{ "source": "https://www.robrombout.com", "generated": "2026-10-25", "films": [ { "no": 1, "slug": "1978-denken-denken-denken", "year": 1978, "title": "Denken, denken, denken", "runtime": "11′", "kind": "Student film", "chapter": "origins", "themes": [ "early" ], "production": "RITCS film school, Brussels", "countries": [ "Belgium" ], "logline": "Rob Rombout's student film at the RITCS film school in Brussels.", "places": [ { "name": "Brussels", "country": "Belgium", "lat": 50.85, "lon": 4.35 } ], "video": { "vimeo": "554028591", "label": "Full film", "duration": "10′47″", "ar": "328/240", "thumb": "https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/1144962339-3f5ac4ae5b8f338139d4f15269c9860bcaff71f14be2d592266af2bda64dd5e4-d_295x166?region=us", "src": "Rob, Excerpts.docx, 17 Oct 2026" }, "availability": "Online on Rob Rombout's YouTube channel", "status": "released", "synopsis": "A parody of a television panel discussion, made as a student film at the RITCS in Brussels. In the studio, three experts debate the punk phenomenon. Jef, a punk, is invited to speak from experience. One expert, Dr John Pusher, author of “How Paradise Was Lost”, develops his theory live and reaches his conclusion: where crisis rises, punk rises. In his words: “Puncrises.”", "credits": [ [ "Direction, script, editing", "Rob Rombout" ], [ "Music", "Ian Dury, “Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll” (1977)" ], [ "Production", "RITCS, Brussels" ] ], "with": [ "Bart van der Wiel", "Astrid Wortelboer", "Roy Lawrence", "Jan Peeters", "Paul Kluyskens" ], "synopsisSrc": "Rob, 'credits denken,denken,denken.doc' (24 Oct 2026): summary and credits; summary rewritten shorter and more factual at Rob's request.", "url": "https://www.robrombout.com/en/films/1978-denken-denken-denken/" }, { "no": 2, "slug": "1983-le-pouvoir-dachat-des-chomeurs", "year": 1983, "title": "Le pouvoir d'achat des chômeurs", "runtime": "21′", "kind": "Television documentary", "chapter": "canal-emploi", "themes": [ "early", "social" ], "production": "Canal Emploi, Liège", "countries": [ "Belgium" ], "languages": "French", "logline": "An early film for Canal Emploi, the Liège community television made with and for unemployed workers.", "places": [ { "name": "Liège", "country": "Belgium", "lat": 50.63, "lon": 5.57 } ], "credits": [ [ "Direction and editing", "Rob Rombout" ], [ "Educational producer", "Marc Frère" ], [ "Sound", "Oger Hossay" ], [ "Production", "Canal Emploi – Télé Formation, Liège" ] ], "availability": "In Rob's archive; ask whether it can be shown", "status": "released", "video": { "vimeo": "537164304", "label": "Excerpt", "duration": "3′37″", "ar": "426/240", "thumb": "https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/1111990719-f05db84f40aac6346508c4d8622f58e8ab96e289e8a5e2cc2ca828ed5a7257fc-d_295x166?region=us", "src": "Rob, Excerpts.docx, 17 Oct 2026" }, "synopsis": "A training video made for Canal Emploi – Télé Formation in Liège and broadcast on Télé 2. Unemployed people live on benefits that government measures had just reduced again: by 4 percent for heads of household and 6 percent for people living together, while the young received only waiting allowances. In a role play, unemployed people manage a budget on these benefits themselves. The video came with a file for trainers, a booklet for viewers and a resource person for group discussions.", "synopsisSrc": "Rob, '1983_LePouvoirDesChomeurs_résumé.pdf' (24 Oct 2026): the Canal Emploi sheet (director, educational producer Marc Frère, summary, support material, broadcast on Télé 2). Sound Oger Hossay from the file name of set photograph 04.", "url": "https://www.robrombout.com/en/films/1983-le-pouvoir-dachat-des-chomeurs/" }, { "no": 3, "slug": "1985-lhomme-qui-en-disait-trop", "year": 1985, "title": "L'Homme qui en disait trop", "altTitles": { "en": "The Man Who Talked Too Much", "nl": "Tot het einde van de strijd" }, "runtime": "22′", "kind": "Documentary", "chapter": "canal-emploi", "themes": [ "early", "social" ], "production": "Canal Emploi, Liège", "countries": [ "Belgium" ], "languages": "French, Dutch", "logline": "One union delegate against a multinational: an unequal duel at the factory gate.", "synopsis": "Roger Vandermeiren is a union delegate at Monsanto, a factory near Antwerp. When he defends a colleague accused of stealing documents, he is dismissed. A seven-week strike does not save his job. During six months of legal proceedings he goes on working as a delegate from a caravan at the factory gate, until a court confirms his dismissal. The film follows the case step by step, with library footage and his own account.", "credits": [ [ "Direction, script, editing", "Rob Rombout" ], [ "Image", "André Leplat" ], [ "Sound", "Jean-Marc Geuns" ], [ "Mix", "Jean-Pierre Depireux" ], [ "Music", "Pierre Vayena, collectif du Lion" ], [ "Translation", "Hubert Franssen" ], [ "Production", "Canal Emploi" ] ], "with": [ "Roger Vandermeiren" ], "screenings": [ { "date": "1994", "event": "Videobrasil, São Paulo", "type": "Retrospective", "v": true }, { "v": true, "date": "1986", "event": "World Wide Video Festival, The Hague", "type": "Selection", "src": "Rob's summary and credits sheet, 24 Oct 2026" } ], "places": [ { "name": "Antwerp", "country": "Belgium", "lat": 51.22, "lon": 4.4 } ], "availability": "In Rob's archive; ask whether it can be shown", "status": "released", "note": "Runtime is given as 22′ or 26′ depending on the source.", "press": [ { "quote": "The film is built like a thriller", "source": "DOCfeed catalogue, Eindhoven", "date": "2018", "lang": "en", "tr": { "fr": "Le film est construit comme un thriller", "nl": "De film is opgebouwd als een thriller", "pt": "O filme está construído como um thriller", "zh": "这部影片像一部惊悚片那样构建" } } ], "video": { "vimeo": "537164738", "label": "Excerpt", "duration": "2′13″", "ar": "426/240", "thumb": "https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/1111991238-15a9b235afe089d4b6ee1dcbfb9e4b960d2c2b156f8503cba5ccfc55ec21a2f6-d_295x166?region=us", "src": "Rob, Excerpts.docx, 17 Oct 2026" }, "articles": [ { "date": "1985-12-20", "title": { "en": "Un délégué syndical face à une multinationale" }, "source": "La Cité", "doc": "/docs/press/1985-12-20-la-cite-lhomme-qui-en-disait-trop.pdf" } ], "synopsisSrc": "Rob, 'summary & credits The man that talked too much' (.doc and .pdf, 24 Oct 2026): summary, credits, World Wide Video Festival 1986; summary rewritten shorter and more factual at Rob's request.", "url": "https://www.robrombout.com/en/films/1985-lhomme-qui-en-disait-trop/" }, { "no": 4, "slug": "1986-pas-de-cadeau-pour-noel", "year": 1986, "title": "Pas de cadeau pour Noël", "runtime": "25′", "kind": "Documentary", "chapter": "canal-emploi", "themes": [ "early", "social" ], "production": "Canal Emploi, Liège", "countries": [ "Belgium" ], "languages": "French", "logline": "A Rwandan immigrant in Liège, far from home at Christmas.", "credits": [ [ "Direction and script", "Rob Rombout" ], [ "Assistant director", "Daniel Delmelle" ], [ "Image", "André Leplat" ], [ "Assistant camera", "Alain Marcoun" ], [ "Sound", "J.-N. Ceuens" ], [ "Editing", "Marie-France Collard" ], [ "Mix", "Jean-Pierre Depireux" ], [ "Production", "Canal Emploi, Liège" ] ], "places": [ { "name": "Liège", "country": "Belgium", "lat": 50.63, "lon": 5.57 } ], "video": { "vimeo": "537165099", "label": "Excerpt", "duration": "1′04″", "ar": "426/240", "thumb": "https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/1111991616-dceedeaabdde8d49549588bef9da5d46f8eba9567eb2cb0459dbdf2cbbb1fe1e-d_295x166?region=us", "src": "Rob, Excerpts.docx, 17 Oct 2026" }, "availability": "Online on Rob Rombout's YouTube channel", "status": "released", "screenings": [ { "v": true, "date": "1987", "event": "Festival Vidéo PSY, Lorquin", "type": "First prize", "award": true, "src": "docfeed" }, { "v": true, "date": "1986", "event": "World Wide Video Festival, The Hague", "type": "Selection", "src": "Rob's summary and credits sheet, 23 Oct 2026" } ], "synopsis": "Noël N’Tunda is forty-two. Born in Rwanda, he has lived in Belgium since he was twelve, on a welfare allowance that is just enough to live on. His days are all alike: chance meetings in bars, appointments with social workers. Noël shows the places he passes every day and tells of those that shaped his life, and Rob Rombout follows him with direct questions. Noël answers with humour: “There is an ocean between what I expected from life and what I have become.” The film moves between past and present. And also: “If I could afford it… I would go swimming.”", "synopsisSrc": "Rob, 'summary & credits Pas de cadeau pour Noël.doc' (23 Oct 2026): summary, credits, World Wide Video Festival 1986. Rob, 23 Oct 2026: the Lorquin first prize is 1987; editing Marie-France Collard confirmed. The quotes are translated from his English summary.", "url": "https://www.robrombout.com/en/films/1986-pas-de-cadeau-pour-noel/" }, { "no": 5, "slug": "1987-entre-deux-tours", "year": 1987, "title": "Entre deux tours", "altTitles": { "en": "Between Two Towers" }, "runtime": "16′", "kind": "Video essay", "chapter": "form", "themes": [ "borders", "video" ], "production": "GSARA, with Wallonie Image Production and RTBF", "countries": [ "Belgium" ], "languages": "French", "logline": "On the Belgian–Dutch border, a prophet's tower and a NATO tower talk past each other.", "synopsis": "Two towers stand a few kilometres apart near the Belgian-Dutch border. At Brunssum is AFCENT, NATO's command for Central Europe since 1967, which took over Charlemagne's arms and motto; its spokesman is Ed Frieser. At Eben-Emael stands the Eben-Ezer tower, foretold by the prophet Hermas, whose builder Garcet preaches a mystical pacifism: “Nation shall not lift up sword against nation.” A written monologue sets the two towers face to face, though neither hears the other.", "credits": [ [ "Script and direction", "Rob Rombout" ], [ "Monologue", "Christian Janssens" ], [ "Image", "Kommer Klein" ], [ "Sound", "Fabio Lani" ], [ "Editing", "Adriana Moreira de Oliveira" ], [ "Music", "Excuse my French" ], [ "Production", "GSARA, Wallonie Image Production, RTBF" ] ], "screenings": [ { "date": "1994", "event": "Videobrasil, São Paulo", "type": "Retrospective", "v": true }, { "date": "2025-09-23", "event": "Cinemateca Portuguesa, Lisbon", "type": "New digital remaster", "v": true }, { "v": true, "date": "1988", "event": "Festival Vidéo, Liège", "type": "Best video", "award": true, "src": "docfeed" }, { "v": true, "date": "1988", "event": "Festival Vidéo & Super 8, Brussels", "type": "First prize", "award": true, "src": "docfeed" }, { "v": true, "date": "1988", "event": "Festival de Montbéliard", "type": "Grand prize", "award": true, "src": "docfeed" } ], "places": [ { "name": "Eben-Emael", "country": "Belgium", "lat": 50.79, "lon": 5.66 }, { "name": "Brunssum", "country": "Netherlands", "lat": 50.95, "lon": 5.97 } ], "video": { "vimeo": "519938151", "label": "Excerpt", "duration": "2′27″", "ar": "426/240", "thumb": "https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/1076741899-bb702045c8e036e3af2aef81e3b42b0399708d9b0b96801931470ba8abffe7d2-d_295x166?region=us", "src": "Rob, Excerpts.docx, 17 Oct 2026" }, "availability": "Remastered 2025 · on request", "status": "released", "note": "16′, as in the credits published in Mélon 2022 (p. 60) and in the 2025 remaster. Some older lists give 52′.", "press": [ { "quote": "Voor Rob Rombout is de dokumentaire niet enkel maar registratie, het einddoel is niet alleen maar objektiviteit. Hij verbindt een gegeven uit de realiteit met een persoonlijk gevoel.", "source": "Raf Custers, De Standaard", "date": "1988", "lang": "nl", "tr": { "en": "For Rob Rombout, documentary is not mere recording, and its aim is not objectivity alone. He joins something given by reality to a personal feeling.", "fr": "Pour Rob Rombout, le documentaire n’est pas un simple enregistrement, et son but n’est pas seulement l’objectivité. Il relie une donnée de la réalité à un sentiment personnel.", "pt": "Para Rob Rombout, o documentário não é mero registo, e o seu fim não é apenas a objetividade. Liga um dado da realidade a um sentimento pessoal.", "zh": "对 Rob Rombout 而言，纪录片不只是记录，其最终目的也不只是客观。