Hänsel
Marion Hänsel at IFFR
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Sounds of Sand
A village teacher tries to flee the war with his family and cattle by crossing the Sahara to the south. At first the odyssey only seems to bring losse
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Diego Star
A cargo ship is stuck on the Canadian Saint Lawrence River for repairs. Traoré, an Ivory Coast mechanic is unjustly accused of causing the damage. Far
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La tendresse
Hänsel’s first film based on her own script gives the concepts of personal and anecdotal a wise and loving significance. Beautiful roles by Canto
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Les noces barbares
A traumatised mother and her rejected, damaged son who yearns for love are polar opposites in this moving drama.
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La tendresse
Divorced Frans and Lisa get in the car to drive to a ski village to pick up their injured son. Surprisingly light road movie on broken love.
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Si le vent soulève les sables
A village teacher in the Sahara sets off with his family looking for more fertile land in the south. The journey is unpredictable and dangerous.
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Mauvaises réponses
Marion Hänsel was cast for this story of a man’s job interview for an important position in a company, but it doesn’t go the way he expected.
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Nuages, lettres à mon fils
Autobiographical documentary consisting entirely of clouds, in which Belgian director Marion Hänsel unleashes her thoughts on motherhood.
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La collection qui n’existait pas
Portrait of Belgian art collector Herman Daled, who sold his collection of conceptual works to the MoMa in 2011.
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Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
Wonderfully shot film about the special relationship between two outsiders: an opium-addicted sailor and a precocious, 10-year-old Chinese girl.