@inproceedings{8662002,
  abstract     = {{Late nineteenth-century artist James Ensor proved to be a beloved subject for Belgian filmmakers such as Charles Dekeukeleire, Henri Storck, André Cauvin, and Luc de Heusch, who contributed to a veritable boom of mid-century high-quality experimental art documentaries. Highly aware of the power of modern media himself, Ensor showed a great interest in film as well, and he often got involved in the production of documentaries on his artworks. Notwithstanding the significance of the cinematic explorations of his oeuvre, hitherto the interconnections between Ensor’s artistry and cinema have never been substantially investigated. Aiming to remedy this overlooked intersection of art and film, this article focuses on the representation of Ensor in the oeuvre of leading art historian-cum-filmmaker Paul Haesaerts. Following his concept of cinéma critique, Haesaerts’s exceptional 1952 film Masques et visages de James Ensor is a brilliant piece of art analysis. It self-consciously touches upon the ontological boundaries between Ensor’s visual arts and cinema as it wavers between stillness and movement, and between pictorial surface and cinematic space. Drawing on press articles, original archival research, and textual and film analysis, this article investigates how Haesaerts creates a specific cinematic syntax to analyze the formal elements of Ensor’s paintings. In addition, it takes Masques et visages de James Ensor as a starting point for discussions on broader themes concerning the Ensor scholarship, such as Ensor’s affinities with Belgian cinema; the convergence of Ensor’s pictorial strategies and cinematography; and the impact of experimental art documentaries on the reception of Ensor’s work by both filmmakers and art critics.}},
  author       = {{Vandekerckhove, Joséphine}},
  keywords     = {{James Ensor,Paul Haesaerts,Modern Art,Art Documentary,Art Historiography}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  location     = {{Seattle}},
  title        = {{James Ensor, Paul Haesaerts and Cinéma Critique in 'Masques et Visages de James Ensor' (1952) and 'Moi, Ensor' (1972)}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}