他把现实中的一个事实与个人的情感联系在一起。" } }, { "quote": "um diálogo (de surdos) entre duas torres", "source": "Cinemateca Portuguesa", "date": "2025", "lang": "pt", "tr": { "en": "a dialogue (of the deaf) between two towers", "fr": "un dialogue (de sourds) entre deux tours", "nl": "een dovemansgesprek tussen twee torens" } } ], "articles": [ { "date": "1987-06-18", "title": { "en": "Deux petites tours et puis s’en vont" }, "source": "La Wallonie", "doc": "/docs/press/1987-06-18-la-wallonie-entre-deux-tours.pdf" }, { "date": "1987-06-18", "title": { "en": "Entre deux tours" }, "source": "M.-C. R., La Cité", "doc": "/docs/press/1987-06-18-la-cite-entre-deux-tours.pdf" }, { "date": "1988-10", "title": { "en": "Torens van oorlog en vrede" }, "source": "Raf Custers, De Standaard", "doc": "/docs/press/1988-10-de-standaard-entre-deux-tours.pdf" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "Une allégorie" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, La mise en scène du réel, Yellow Now", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-1987-entre-deux-tours.pdf", "lang": "fr" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "An allegory" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, The Mise en Scène of the Real, Yellow Now, provisional translation", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-1987-entre-deux-tours-en.pdf", "lang": "en" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "An allegory" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, La mise en scène du réel, Yellow Now, voorlopige Engelse vertaling", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-1987-entre-deux-tours-en.pdf", "lang": "nl" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "Uma alegoria" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, A mise en scène do real, Yellow Now, tradução provisória", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-1987-entre-deux-tours-pt.pdf", "lang": "pt" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "一则寓言" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon，《现实的场面调度》，Yellow Now，暂定译本", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-1987-entre-deux-tours-zh.pdf", "lang": "zh" } ], "url": "https://www.robrombout.com/en/films/1987-entre-deux-tours/" }, { "no": 6, "slug": "1990-nord-express", "year": 1990, "title": "Nord Express", "runtime": "58′", "kind": "Documentary", "chapter": "vessels", "themes": [ "closed-worlds", "trains" ], "production": "Paradise Films, with Triangle 7, RTBF, CAC-CICV Montbéliard and Wallonie Image Production", "countries": [ "Belgium", "France" ], "languages": "French, German, Polish, Russian", "logline": "Paris to Moscow in 47 hours, in 1990, on a train that has outlived two world wars and now the Wall.", "synopsis": "In 1896 Georges Nagelmackers launched the Nord Express from Paris to St Petersburg. In 1990 the film rides the 47 hours from Paris to Moscow, in a time of upheaval: in Paris railwaymen lay the new TGV lines, in Berlin the Wall is crumbling, and at Brest, on the Soviet border, the carriages are moved onto broad-gauge bogies. Galina, the sleeping-car attendant, makes tea. In the corridor Theodore, a student, looks out over the curtain. In West Berlin the painter Ben Wargin doubts we will ever go any faster.", "credits": [ [ "Direction", "Rob Rombout" ], [ "Script", "Rob Rombout, Christian Janssens" ], [ "Image", "Louis-Philippe Capelle" ], [ "Sound", "Olivier Struye, Paul Heymans" ], [ "Editing", "Adriana Moreira de Oliveira" ], [ "Music", "Piotr Hertel" ], [ "Production", "Paradise Films" ] ], "with": [ "Galina", "Theodore", "Ben Wargin" ], "screenings": [ { "date": "1990", "event": "World Wide Video Festival, The Hague", "type": "Highlight of the festival", "v": true, "src": "skrien" }, { "date": "1990", "event": "Videobrasil, São Paulo", "type": "Belgian programme", "v": true }, { "date": "1994", "event": "Videobrasil, São Paulo", "type": "Retrospective", "v": true } ], "press": [ { "quote": "Dat Nord Express niettemin een bijzondere ervaring teweegbrengt, heeft te maken met het feit dat Rombout niet de reis, maar het reizen zelf tot onderwerp van zijn film heeft gemaakt.", "source": "Ernie Tee, Skrien", "date": "1991", "lang": "nl", "tr": { "en": "That Nord Express still makes for a particular experience comes from the fact that Rombout has made not the journey, but travelling itself, the subject of his film.", "fr": "Si Nord Express procure malgré tout une expérience singulière, c’est que Rombout a fait non pas du voyage, mais du fait même de voyager, le sujet de son film.", "pt": "Se Nord Express proporciona, ainda assim, uma experiência singular, é porque Rombout fez do próprio ato de viajar, e não da viagem, o tema do seu filme.", "zh": "《Nord Express》之所以仍带来一种特别的体验，是因为 Rombout 拍的不是这趟旅程，而是旅行本身。" } }, { "quote": "Il donne envie de partir. Non pas pour un tour du monde en quarante jours, d’un aéroport à l’autre. Mais pour un véritable voyage.", "source": "Marie-Christine Pasche, La Tribune de Genève", "date": "1990", "lang": "fr", "tr": { "en": "It makes you want to leave. Not for a trip round the world in forty days, from one airport to the next. But for a real journey.", "nl": "Hij geeft zin om te vertrekken. Niet voor een reis om de wereld in veertig dagen, van het ene vliegveld naar het andere. Maar voor een echte reis.", "pt": "Dá vontade de partir. Não para uma volta ao mundo em quarenta dias, de aeroporto em aeroporto. Mas para uma verdadeira viagem.", "zh": "它让人想出发。不是四十天里从一个机场到另一个机场的环球之旅，而是一次真正的旅行。" } } ], "places": [ { "name": "Paris", "country": "France", "lat": 48.86, "lon": 2.35 }, { "name": "Berlin", "country": "Germany", "lat": 52.52, "lon": 13.4 }, { "name": "Brest", "country": "Belarus", "lat": 52.1, "lon": 23.69 }, { "name": "Moscow", "country": "Russia", "lat": 55.76, "lon": 37.62 } ], "availability": "On request", "status": "released", "packages": [ "closed-worlds" ], "note": "58′ in the credits published in Mélon 2022; 52′ in the book's filmography (p. 254), probably a television slot.", "structure": { "type": "clothesline", "src": "Mélon 2022, p. 28" }, "words": { "fr": "des gens banals, sans rien de particulier, mais magnifiques", "en": "ordinary people, nothing special about them, but magnificent", "nl": "gewone mensen, niets bijzonders aan hen, maar prachtig", "pt": "pessoas banais, sem nada de especial, mas magníficas", "page": "72", "zh": "普通的人，没有什么特别，却很了不起" }, "video": { "vimeo": "527394825", "label": "Excerpt", "duration": "3′30″", "ar": "426/240", "thumb": "https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/1091749875-e4b2f4151d7ad821b9b9d26088664770e0eff5777cfe4707fd26c09166c948a7-d_295x166?region=us", "src": "Rob, Excerpts.docx, 17 Oct 2026" }, "articles": [ { "date": "1990-09-20", "title": { "en": "Nord Express : un film qui arrive à l’heure" }, "source": "René Begon, La Wallonie", "doc": "/docs/press/1990-09-20-la-wallonie-nord-express.pdf" }, { "date": "1990-12-27", "title": { "en": "La lente hâte du voyage en train" }, "source": "Marie-Christine Pasche, La Tribune de Genève", "doc": "/docs/press/1990-12-27-tribune-de-geneve-nord-express.pdf" }, { "date": "1991", "title": { "en": "Paris-Moscou, l’anti-TGV" }, "source": "Béatrice Bocard, Libération", "doc": "/docs/press/1991-liberation-nord-express.pdf" }, { "date": "1991", "title": { "en": "Een reis zonder ontsporingen" }, "source": "Ernie Tee, Skrien", "doc": "/docs/press/1991-skrien-nord-express.pdf" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "Un voyage dans l’Histoire" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, La mise en scène du réel, Yellow Now", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-1990-nord-express.pdf", "lang": "fr" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "A journey through History" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, The Mise en Scène of the Real, Yellow Now, provisional translation", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-1990-nord-express-en.pdf", "lang": "en" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "A journey through History" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, La mise en scène du réel, Yellow Now, voorlopige Engelse vertaling", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-1990-nord-express-en.pdf", "lang": "nl" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "Uma viagem na História" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, A mise en scène do real, Yellow Now, tradução provisória", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-1990-nord-express-pt.pdf", "lang": "pt" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "穿越历史之旅" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon，《现实的场面调度》，Yellow Now，暂定译本", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-1990-nord-express-zh.pdf", "lang": "zh" } ], "url": "https://www.robrombout.com/en/films/1990-nord-express/" }, { "no": 7, "slug": "1992-transatlantique-queen-elizabeth-2", "year": 1992, "title": "Transatlantique, Queen Elizabeth 2", "altTitles": { "en": "Transatlantic: Queen Elizabeth 2" }, "runtime": "58′", "kind": "Documentary", "chapter": "vessels", "themes": [ "closed-worlds", "ships" ], "production": "Nota Bene, with RTBF, BRTN and Wallonie Image Production", "countries": [ "Belgium" ], "languages": "English, French", "logline": "Five days, three thousand people and one ocean, on board the last transatlantic liner.", "synopsis": "The Queen Elizabeth 2 made her first crossing to New York in 1969. In 1992 she is the last ocean liner on the Atlantic, no longer a means of transport but a floating town of 1,500 passengers. A crew of 1,200, among them Captain Warwick, keeps her running day and night. From Southampton to New York, nearly 3,000 people live together for five days in a kind of complicity: first the unpredictable ocean, then New York, far away like a New World.", "credits": [ [ "Direction", "Rob Rombout" ], [ "Script", "Rob Rombout, Jean-Philippe Laroche" ], [ "Image", "Louis-Philippe Capelle" ], [ "Sound", "Paul Heymans" ], [ "Editing", "Adriana Moreira de Oliveira" ], [ "Music", "Jean-Christophe Renault" ], [ "Production", "Nota Bene" ] ], "screenings": [ { "date": "1993", "event": "Netherlands Film Festival, Utrecht", "type": "Selection", "v": false }, { "date": "1994", "event": "Videobrasil, São Paulo", "type": "Retrospective", "v": true } ], "places": [ { "name": "Southampton", "country": "United Kingdom", "lat": 50.9, "lon": -1.4 }, { "name": "North Atlantic", "country": "", "lat": 45, "lon": -40 }, { "name": "New York", "country": "United States", "lat": 40.71, "lon": -74.01 } ], "availability": "On request", "status": "released", "packages": [ "closed-worlds" ], "note": "58′ in the credits published in Mélon 2022 (p. 87); 52′ in the book's filmography (p. 254) and in Rob Rombout's CV, probably a television slot. Shot in 1992 (Mélon 2022, p. 21); Dutch film databases date it 1993 and give 57′.", "structure": { "type": "clothesline", "src": "Mélon 2022, p. 28" }, "words": { "fr": "quand il s’agit de choix esthétiques, il faut être intransigeant", "en": "when it comes to aesthetic choices, you have to be uncompromising", "nl": "als het om esthetische keuzes gaat, moet je onverzettelijk zijn", "pt": "quando se trata de escolhas estéticas, é preciso ser intransigente", "page": "86", "zh": "在美学选择上，必须毫不妥协" }, "video": { "vimeo": "521512207", "label": "Excerpt", "duration": "2′29″", "ar": "426/240", "thumb": "https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/1080090307-79ad02eb2a876deb9e87598e54879afac7748bc3b2ca72a3ae076260ae5d2a55-d_295x166?region=us", "src": "Rob, Excerpts.docx, 17 Oct 2026" }, "press": [ { "quote": "un journal de bord visuel aux cadrages léchés, à la rencontre d’histoires individuelles", "source": "Béatrice Bocard, Libération", "date": "1993", "lang": "fr", "tr": { "en": "a visual logbook with carefully composed frames, in search of individual stories", "nl": "een visueel logboek met zorgvuldige kaders, op zoek naar individuele verhalen", "pt": "um diário de bordo visual de enquadramentos cuidados, ao encontro de histórias individuais", "zh": "一部取景考究的视觉航海日志，去遇见一个个人的故事" } }, { "quote": "le film de Rob Rombout croque au sel du large une jolie galerie de portraits", "source": "Dominique Legrand, Le Soir", "date": "1995", "lang": "fr", "tr": { "en": "Rob Rombout’s film sketches, in the salt air of the open sea, a fine gallery of portraits", "nl": "de film van Rob Rombout schetst, in de zilte lucht van de open zee, een mooie galerij van portretten", "pt": "o filme de Rob Rombout esboça, ao sal do alto mar, uma bela galeria de retratos", "zh": "Rob Rombout 的影片在远洋的咸风里，勾勒出一组好看的人物肖像" } } ], "articles": [ { "date": "1992-10-08", "title": { "en": "God save the Queen" }, "source": "Jan Hertogs, Humo", "doc": "/docs/press/1992-10-08-humo-transatlantique.pdf" }, { "date": "1993-09-04", "title": { "en": "Huis-clos transatlantique" }, "source": "Béatrice Bocard, Libération", "doc": "/docs/press/1993-09-04-liberation-transatlantique.pdf" }, { "date": "1995-08-09", "title": { "en": "Les mythes sur écran ont la vie dure" }, "source": "Dominique Legrand, Le Soir", "doc": "/docs/press/1995-08-09-le-soir-transatlantique.pdf" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "Une ville flottante" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, La mise en scène du réel, Yellow Now", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-1992-transatlantique-queen-elizabeth-2.pdf", "lang": "fr" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "A floating city" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, The Mise en Scène of the Real, Yellow Now, provisional translation", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-1992-transatlantique-queen-elizabeth-2-en.pdf", "lang": "en" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "A floating city" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, La mise en scène du réel, Yellow Now, voorlopige Engelse vertaling", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-1992-transatlantique-queen-elizabeth-2-en.pdf", "lang": "nl" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "Cidade flutuante" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, A mise en scène do real, Yellow Now, tradução provisória", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-1992-transatlantique-queen-elizabeth-2-pt.pdf", "lang": "pt" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "漂浮之城" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon，《现实的场面调度》，Yellow Now，暂定译本", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-1992-transatlantique-queen-elizabeth-2-zh.pdf", "lang": "zh" } ], "url": "https://www.robrombout.com/en/films/1992-transatlantique-queen-elizabeth-2/" }, { "no": 8, "slug": "1994-lile-noire", "year": 1994, "title": "L'Île noire", "altTitles": { "en": "Black Island" }, "runtime": "52′", "kind": "Documentary", "chapter": "vessels", "themes": [ "closed-worlds", "islands", "work" ], "format": "Super 16 mm", "production": "Nota Bene, with Wallonie Image Production, RTBF, BRTN and France 2", "countries": [ "Belgium", "France" ], "languages": "English", "logline": "Eighty men and one woman, a steel island in the North Sea, and the routines that keep them sane.", "synopsis": "In the North Sea some sixty thousand people live offshore. On the F.G. McClintock drilling rig, eighty men and one woman work around the clock in search of black gold, while a stand-by vessel circles them for their safety. In such a closed space, facing the wild sea, there is little room to say how one feels. “The noise is everywhere, you can’t get away from it,” says Brian Spencer, the toolpusher. After Nord Express and the Queen Elizabeth 2, Rob Rombout films another small society behind closed doors.", "credits": [ [ "Direction", "Rob Rombout" ], [ "Script", "Rob Rombout, Jean-Philippe Laroche" ], [ "Image", "Louis-Philippe Capelle" ], [ "Assistant camera", "Jean van Gut" ], [ "Sound", "Philippe Sellier" ], [ "Editing", "Adriana Moreira de Oliveira" ], [ "Mix", "Jean-François Gosselin" ], [ "Music", "Jean-Louis Daulne" ], [ "Producer", "Jean-Philippe Laroche" ], [ "Production", "Nota Bene, Wallonie Image Production, RTBF, BRTN Dienst Cultuur, Galatée Films, Pandora Productions" ] ], "with": [ "Mick Pollard", "Brian Spencer", "Derrick", "Glenn A. Musick", "Terry Johnson" ], "screenings": [ { "date": "1995", "event": "Cinéma du Réel, Paris", "type": "Selection", "v": true }, { "date": "1995", "event": "Netherlands Film Festival, Utrecht", "type": "Selection", "v": true }, { "date": "1995", "event": "Film Fest Gent", "type": "Selection", "v": true }, { "date": "2022-11-15", "event": "Focus Rob Rombout, Strasbourg", "type": "Retrospective", "v": true } ], "places": [ { "name": "North Sea", "country": "", "lat": 57.5, "lon": 1.5 } ], "availability": "On request", "status": "released", "packages": [ "closed-worlds", "islands" ], "structure": { "type": "star", "src": "Mélon 2022, p. 29" }, "words": { "fr": "C’est le seul tournage où nous n’avons pas été que spectateurs … Finalement, c’est ça, le documentaire.", "en": "The only shoot where we were not just onlookers … In the end, that is documentary.", "nl": "Het is de enige opname waarbij we niet alleen toeschouwers waren … Uiteindelijk is dat documentaire.", "pt": "Foi a única rodagem em que não fomos apenas espectadores … Afinal, é isso o documentário.", "page": "101", "zh": "这是唯一一次我们不只是旁观者的拍摄……说到底，这就是纪录片。" }, "video": { "vimeo": "521516841", "label": "Excerpt", "duration": "2′34″", "ar": "426/240", "thumb": "https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/1080098216-ddbd82c10fa48143db2619068a946fc7787c6bcda655ee3a6224b23b5a60d8f1-d_295x166?region=us", "src": "Rob, Excerpts.docx, 17 Oct 2026" }, "press": [ { "quote": "Rob Rombout donne une grande place aux états d’âme et aux sentiments dans ce milieu de travail complexe qui se fait habituellement loi de les ignorer.", "source": "Dominique Legrand, Le Soir", "date": "1994", "lang": "fr", "tr": { "en": "Rob Rombout gives a large place to moods and feelings in this complex working world, which usually makes a rule of ignoring them.", "nl": "Rob Rombout geeft veel ruimte aan gemoedstoestanden en gevoelens in deze complexe werkomgeving, die het gewoonlijk tot regel maakt ze te negeren.", "pt": "Rob Rombout dá um grande lugar aos estados de alma e aos sentimentos neste meio de trabalho complexo, que habitualmente faz questão de os ignorar.", "zh": "在这个通常对心境与情感视而不见的复杂工作环境里，Rob Rombout 给了它们很大的空间。" } }, { "quote": "On ressent fortement cette mise en valeur, assez rare, des gestes du travail humain.", "source": "Yvon Le Vaillant, Le Nouvel Observateur", "date": "1995", "lang": "fr", "tr": { "en": "One strongly feels this attention, rather rare, to the gestures of human work.", "nl": "Je voelt sterk deze aandacht, vrij zeldzaam, voor de gebaren van het menselijk werk.", "pt": "Sente-se fortemente esta valorização, bastante rara, dos gestos do trabalho humano.", "zh": "人们强烈地感受到影片对人类劳动动作的这种重视，这相当少见。" } } ], "articles": [ { "date": "1994-12-02", "title": { "en": "Quand la mer sent la boue en mer du Nord" }, "source": "Dominique Legrand, Le Soir", "doc": "/docs/press/1994-12-02-le-soir-lile-noire.pdf" }, { "date": "1995-10-26", "title": { "en": "Huis clos en mer du Nord" }, "source": "Yvon Le Vaillant, Le Nouvel Observateur", "doc": "/docs/press/1995-10-26-nouvel-observateur-lile-noire.pdf" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "Un microcosme" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, La mise en scène du réel, Yellow Now", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-1994-lile-noire.pdf", "lang": "fr" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "A microcosm" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, The Mise en Scène of the Real, Yellow Now, provisional translation", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-1994-lile-noire-en.pdf", "lang": "en" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "A microcosm" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, La mise en scène du réel, Yellow Now, voorlopige Engelse vertaling", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-1994-lile-noire-en.pdf", "lang": "nl" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "Um microcosmo" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, A mise en scène do real, Yellow Now, tradução provisória", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-1994-lile-noire-pt.pdf", "lang": "pt" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "一个微观世界" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon，《现实的场面调度》，Yellow Now，暂定译本", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-1994-lile-noire-zh.pdf", "lang": "zh" } ], "synopsisSrc": "Rob, 'summary & credits Black Island.doc' (23 Oct 2026): summary, Brian Spencer quote and credits; assistant camera from his index (BI filming 02). Rob, 23 Oct 2026: Philippe Sellier, Louis-Philippe Capelle, eighty men.", "url": "https://www.robrombout.com/en/films/1994-lile-noire/" }, { "no": 9, "slug": "1995-les-acores-de-madredeus", "year": 1995, "title": "Les Açores de Madredeus", "altTitles": { "en": "The Azores of Madredeus", "pt": "Os Açores dos Madredeus", "zh": "The Azores of Madredeus" }, "runtime": "40′", "kind": "Documentary", "chapter": "islands", "themes": [ "islands", "music", "lusophone" ], "production": "Mona Lisa Films, with RTBF and France Supervision", "countries": [ "France", "Belgium" ], "languages": "Portuguese, French", "logline": "The Portuguese band Madredeus travels to the Azores in search of the roots of its sound.", "synopsis": "On the Azores the light can change completely in a minute, and the music of Madredeus is at home there. Teresa Salgueiro, the band's voice, and Pedro Ayres Magalhães, its guitarist and composer, travel around the islands and rediscover the many origins of their music. Landscapes, the words of islanders and the rituals of popular feasts call up the themes of their songs, and Rob Rombout films the archipelago as if it were one of them.", "credits": [ [ "Direction", "Rob Rombout" ], [ "Image", "Jean-Paul Dezaeytijd" ], [ "Sound", "Paul Heymans" ], [ "Editing", "Adriana Moreira de Oliveira" ], [ "Production", "Mona Lisa Films" ] ], "screenings": [ { "date": "2022-11-15", "event": "Focus Rob Rombout, Strasbourg", "type": "Retrospective", "v": true }, { "date": "2025-09-23", "event": "Cinemateca Portuguesa, Lisbon", "type": "New digital remaster", "v": true }, { "date": "2026-03-14", "event": "Arsmondo Îles, BNU Strasbourg", "type": "Screening", "v": true } ], "places": [ { "name": "Azores", "country": "Portugal", "lat": 38.5, "lon": -28 } ], "availability": "Remastered 2025 · DVD Arte Vidéo (2006)", "status": "released", "packages": [ "islands" ], "structure": { "type": "star", "src": "Mélon 2022, p. 29, n. 15" }, "words": { "fr": "pour finalement arriver à une image qui semble très naturelle, il faut parfois passer par des procédés totalement artificiels", "en": "to end up with an image that looks entirely natural, you sometimes have to go through entirely artificial means", "nl": "om uit te komen bij een beeld dat heel natuurlijk lijkt, moet je soms door volstrekt kunstmatige procedés heen", "pt": "para chegar a uma imagem que pareça muito natural, às vezes é preciso passar por processos totalmente artificiais", "page": "116", "zh": "要得到一个看起来完全自然的画面，有时必须借助完全人为的手段" }, "press": [ { "quote": "J’avais vu ces précédents courts métrages, j’ai discuté avec Rob et j’ai su que lui pourrait le faire.", "source": "Pedro Ayres Magalhães, La Libre Belgique", "date": "1995", "lang": "fr", "tr": { "en": "I had seen his earlier short films, I talked with Rob and I knew that he could do it.", "nl": "Ik had zijn eerdere korte films gezien, ik heb met Rob gepraat en ik wist dat hij het kon.", "pt": "Tinha visto as suas curtas-metragens anteriores, conversei com o Rob e soube que ele o poderia fazer.", "zh": "我看过他之前的几部短片，和 Rob 谈过之后，我知道他能做到。" } }, { "quote": "abordagem iconológica da paisagem açoreana", "source": "Cinemateca Portuguesa", "date": "2025", "lang": "pt", "tr": { "en": "an iconological approach to the Azorean landscape", "fr": "une approche iconologique du paysage açorien", "nl": "een iconologische benadering van het Azoriaanse landschap" } } ], "editions": [ { "date": "2006", "what": "DVD", "by": "Arte Vidéo", "src": "bnf" } ], "video": { "vimeo": "525664600", "label": "Excerpt", "duration": "3′57″", "ar": "426/240", "thumb": "https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/1088251906-39fc8236f729400a97c2160cd5b1d9d0acd9507b5c39590586aaa09090f4f8c1-d_295x166?region=us", "src": "Rob, Excerpts.docx, 17 Oct 2026" }, "articles": [ { "date": "1995-06-19", "title": { "en": "De eilanden van het eeuwige vertrek" }, "source": "Agnes Goyvaerts, De Morgen", "doc": "/docs/press/1995-06-19-de-morgen-les-acores-de-madredeus.pdf" }, { "date": "1995-10-20", "title": { "en": "Madredeus, bande originale du paysage portugais" }, "source": "Karin Tshidimba, La Libre Belgique", "doc": "/docs/press/1995-10-20-la-libre-belgique-les-acores-de-madredeus.pdf" }, { "date": "1995-10-21", "title": { "en": "Pedro et Teresa : un cas isolé au charme indicible" }, "source": "Thierry Coljon, Le Soir", "doc": "/docs/press/1995-10-21-le-soir-les-acores-de-madredeus.pdf" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "Un exercice de style" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, La mise en scène du réel, Yellow Now", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-1995-les-acores-de-madredeus.pdf", "lang": "fr" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "An exercise in style" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, The Mise en Scène of the Real, Yellow Now, provisional translation", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-1995-les-acores-de-madredeus-en.pdf", "lang": "en" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "An exercise in style" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, La mise en scène du réel, Yellow Now, voorlopige Engelse vertaling", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-1995-les-acores-de-madredeus-en.pdf", "lang": "nl" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "Um exercício de estilo" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, A mise en scène do real, Yellow Now, tradução provisória", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-1995-les-acores-de-madredeus-pt.pdf", "lang": "pt" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "一次风格练习" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon，《现实的场面调度》，Yellow Now，暂定译本", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-1995-les-acores-de-madredeus-zh.pdf", "lang": "zh" } ], "url": "https://www.robrombout.com/en/films/1995-les-acores-de-madredeus/" }, { "no": 10, "slug": "1998-amsterdam-via-amsterdam", "year": 1998, "title": "Amsterdam via Amsterdam", "runtime": "80′", "kind": "Documentary", "chapter": "amsterdam", "themes": [ "amsterdam", "islands", "ships" ], "codirector": "Rogier van Eck", "production": "Asap, with CBA, RTBF, Image Création and Triangle 7", "countries": [ "Belgium" ], "languages": "Dutch, French, English", "logline": "Two Amsterdammers sail to the Arctic and the Antarctic to look back at their city from the two islands that share its name.", "synopsis": "Four centuries ago Willem Barentsz sailed north and Cornelis de Houtman sailed south from Amsterdam, opening the way to two islands that bear the city's name, in Spitsbergen and in the southern Indian Ocean. Rob Rombout and Rogier van Eck, both with their roots in Amsterdam, follow their tracks. Their expedition is of another kind, but their doubts measure up to the daring of those navigators. Between the polar ice and the southern wind, the city comes into view as a triptych.", "credits": [ [ "Direction", "Rob Rombout, Rogier van Eck" ], [ "Image", "Samuel Dravet, Willy Stassen, Louis-Philippe Capelle" ], [ "Sound", "Griet van Reeth" ], [ "Editing", "Rogier van Eck, Rudi Maerten" ], [ "Music", "Hughes Maréchal" ], [ "Production", "Asap" ] ], "screenings": [ { "date": "2005", "event": "Route 66 festival, Springfield", "type": "Best Foreign Film", "v": true, "award": true, "src": "docfeed" }, { "date": "2005", "event": "The Landmark, Baku", "type": "Screening and debate", "v": false }, { "date": "2006", "event": "39th WorldFest, Houston", "type": "Silver Remi", "v": true, "award": true, "src": "docfeed" }, { "date": "2006", "event": "Syracuse film festival", "type": "Best European Documentary", "v": false, "award": true, "src": "docfeed" }, { "date": "2007", "event": "Tiburon film festival", "type": "Selection", "v": true } ], "places": [ { "name": "Amsterdam", "country": "Netherlands", "lat": 52.37, "lon": 4.9 }, { "name": "Amsterdamøya, Spitsbergen", "country": "Norway", "lat": 79.77, "lon": 10.8 }, { "name": "Île Amsterdam", "country": "French Southern Lands", "lat": -37.83, "lon": 77.55 } ], "availability": "CBA, Brussels · on request", "status": "released", "packages": [ "amsterdam", "islands" ], "note": "80′ in the credits published in Mélon 2022, which dates the shoot to 1998 and the finished film to 2004 (pp. 123, 168). The co-producer CBA lists the film under 1998 and also gives a 54′ version. Rob Rombout's CV records a 40′ work in progress, 1997. Video edition: Heure Exquise!, 2004.", "structure": { "type": "constellation", "src": "Mélon 2022, p. 29–30" }, "press": [ { "quote": "Un film à deux voix, intimiste, mais aussi fouetté par le vent du large.", "source": "René Begon, Le Matin", "date": "1999", "lang": "fr", "tr": { "en": "A film for two voices, intimate, but also lashed by the wind of the open sea.", "nl": "Een film voor twee stemmen, intiem, maar ook gegeseld door de wind van de open zee.", "pt": "Um filme a duas vozes, intimista, mas também fustigado pelo vento do largo.", "zh": "一部双声部的影片，私密，却也被远洋的风吹打着。" } }, { "quote": "Carnet de route multilingue où l’eau est omniprésente, voyage initiatique, chronique urbaine et maritime, dialogue visuel et sonore", "source": "Dominique Legrand, Le Soir", "date": "1999", "lang": "fr", "tr": { "en": "A multilingual travel notebook where water is everywhere, a journey of initiation, an urban and maritime chronicle, a dialogue of images and sounds", "nl": "Een meertalig reisdagboek waarin het water overal is, een inwijdingsreis, een stedelijke en maritieme kroniek, een dialoog van beeld en klank", "pt": "Diário de viagem multilingue onde a água é omnipresente, viagem iniciática, crónica urbana e marítima, diálogo visual e sonoro", "zh": "一本水无处不在的多语种旅行笔记，一次启蒙之旅，一部城市与海洋的纪事，一场影像与声音的对话" } } ], "articles": [ { "date": "1999-12", "title": { "en": "Amsterdam, devant nous, derrière nous, Amsterdam" }, "source": "Dominique Legrand, Le Soir", "doc": "/docs/press/1999-12-le-soir-amsterdam-via-amsterdam.pdf" }, { "date": "1999-12-09", "title": { "en": "Prendre le large à quarante ans" }, "source": "René Begon, Le Matin", "doc": "/docs/press/1999-12-09-le-matin-amsterdam-via-amsterdam.pdf" }, { "date": "2006-07", "title": { "en": "Allemaal Amsterdammen" }, "source": "Niels Wisman, Ons Amsterdam", "doc": "/docs/press/2006-07-ons-amsterdam-amsterdam-via-amsterdam.pdf" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "Sortir du cadre pour savourer la vie" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, La mise en scène du réel, Yellow Now", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-1998-amsterdam-via-amsterdam.pdf", "lang": "fr" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "Stepping out of the frame to savour life" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, The Mise en Scène of the Real, Yellow Now, provisional translation", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-1998-amsterdam-via-amsterdam-en.pdf", "lang": "en" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "Stepping out of the frame to savour life" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, La mise en scène du réel, Yellow Now, voorlopige Engelse vertaling", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-1998-amsterdam-via-amsterdam-en.pdf", "lang": "nl" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "Sair do quadro para saborear a vida" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, A mise en scène do real, Yellow Now, tradução provisória", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-1998-amsterdam-via-amsterdam-pt.pdf", "lang": "pt" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "走出画框，品味生活" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon，《现实的场面调度》，Yellow Now，暂定译本", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-1998-amsterdam-via-amsterdam-zh.pdf", "lang": "zh" } ], "url": "https://www.robrombout.com/en/films/1998-amsterdam-via-amsterdam/" }, { "no": 11, "slug": "1999-perm-mission", "year": 1999, "title": "Perm-mission", "runtime": "52′", "kind": "Documentary", "chapter": "islands", "themes": [ "closed-worlds", "cinema" ], "production": "Nota Bene, with Good & Bad News and RTBF", "countries": [ "Belgium" ], "languages": "Russian, French", "logline": "The only foreigner at a documentary festival in the frozen Urals listens to Russian filmmakers argue about the truth.", "synopsis": "In Perm, an isolated city in the snowbound Urals, a festival named after Robert Flaherty, Flahertiana, brings together some forty Russian directors to take stock of documentary cinema. The debates are heated, at minus twenty-five degrees, and between the interviews their own films answer back. Rob Rombout is the only foreign filmmaker at this “international” festival. He is on a special Perm-mission.", "credits": [ [ "Direction", "Rob Rombout" ], [ "Script", "Rob Rombout, Pascal Perez" ], [ "Image and sound", "Pascal Perez" ], [ "Editing", "Rachel Lamisse" ], [ "Production", "Nota Bene" ] ], "places": [ { "name": "Perm", "country": "Russia", "lat": 58.01, "lon": 56.25 } ], "video": { "vimeo": "525667604", "label": "Excerpt", "duration": "3′15″", "ar": "426/240", "thumb": "https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/1088255553-c5c723745b8482cd9eabc739b420a554c354ceda87e85ed00325839229e27341-d_295x166?region=us", "src": "Rob, Excerpts.docx, 17 Oct 2026" }, "availability": "On request", "status": "released", "screenings": [ { "v": true, "date": "2000", "event": "Flahertiana, Perm", "type": "Prize", "award": true, "src": "docfeed" } ], "press": [ { "quote": "Coup de sonde intéressant sur une réalité mal connue, le film de Rob Rombout donne aussi envie de découvrir des films qu’on pressent à la fois attachants et de qualité.", "source": "René Begon, Le Matin", "date": "1999", "lang": "fr", "tr": { "en": "A telling probe into a little-known reality, Rob Rombout’s film also makes you want to discover films one senses are both engaging and well made.", "nl": "Als interessante peiling van een weinig bekende werkelijkheid geeft de film van Rob Rombout ook zin om films te ontdekken die je tegelijk innemend en goed gemaakt vermoedt.", "pt": "Sondagem interessante de uma realidade mal conhecida, o filme de Rob Rombout dá também vontade de descobrir filmes que se pressentem ao mesmo tempo cativantes e de qualidade.", "zh": "作为对一个鲜为人知的现实的一次有趣探测，Rob Rombout 的影片也让人想去发现那些令人预感既动人又有品质的电影。" } } ], "articles": [ { "date": "1999-05-29", "title": { "en": "Au cœur du documentaire russe" }, "source": "René Begon, Le Matin", "doc": "/docs/press/1999-05-29-le-matin-perm-mission.pdf" } ], "url": "https://www.robrombout.com/en/films/1999-perm-mission/" }, { "no": 12, "slug": "2000-le-piege-de-kerguelen", "year": 2000, "title": "Le Piège de Kerguelen", "altTitles": { "en": "The Kerguelen Trap" }, "runtime": "40′", "kind": "Documentary", "chapter": "islands", "themes": [ "islands" ], "format": "16 mm, blown up to 35 mm", "production": "Asap, with Dada Studios", "countries": [ "Belgium", "France" ], "languages": "French, English", "logline": "A scientific mission comes ashore on Kerguelen to study feral cats. None turn up, so the film watches the watchers.", "synopsis": "In 1772 the navigator Yves de Kerguelen came upon an archipelago in the far south of the Indian Ocean. “These isles are a fearsome trap,” he wrote in his log; all he left there were the few cats he had on board. Two centuries later the scientists of the Popchat mission land on Kerguelen to trap the cats, which have gone wild, and to see how they have adapted to the freezing climate. But who is observing whom?", "credits": [ [ "Direction", "Rob Rombout" ], [ "Assistant director", "Rogier van Eck" ], [ "Image", "Samuel Dravet" ], [ "Sound", "Griet van Reeth" ], [ "Editing", "Adriana Moreira de Oliveira" ], [ "Music", "Hughes Maréchal" ], [ "Voices", "Pascal Perez, Rob Rombout, Christian Janssens" ], [ "Production", "Asap" ] ], "screenings": [ { "date": "2022-11-17", "event": "Focus Rob Rombout, Strasbourg", "type": "Retrospective", "v": true }, { "date": "2026-03-14", "event": "Arsmondo Îles, BNU Strasbourg", "type": "Screening", "v": true }, { "v": true, "date": "2000", "event": "Man and Sea festival, Vladivostok", "type": "Special award", "award": true, "src": "docfeed" } ], "places": [ { "name": "Kerguelen Islands", "country": "French Southern Lands", "lat": -49.35, "lon": 70.22 } ], "video": { "vimeo": "525674718", "label": "Excerpt", "duration": "1′24″", "ar": "426/240", "thumb": "https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/1088267246-3e153ac17274d2437600d5c998310cf2be1c4a7e0ef71791f9b23328c5b364cd-d_295x166?region=us", "src": "Rob, Excerpts.docx, 17 Oct 2026" }, "availability": "DVD Heure Exquise! · on request", "status": "released", "packages": [ "islands" ], "note": "Shot during the southern voyage of 1998–99 (Mélon 2022, p. 157) and completed in 2000; registered in 1998 at the Clermont-Ferrand film market. 40′ in the credits published in Mélon 2022; 37′ on the Heure Exquise! DVD.", "structure": { "type": "clothesline", "src": "Mélon 2022, p. 28" }, "words": { "fr": "J’aime bien utiliser une forme sérieuse qui devient ironique.", "en": "I like using a serious form that turns ironic.", "nl": "Ik gebruik graag een ernstige vorm die ironisch wordt.", "pt": "Gosto de usar uma forma séria que se torna irónica.", "page": "128", "zh": "我喜欢用一种会转向反讽的严肃形式。" }, "editions": [ { "what": "DVD", "by": "Heure Exquise!", "src": "bnf" } ], "articles": [ { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "Un miroir aux alouettes" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, La mise en scène du réel, Yellow Now", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-2000-le-piege-de-kerguelen.pdf", "lang": "fr" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "A decoy" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, The Mise en Scène of the Real, Yellow Now, provisional translation", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-2000-le-piege-de-kerguelen-en.pdf", "lang": "en" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "A decoy" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, La mise en scène du réel, Yellow Now, voorlopige Engelse vertaling", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-2000-le-piege-de-kerguelen-en.pdf", "lang": "nl" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "Um engodo" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, A mise en scène do real, Yellow Now, tradução provisória", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-2000-le-piege-de-kerguelen-pt.pdf", "lang": "pt" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "一面诱鸟之镜" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon，《现实的场面调度》，Yellow Now，暂定译本", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-2000-le-piege-de-kerguelen-zh.pdf", "lang": "zh" } ], "url": "https://www.robrombout.com/en/films/2000-le-piege-de-kerguelen/" }, { "no": 13, "slug": "2001-canton-la-chinoise", "year": 2001, "title": "Canton la Chinoise", "altTitles": { "en": "Canton, the Chinese City" }, "runtime": "52′", "kind": "Documentary", "chapter": "islands", "themes": [ "china", "video" ], "codirector": "Robert Cahen", "production": "CICV Pierre Schaeffer and others, with RTBF and ARTE", "countries": [ "France", "Belgium" ], "languages": "Cantonese, Mandarin, French", "logline": "Five people in Guangzhou watch their city disappear and rebuild itself, always through a pane of glass.", "synopsis": "Canton is said to be the most Chinese of cities: eight million people, a city running wild, where the past disappears under concrete and tarmac. Rob Rombout and the video artist Robert Cahen follow five people caught between two cultures, two systems, two ideas of art. A window, a photograph, a painting or a foreign language always stands between them and the city. The film asks what it means to be in China and, at the same time, not to be there.", "credits": [ [ "Direction", "Rob Rombout, Robert Cahen" ], [ "Editing", "Maureen Mazurek" ], [ "Sound", "Gilles Marchesi" ] ], "screenings": [ { "date": "2022-11-17", "event": "Focus Rob Rombout, Strasbourg, with both directors", "type": "Retrospective", "v": true }, { "v": true, "date": "2001", "event": "Festival international du cinéma francophone en Acadie, Moncton", "type": "Best documentary", "award": true, "src": "docfeed" } ], "places": [ { "name": "Guangzhou", "country": "China", "lat": 23.13, "lon": 113.26 } ], "availability": "On request", "status": "released", "packages": [ "east-west" ], "words": { "fr": "je préfère avoir une structure préalable", "en": "I prefer to have a structure beforehand", "nl": "ik heb liever vooraf een structuur", "pt": "prefiro ter uma estrutura prévia", "page": "144", "zh": "我更喜欢事先有一个结构" }, "video": { "vimeo": "698777779", "label": "Excerpt", "duration": "1′04″", "ar": "320/240", "thumb": "https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/1412917109-5232d9e3d237494e74f300e9a74d8933d01ef0fd6db0b00bb3a2923271ad52ea-d_295x166?region=us", "src": "Rob, Excerpts.docx, 17 Oct 2026" }, "press": [ { "quote": "La caméra n’est pas voyeuse (c’est toujours le risque), mais caressante, prudente, attentive.", "source": "Marc Mercier, Bref", "date": "2002", "lang": "fr", "tr": { "en": "The camera is not a voyeur (that is always the risk), but caressing, cautious, attentive.", "nl": "De camera is niet voyeuristisch (dat is altijd het risico), maar strelend, voorzichtig, aandachtig.", "pt": "A câmara não é voyeur (é sempre esse o risco), mas acariciadora, prudente, atenta.", "zh": "摄影机不是窥视者（这总是一种风险），而是轻抚的、谨慎的、专注的。" } }, { "quote": "异域者的目光/镜头所捕捉的就不仅仅是一座城市的外表，而是被这些高大建筑物笼罩着的躁动的灵魂。", "source": "Chen Tong, Xin Kuai Bao, Guangzhou", "date": "2001", "lang": "zh", "tr": { "en": "What the outsider’s gaze, the lens, captures is not only the surface of a city, but the restless soul enclosed by these tall buildings.", "fr": "Ce que saisit le regard, l’objectif de l’étranger, ce n’est pas seulement l’apparence d’une ville, mais l’âme fébrile enfermée par ces hauts immeubles.", "nl": "Wat de blik, de lens van de buitenstaander vastlegt, is niet alleen de buitenkant van een stad, maar de rusteloze ziel die door deze hoge gebouwen wordt omsloten.", "pt": "O que o olhar, a objetiva do estrangeiro capta não é apenas a aparência de uma cidade, mas a alma inquieta encerrada por estes altos edifícios.", "zh": "What the outsider’s gaze, the lens, captures is not only the surface of a city, but the restless soul enclosed by these tall buildings." } } ], "articles": [ { "date": "2001-04-28", "title": { "en": "带摄影机的人" }, "source": "Chen Tong, Xin Kuai Bao", "doc": "/docs/press/2001-04-28-xin-kuai-bao-canton-la-chinoise.pdf" }, { "date": "2001-09", "title": { "en": "Inspirante Canton" }, "source": "Sylvie Mousseau, L’Acadie Nouvelle", "doc": "/docs/press/2001-09-acadie-nouvelle-canton-la-chinoise.pdf" }, { "date": "2002", "title": { "en": "Les chemins de traverse" }, "source": "Marc Mercier, Bref no. 53, summer 2002", "doc": "/docs/press/2002-bref-canton-la-chinoise.pdf" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "Esthétique de la confusion" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, La mise en scène du réel, Yellow Now", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-2001-canton-la-chinoise.pdf", "lang": "fr" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "An aesthetic of confusion" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, The Mise en Scène of the Real, Yellow Now, provisional translation", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-2001-canton-la-chinoise-en.pdf", "lang": "en" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "An aesthetic of confusion" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, La mise en scène du réel, Yellow Now, voorlopige Engelse vertaling", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-2001-canton-la-chinoise-en.pdf", "lang": "nl" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "Estética da confusão" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, A mise en scène do real, Yellow Now, tradução provisória", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-2001-canton-la-chinoise-pt.pdf", "lang": "pt" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "混乱的美学" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon，《现实的场面调度》，Yellow Now，暂定译本", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-2001-canton-la-chinoise-zh.pdf", "lang": "zh" } ], "url": "https://www.robrombout.com/en/films/2001-canton-la-chinoise/" }, { "no": 14, "slug": "2002-les-passagers-de-lalsace", "year": 2002, "title": "Les Passagers de l'Alsace", "altTitles": { "en": "The Passengers of Alsace" }, "runtime": "53′", "kind": "Documentary", "chapter": "islands", "themes": [ "closed-worlds", "trains" ], "production": "Good & Bad News and Le Meilleur des Mondes, with CBA and RTBF, for France 3 Alsace", "countries": [ "France", "Belgium" ], "languages": "French", "logline": "Nine people in Alsace who have never met, filmed around three words: looking, listening, moving.", "synopsis": "Rob Rombout crosses Alsace by train, a stranger passing through, and talks with the people he meets, among them Sylvie Levy, Philippe Poirier, Ibtissam Mellouki and Daniel Ziegler, about things that seem to have nothing to do with regional identity. In a compartment nobody knows anyone; all they share is the same train at the same time. Listening, looking out of the window, moving on: from their stories the film draws a portrait of a region, shared for a moment with strangers.", "credits": [ [ "Direction", "Rob Rombout" ], [ "Image", "Samuel Dravet" ], [ "Editing", "Adriana Moreira de Oliveira" ], [ "Music", "Philippe Poirier" ] ], "with": [ "Christine Collin", "Henri Dreyfus", "Jean-Richard Freymann", "Aurore Humbert", "Sylvie Levy", "Ibtissam Mellouki", "André Ohrel", "André Osterdag", "Philippe Poirier", "Daniel Ziegler" ], "screenings": [ { "date": "2022-11-18", "event": "Focus Rob Rombout, Strasbourg", "type": "Retrospective", "v": true } ], "places": [ { "name": "Strasbourg and Alsace", "country": "France", "lat": 48.57, "lon": 7.75 } ], "video": { "vimeo": "528758056", "label": "Excerpt", "duration": "3′55″", "ar": "426/240", "thumb": "https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/1094347162-764cfd3b07a2b31dbc11a93a7b985d98f55b7cfc5ab794273592c22aba2c4c23-d_295x166?region=us", "src": "Rob, Excerpts.docx, 17 Oct 2026" }, "availability": "CBA, Brussels · Heure Exquise! (non-commercial)", "status": "released", "packages": [ "closed-worlds" ], "note": "53′ in the credits published in Mélon 2022. An Alsatian-language version exists (p. 158).", "structure": { "type": "lace", "src": "Mélon 2022, p. 28–29" }, "words": { "fr": "un intérieur dit quelque chose de son habitant", "en": "a room says something about the person who lives in it", "nl": "een interieur zegt iets over wie er woont", "pt": "um interior diz alguma coisa sobre quem lá vive", "page": "158", "zh": "一个房间会讲述住在里面的人的某些东西" }, "articles": [ { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "Un manifeste" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, La mise en scène du réel, Yellow Now", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-2002-les-passagers-de-lalsace.pdf", "lang": "fr" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "A manifesto" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, The Mise en Scène of the Real, Yellow Now, provisional translation", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-2002-les-passagers-de-lalsace-en.pdf", "lang": "en" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "A manifesto" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, La mise en scène du réel, Yellow Now, voorlopige Engelse vertaling", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-2002-les-passagers-de-lalsace-en.pdf", "lang": "nl" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "Um manifesto" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, A mise en scène do real, Yellow Now, tradução provisória", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-2002-les-passagers-de-lalsace-pt.pdf", "lang": "pt" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "一份宣言" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon，《现实的场面调度》，Yellow Now，暂定译本", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-2002-les-passagers-de-lalsace-zh.pdf", "lang": "zh" } ], "url": "https://www.robrombout.com/en/films/2002-les-passagers-de-lalsace/" }, { "no": 15, "slug": "2003-kaleidoscope-overloon", "year": 2003, "title": "Kaléidoscope: Overloon", "runtime": "26′", "kind": "Television series episode (ARTE)", "chapter": "islands", "themes": [ "closed-worlds" ], "production": "ARTE series Kaléidoscope", "countries": [ "France", "Belgium" ], "logline": "An episode of ARTE's Kaléidoscope series, set in the penitentiary centre of Overloon in the Netherlands.", "places": [ { "name": "Overloon", "country": "Netherlands", "lat": 51.57, "lon": 5.95 } ], "availability": "In Rob's archive; ask whether it can be shown", "status": "released", "video": { "label": "Excerpt", "duration": "3′16″", "ar": "702/376", "src": "Rob, 23 Oct 2026: for rights reasons an excerpt instead of the full film (fragment 10:28–13:44, cut on his computer from his Vimeo download, black bars removed); Vimeo set to embed only. Vimeo would not embed the excerpts (privacy), so they are files on the site itself (re-encoded on Rob's computer, about 0.9 Mbit/s).", "file": "/video/2003-kaleidoscope-overloon-excerpt.mp4" }, "synopsis": "Kaléidoscope, a series by Rogier van Eck and Marc-Henry Wajnberg for ARTE, looked at the places where people live and work, a district, a factory, a liner, a hospital, and at how each culture organises its own territory. For this episode Rob Rombout filmed the penitentiary centre of Overloon in the Netherlands: its director Jan van den Brand, the detainees, the women’s prison and the rooster farm in front of the walls.", "credits": [ [ "Direction and script", "Rob Rombout" ], [ "Image", "Louis-Philippe Capelle" ], [ "Sound", "Paul Heymans" ], [ "Editing", "Michèle Maquet" ], [ "Sound editing", "Paul Heymans" ], [ "Mix", "Damien Defays" ], [ "Music", "Hughes Maréchal" ], [ "Series", "Rogier van Eck, Marc-Henry Wajnberg" ], [ "Production", "ARTE France, Panic Productions, Wajnbrosse Productions (Marc-Henry Wajnberg)" ] ], "with": [ "Marc-Henry Wajnberg", "Jan van den Brand", "Henk Opdam", "Wim van Velzen", "Andy", "Mathieu", "Jos", "Boy", "Anke" ], "synopsisSrc": "Rob, 'summary & credits Kaleidoscope Overloon.doc' (22 Oct 2026): series text, credits and cast; places from his photo index. Rob, 22 Oct 2026: camera Louis-Philippe Capelle only. Rob, 23 Oct 2026: the name is spelt Capelle.", "url": "https://www.robrombout.com/en/films/2003-kaleidoscope-overloon/" }, { "no": 16, "slug": "2004-kaleidoscope-jagiellonian-university", "year": 2004, "title": "Kaléidoscope: The Jagiellonian University", "runtime": "26′", "kind": "Television series episode (ARTE)", "chapter": "islands", "themes": [], "production": "ARTE series Kaléidoscope", "countries": [ "France", "Belgium" ], "logline": "An episode of ARTE's Kaléidoscope series, set in the Jagiellonian University of Kraków.", "places": [ { "name": "Kraków", "country": "Poland", "lat": 50.06, "lon": 19.94 } ], "availability": "In Rob's archive; ask whether it can be shown", "status": "released", "video": { "label": "Excerpt", "duration": "1′34″", "ar": "702/376", "src": "Rob, 23 Oct 2026: for rights reasons an excerpt instead of the full film (fragment 16:34–18:08, cut on his computer from his Vimeo download, black bars removed); Vimeo set to embed only. Vimeo would not embed the excerpts (privacy), so they are files on the site itself (re-encoded on Rob's computer, about 0.9 Mbit/s).", "file": "/video/2004-kaleidoscope-jagiellonian-excerpt.mp4" }, "synopsis": "Kaléidoscope, a series by Rogier van Eck and Marc-Henry Wajnberg for ARTE, looked at the places where people live and work, a district, a factory, a liner, a hospital, and at how each culture organises its own territory. For this episode Rob Rombout filmed the Jagiellonian University in Kraków: professors and students, the Collegium Maius, the choir in the Collegium Juridicum and St Anne’s Church.", "credits": [ [ "Direction and script", "Rob Rombout" ], [ "Assistant", "Renata Krasnowska" ], [ "Image", "Pierre Gordover" ], [ "Sound", "Damien Defays" ], [ "Editing", "Michèle Maquet" ], [ "Sound editing and mix", "Damien Defays" ], [ "Music", "Hughes Maréchal" ], [ "Series", "Rogier van Eck, Marc-Henry Wajnberg" ], [ "Production", "ARTE France, Panic Productions, Wajnbrosse Productions (Marc-Henry Wajnberg)" ] ], "with": [ "Marc-Henry Wajnberg", "Pawel Wysoczanski", "Franciszek Ziejka", "Konrad Pollesch", "Adam Michalec", "Carmelo Molina", "Katrin Liebau", "Tomasz Gusza", "Anna Hryckiewicz", "Piotr Wojtaszek", "Maria Filipowska-Rudek", "Anna Głuszak", "Tomasz Głuszak", "Wiktoria Sawka", "Arkadiusz Siwczyk" ], "synopsisSrc": "Rob, 'summary & credits Kaleidoscope Cracovie.doc' (folder 2004_Cravovie_setphotos, 22 Oct 2026): series text by the producers, credits and cast; places from his photo index (index filming 02). Names as written in his document.", "url": "https://www.robrombout.com/en/films/2004-kaleidoscope-jagiellonian-university/" }, { "no": 17, "slug": "2004-queen-mary-2", "year": 2004, "title": "Queen Mary 2, la reine des mers", "altTitles": { "fr": "Queen Mary 2, la naissance d'une légende" }, "runtime": "70′", "kind": "Documentary", "chapter": "islands", "themes": [ "ships" ], "format": "Digital Betacam, 16:9", "production": "ARTE Thema commission, with RTBF; Flemish co-production Sophimages", "countries": [ "France", "Belgium" ], "languages": "English, French, Dutch", "logline": "How the largest ocean liner built until then went from a shipowner's bet to a ship at sea.", "synopsis": "In 1998 Carnival, the largest cruise company in the world, bought the Cunard Line. A few people inside it dared to propose a new liner in the Cunard tradition, for an American market always looking for something new: the longest, largest and most expensive ship ever built. Micky Arison, the architect Stephen Payne, the interior designer Andrew Collier and Commodore Ronald W. Warwick take up the challenge, and at Saint-Nazaire the Queen Mary 2 takes shape.", "credits": [ [ "Direction", "Rob Rombout" ], [ "Script", "Rob Rombout, Louis-Philippe Capelle" ], [ "Image", "Louis-Philippe Capelle" ], [ "Sound", "Griet van Reeth" ], [ "Editing", "Adriana Moreira de Oliveira" ], [ "Music", "Hughes Maréchal" ] ], "places": [ { "name": "Saint-Nazaire", "country": "France", "lat": 47.27, "lon": -2.21 }, { "name": "North Atlantic", "country": "", "lat": 45, "lon": -40 } ], "availability": "On request", "status": "released", "note": "Title as in Mélon 2022 (pp. 44, 50), which describes the film as a commission for ARTE Thema; the BnF also records the title Queen Mary 2, la naissance d'une légende. 70′ in Rob Rombout's catalogue (Guimarães 2016) and CV; a 24′ television version is also listed. The lead producer is still to be confirmed.", "video": { "vimeo": "528767217", "label": "Excerpt", "duration": "1′30″", "ar": "426/240", "thumb": "https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/1094363540-205fb990048e816c448513ae2824972ff3c2b63d6f12db547198888cc63bc209-d_295x166?region=us", "src": "Rob, Excerpts.docx, 17 Oct 2026" }, "url": "https://www.robrombout.com/en/films/2004-queen-mary-2/" }, { "no": 19, "slug": "2012-amsterdam-stories-usa", "year": 2012, "title": "Amsterdam Stories USA", "runtime": "4 × 90′", "kind": "Documentary in four parts", "chapter": "amsterdam", "themes": [ "amsterdam", "road" ], "codirector": "Rogier van Eck", "format": "HD, 16:9", "production": "Saga Film, with Wallonie Image Production and RTBF; co-production Pieter van Huystee Film", "countries": [ "Belgium", "Netherlands" ], "languages": "English, Dutch", "parts": [ "East", "South", "Midwest", "West" ], "logline": "Two Dutch filmmakers cross the United States through fifteen towns called Amsterdam, collecting the America that lives between the coasts.", "synopsis": "Rob Rombout and Rogier van Eck, two filmmakers of Dutch descent, drive from New York, once Nieuw Amsterdam, to California, through fifteen small American places that all bear the name Amsterdam. Sheriffs, poets, cowboys, a Vietnam DJ and a civil-rights veteran tell their own stories, in their own time. Over four chapters, East, South, Midwest and West, filmed on four journeys between 2010 and 2011, a borrowed name becomes a way into small-town America.", "credits": [ [ "Direction", "Rob Rombout, Rogier van Eck" ], [ "Image", "Ben Wolf" ], [ "Sound", "Colin Bannon, Matthew J. Menter, Trevor Cohen" ], [ "Editing", "Fanny Roussel, Alice de Matha, Frédéric Dupont" ], [ "Music", "Hughes Maréchal" ], [ "Production", "Saga Film, Wallonie Image Production, RTBF, Pieter van Huystee Film" ] ], "with": [ "Russell Banks", "Adrian Cronauer", "Charles Evers", "Elinor Tatum", "Edgar Oliver", "Michael Botwinick", "Myron Mixon", "Robert Amsterdam" ], "withMore": true, "screenings": [ { "date": "2012-11", "event": "IDFA, Amsterdam", "type": "World premiere", "v": true, "src": "idfa" }, { "date": "2013-01", "event": "Bozar, Brussels", "type": "Complete screening", "v": false }, { "date": "2013-04", "event": "IndieLisboa, Lisbon", "type": "Audience Award, feature film (World Pulse)", "v": true, "award": true, "src": "indielisboa" }, { "date": "2013", "event": "22nd International Festival of Ethnological Film, Belgrade", "type": "Grand prize", "v": true, "award": true, "src": "docfeed" }, { "date": "2014", "event": "Magritte awards, Brussels", "type": "Nomination, best documentary", "v": true, "src": "cineuropa" }, { "date": "2017", "event": "John Adams Institute, Amsterdam", "type": "Evening with the directors", "v": true }, { "date": "2022-11-19", "event": "Focus Rob Rombout, Strasbourg, part 4 (West)", "type": "Retrospective", "v": true }, { "date": "2024-11-27", "event": "Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles, Paris", "type": "Focus, Mois du doc", "v": true }, { "date": "2025-09-20", "event": "Cinemateca Portuguesa, Lisbon", "type": "Complete, in two sessions", "v": true } ], "places": [ { "name": "New York", "country": "United States", "lat": 40.71, "lon": -74.01 }, { "name": "Amsterdam, New York", "country": "United States", "lat": 42.94, "lon": -74.19 }, { "name": "Amsterdam, Ohio", "country": "United States", "lat": 40.47, "lon": -80.92 }, { "name": "Amsterdam, Georgia", "country": "United States", "lat": 30.83, "lon": -84.66 }, { "name": "Amsterdam, Texas", "country": "United States", "lat": 29.13, "lon": -95.97 }, { "name": "Amsterdam, Montana", "country": "United States", "lat": 45.75, "lon": -111.31 }, { "name": "Amsterdam, Idaho", "country": "United States", "lat": 42.73, "lon": -116.2 }, { "name": "Amsterdam, California", "country": "United States", "lat": 37.33, "lon": -120.5 } ], "video": { "youtube": "_YDErQ5VIaQ", "label": "Trailer", "ar": "16/9", "more": [ { "vimeo": "528772793", "label": { "en": "East", "fr": "Est", "nl": "Oost", "pt": "Leste", "zh": "东部" }, "duration": "6′32″", "ar": "426/240", "thumb": "https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/1094374537-54052ba9ed5f21ceaaf63f6cf648650694c458cc91f8c4af159b5e6cc62972b3-d_295x166?region=us", "img": "asusa-ex-east" }, { "vimeo": "532315733", "label": { "en": "South", "fr": "Sud", "nl": "Zuid", "pt": "Sul", "zh": "南部" }, "duration": "6′17″", "ar": "426/240", "thumb": "https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/1101600626-554a6ce9ed8f09a76d5555740dc0c9d614dea54f0a5801f7d2ea7abf710599d1-d_295x166?region=us", "img": "asusa-ex-south" }, { "vimeo": "532326793", "label": { "en": "Midwest", "fr": "Midwest", "nl": "Midwest", "pt": "Midwest", "zh": "中西部" }, "duration": "3′49″", "ar": "426/240", "thumb": "https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/1101613646-60813d15cdbe93bda829c2a0988e4d6ff8899393cce033012c7910b39a328a5f-d_295x166?region=us", "img": "asusa-ex-midwest" }, { "vimeo": "534785353", "label": { "en": "West", "fr": "Ouest", "nl": "West", "pt": "Oeste", "zh": "西部" }, "duration": "9′33″", "ar": "426/240", "thumb": "https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/1106997966-7571b2afa2dbd5099f86b9fd9d7cf8cbe2fdc49e0296f852dd9fd2ea0175951c-d_295x166?region=us", "img": "asusa-ex-west" } ], "src": "Rob, Excerpts.docx, 17 Oct 2026" }, "availability": "On request", "status": "released", "packages": [ "amsterdam" ], "structure": { "type": "constellation", "src": "Mélon 2022, p. 29–30" }, "press": [ { "quote": "Nous pénétrons, avec ce patient road-movie, dans un continent encore inconnu. Familier cependant.", "source": "Caroline Lamarche, Usage du Nouveau Monde", "date": "2013", "lang": "fr", "tr": { "en": "With this patient road movie we enter a continent still unknown. Familiar, though.", "nl": "Met deze geduldige roadmovie betreden we een nog onbekend continent. Toch vertrouwd.", "pt": "Com este paciente road movie, entramos num continente ainda desconhecido. Familiar, no entanto.", "zh": "随着这部耐心的公路电影，我们进入一片仍然陌生的大陆。却又似曾相识。" } }, { "quote": "uma radiografia detalhada daquele que é, porventura, um dos mais poliédricos países do mundo", "source": "Ricardo Vieira Lisboa, Cinemateca Portuguesa", "date": "2025", "lang": "pt", "tr": { "en": "a detailed X-ray of what is perhaps one of the most many-sided countries in the world", "fr": "une radiographie détaillée de ce qui est peut-être l’un des pays les plus polyédriques du monde", "nl": "een gedetailleerde doorlichting van wat misschien een van de veelzijdigste landen ter wereld is" } } ], "articles": [ { "date": "2013-01-18", "title": { "en": "Portrait d’une Amérique perdue" }, "source": "Philippe Manche, Le Soir", "doc": "/docs/press/2013-01-18-le-soir-amsterdam-stories-usa.pdf" }, { "date": "2013-10-14", "title": { "en": "Usage du Nouveau Monde" }, "source": "Caroline Lamarche", "doc": "/docs/press/2013-10-14-caroline-lamarche-amsterdam-stories-usa.pdf" }, { "date": "2014-08-13", "title": { "en": "L’espace américain" }, "source": "Cinergie, La Libre Belgique", "doc": "/docs/press/2014-08-13-la-libre-belgique-amsterdam-stories-usa.pdf" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "Un portrait de l’Amérique ordinaire" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, La mise en scène du réel, Yellow Now", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-2012-amsterdam-stories-usa.pdf", "lang": "fr" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "A portrait of ordinary America" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, The Mise en Scène of the Real, Yellow Now, provisional translation", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-2012-amsterdam-stories-usa-en.pdf", "lang": "en" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "A portrait of ordinary America" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, La mise en scène du réel, Yellow Now, voorlopige Engelse vertaling", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-2012-amsterdam-stories-usa-en.pdf", "lang": "nl" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "Um retrato da América comum" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, A mise en scène do real, Yellow Now, tradução provisória", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-2012-amsterdam-stories-usa-pt.pdf", "lang": "pt" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "一幅普通美国的肖像" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon，《现实的场面调度》，Yellow Now，暂定译本", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-2012-amsterdam-stories-usa-zh.pdf", "lang": "zh" } ], "url": "https://www.robrombout.com/en/films/2012-amsterdam-stories-usa/" }, { "no": 20, "slug": "2016-on-the-track-of-robert-van-gulik", "year": 2016, "title": "On the Track of Robert van Gulik", "altTitles": { "fr": "Sur les traces de Robert van Gulik", "nl": "In het spoor van Robert van Gulik", "zh": "追寻高罗佩的足迹" }, "runtime": "87′", "kind": "Documentary", "chapter": "china", "themes": [ "china" ], "production": "Off World, co-produced with Zeppers Film & TV", "countries": [ "Belgium", "Netherlands" ], "languages": "English, Dutch, French, Chinese, Japanese", "logline": "A filmmaker follows a Dutch diplomat-sinologist across three continents and finds that the detective he invented has outlived the man.", "synopsis": "Robert van Gulik (1910–1967) served as a diplomat, collected Chinese lutes and invented Judge Dee, yet his own country barely remembers him. Rob Rombout travels from the Netherlands to Indonesia, Japan, the United States and China, through diaries, archives and the people van Gulik still haunts. Somewhere between biography and detective story, the man and his hero merge.", "credits": [ [ "Direction and script", "Rob Rombout" ], [ "Image", "Stef Tijdink, Benjamin Wolf, Stefano Bertacchini, Tareck Raffoul" ], [ "Editing", "Adriana Moreira de Oliveira, Miguel Cipriano dos Reis" ], [ "Sound design", "Rainier Buidin, Guillaume Berg" ], [ "Production", "Off World; co-producer Zeppers Film & TV (Frank van den Engel)" ] ], "with": [ "Marie-Anne Souloumiac-van Gulik", "Arthur Japin", "Wilt Idema", "Frédéric Lenormand", "Henry Wessells", "John Thompson" ], "screenings": [ { "date": "2016-09-25", "event": "Netherlands Film Festival, Utrecht", "type": "Premiere", "v": true }, { "date": "2017-09", "event": "Leiden University", "type": "Screening and talk", "v": true }, { "date": "2018", "event": "SOAS, London", "type": "Screening", "v": true }, { "date": "2019", "event": "Mois du doc, Heure Exquise!", "type": "Coup de cœur", "v": true }, { "date": "2021-04", "event": "KVVAK, Amsterdam", "type": "Screening and Q&A", "v": true }, { "date": "2023-01-31", "event": "Institut français, Beirut", "type": "Screening", "v": true }, { "date": "2023-02-08", "event": "Beit Al Fann, El Mina", "type": "Screening", "v": true }, { "date": "2024-11-27", "event": "Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles, Paris", "type": "Focus, Mois du doc", "v": true }, { "date": "2026-03-13", "event": "Lieu d'Europe, Strasbourg", "type": "Screening and talk", "v": true } ], "press": [ { "quote": "Far from a biopic, more a free-ranging fantasy", "source": "Stephen Jones", "date": "2018", "lang": "en", "tr": { "fr": "Loin d’un biopic, plutôt une fantaisie en liberté", "nl": "Verre van een biopic, eerder een vrij zwervende fantasie", "pt": "Longe de uma biografia, antes uma fantasia em liberdade", "zh": "远非一部传记，更像一场自由的幻想" } }, { "quote": "reality smoothly passes into fiction", "source": "Netherlands Film Festival", "date": "2016", "lang": "en", "tr": { "fr": "la réalité glisse en douceur vers la fiction", "nl": "de werkelijkheid gaat soepel over in fictie", "pt": "a realidade passa suavemente para a ficção", "zh": "现实轻轻滑入虚构" } } ], "places": [ { "name": "Leiden", "country": "Netherlands", "lat": 52.16, "lon": 4.49 }, { "name": "Jakarta", "country": "Indonesia", "lat": -6.21, "lon": 106.85 }, { "name": "Tokyo", "country": "Japan", "lat": 35.68, "lon": 139.69 }, { "name": "New York", "country": "United States", "lat": 40.71, "lon": -74.01 }, { "name": "Guangzhou", "country": "China", "lat": 23.13, "lon": 113.26 }, { "name": "Taiyuan", "country": "China", "lat": 37.87, "lon": 112.55 } ], "availability": "Library and non-commercial screening licence available", "status": "released", "packages": [ "east-west" ], "note": "87′ in the credits published in Mélon 2022. Some programmes list 2015 (completion) or 88′. A Dutch version exists (Mélon 2022, p. 239).", "structure": { "type": "star", "src": "Mélon 2022, p. 29" }, "words": { "fr": "quand tu es totalement libre, ton film devient aussi un portrait de toi", "en": "when you are completely free, your film also becomes a portrait of you", "nl": "als je helemaal vrij bent, wordt je film ook een portret van jezelf", "pt": "quando és totalmente livre, o teu filme torna-se também um retrato de ti", "page": "244", "zh": "当你完全自由时，你的影片也会成为你自己的肖像" }, "video": { "vimeo": "163665145", "label": "Trailer", "duration": "1′40″", "ar": "640/360", "thumb": "https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/567136700-eb71c967018a02bcc85254756d8cfc9ccb0ba5c865ff0054984cdcc8cd3e536b-d_640?region=us", "more": [ { "vimeo": "534818916", "label": { "en": "1942–2016" }, "duration": "4′38″", "ar": "426/240", "thumb": "https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/1107067563-182f267cf1d3e33652484a60bdc70183877145471e237e442830ff68fbb265b0-d_295x166?region=us", "img": "vangulik-ex-1942-2016" }, { "vimeo": "534819401", "label": { "en": "Frédéric Lenormand" }, "duration": "7′08″", "ar": "426/240", "thumb": "https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/1107069018-730dd48de6aa6ef43eb64f73b4b2b27b6ef2c872606537b339535dc50a5b196f-d_295x166?region=us", "img": "vangulik-ex-lenormand-2" }, { "vimeo": "534820206", "label": { "en": "Odawara, Japan", "fr": "Odawara, Japon", "nl": "Odawara, Japan", "pt": "Odawara, Japão", "zh": "日本小田原" }, "duration": "2′42″", "ar": "426/240", "thumb": "https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/1107069812-328400399f4822e5aeab62ffdb9fd2175ba85c2ff0913ccb45f7d8c663ab3fc7-d_295x166?region=us", "img": "vangulik-ex-odawara" }, { "vimeo": "534822961", "label": { "en": "Boston, New York", "fr": "Boston, New York", "nl": "Boston, New York", "pt": "Boston, Nova Iorque", "zh": "波士顿、纽约" }, "duration": "4′52″", "ar": "426/240", "thumb": "https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/1107076109-fdbe8b8dbd2ee25c946d05e8eac37e0a4306417765ad88b1b28a673bb7b998e0-d_295x166?region=us", "img": "vangulik-ex-boston-new-york-3" } ], "src": "Rob, Excerpts.docx, 17 Oct 2026" }, "articles": [ { "date": "2022-10-03", "title": { "en": "On the Track of Robert van Gulik" }, "source": "Manuel João Montenegro, Cinemateca Portuguesa", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-10-03-cinemateca-on-the-track-of-robert-van-gulik.pdf" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "Un portrait composite" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, La mise en scène du réel, Yellow Now", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-2016-on-the-track-of-robert-van-gulik.pdf", "lang": "fr" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "A composite portrait" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, The Mise en Scène of the Real, Yellow Now, provisional translation", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-2016-on-the-track-of-robert-van-gulik-en.pdf", "lang": "en" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "A composite portrait" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, La mise en scène du réel, Yellow Now, voorlopige Engelse vertaling", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-2016-on-the-track-of-robert-van-gulik-en.pdf", "lang": "nl" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "Um retrato compósito" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, A mise en scène do real, Yellow Now, tradução provisória", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-2016-on-the-track-of-robert-van-gulik-pt.pdf", "lang": "pt" }, { "date": "2022", "title": { "en": "一幅复合肖像" }, "source": "Marc-Emmanuel Mélon，《现实的场面调度》，Yellow Now，暂定译本", "doc": "/docs/press/2022-melon-2016-on-the-track-of-robert-van-gulik-zh.pdf", "lang": "zh" } ], "url": "https://www.robrombout.com/en/films/2016-on-the-track-of-robert-van-gulik/" }, { "no": 21, "slug": "2016-joost-de-vries", "year": 2016, "title": "Joost de Vries", "runtime": "15′", "kind": "Portrait, episode of a series", "chapter": "now", "themes": [ "portrait" ], "countries": [ "Netherlands" ], "logline": "A portrait of the Dutch writer Joost de Vries.", "places": [], "availability": "In Rob's archive; ask whether it can be shown", "status": "released", "video": { "vimeo": "540682881", "label": "Full film", "duration": "15′57″", "ar": "426/240", "thumb": "https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/1119194354-4186748825b24e50e72c3bc68c5a9fdd33ff319f610d243187b82484d4f9f552-d_295x166?region=us", "src": "Rob, Excerpts.docx, 17 Oct 2026" }, "synopsis": "The portrait of Joost de Vries looks into his world of thought, his fascinations and his urge to know everything about a subject, against the relativism and cynicism of the writers before him. An interview films him, literally, from every side; his words follow the images of a train journey, and sometimes run against them. Writer and filmmaker meet in an anonymous, timeless carriage, while landscapes, chance stopovers, un-Dutch architecture and passers-by glide past.", "synopsisSrc": "Rob, 20 Oct 2026: his Dutch text, shortened with his permission; English, French, Portuguese and Chinese translated from it.", "credits": [ [ "Script and direction", "Rob Rombout" ], [ "Editing", "Nina Haditalab" ], [ "Image", "Emmanuel Agyapong" ], [ "Sound", "Samuel (Sambo) Chan" ], [ "Colour grading", "Nick Fortemps" ], [ "Sound editing and mix", "Raf Ferlin" ], [ "Music", "Ame Roma; Artūrs, Raisa & Rino Kopiļenko" ] ], "creditsSrc": "Rob, 20 Oct 2026: end credits of the film (screenshot).", "url": "https://www.robrombout.com/en/films/2016-joost-de-vries/" }, { "no": 23, "slug": "video-veterans", "year": 2026, "title": "VideoVeterans", "runtime": "30′", "kind": "Documentary", "chapter": "now", "themes": [ "video" ], "logline": "Four pioneers of video art, filmed by a fellow traveller who knew them when the medium was young.", "synopsis": "In the 1980s, at the World Wide Video Festival in The Hague, Rob Rombout got to know four video artists: Péter Forgács, Robert Cahen, Terry Flaxton and Walter Verdin. In 1988 he won the grand prize at Montbéliard himself, with Entre deux tours, and that was just when he took leave of video art. He wanted to make auteur films, with his own signature, but no longer alone: with a crew, with funding, for television and festivals rather than museums. The four stayed true to their solitary art, and he admires that persistence. More than thirty years on he invited them to a small studio, with a film crew (a small one, admittedly). The shoot, two days in Brussels in 2024, was meant as a pilot, but no producer could or would make such a long film. So this rough, unpolished sketch has become the end point of the project.", "credits": [ [ "Direction", "Rob Rombout" ], [ "Script", "Rob Rombout, Marlene Dirven" ], [ "Music", "Marlene Dirven" ] ], "screenings": [ { "date": "2026-01-18", "event": "Koppelkerk, Bredevoort", "type": "Work-in-progress preview", "v": true } ], "places": [ { "name": "Brussels", "country": "Belgium", "lat": 50.85, "lon": 4.35 }, { "name": "Bredevoort", "country": "Netherlands", "lat": 51.94, "lon": 6.62 } ], "availability": "On request", "status": "released", "synopsisSrc": "Rob, 22 Oct 2026 (dictated): met the four at the World Wide Video Festival 1989; won a grand prize at a video art festival soon after; two shooting days in Brussels; the pilot is the film, no producer found. Runtime 30′ (Rob, Oct 2026). Light irony, not plaintive, at his request. Rob, 22 Oct 2026: the prize is the grand prize of the Montbéliard festival (1988, Entre deux tours, see that film's screenings). Rob, 22 Oct 2026: he sees it as a rough, unpolished sketch for a film, and as the end point of the project. Shortened at Rob's request, 22 Oct 2026. Rob, 22 Oct 2026: he met the four in the 1980s; the Montbéliard prize is 1988 (confirmed); the prize did not start a path in video art; documentary, television and festivals rather than museums. Rewritten 22 Oct 2026 at Rob's request: name the four as video artists, why he left (museum circuit, wanting team work, television and festivals), a little irony.", "video": { "vimeo": "1117015246", "label": "Full film", "duration": "30′40″", "ar": "426/240", "thumb": "https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/2056826067-6309204587ba14d321b754dd6a1dab3f0cb30ec8a963be09554c5c84f5fe7252-d_295x166?region=us", "src": "Rob, Excerpts.docx, 17 Oct 2026; Rob, 22 Oct 2026: the film can go online with the new text, as a rough, unpolished sketch. Vimeo title hidden in the player (title=0)." }, "url": "https://www.robrombout.com/en/films/video-veterans/" } ] }