The sea seen through a round porthole in a dark cabin — ▶ Excerpt · 2′29″

199258 minDocumentary

Transatlantique, Queen Elizabeth 2

Name: Transatlantique, Queen Elizabeth 2
Genre: Documentary
Released: 1992
Duration: 58 min

Transatlantic: Queen Elizabeth 2

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.

Press

“a visual logbook with carefully composed frames, in search of individual stories”

« un journal de bord visuel aux cadrages léchés, à la rencontre d’histoires individuelles »

Béatrice Bocard, Libération, 1993 · Our translation.

“Rob Rombout’s film sketches, in the salt air of the open sea, a fine gallery of portraits”

« le film de Rob Rombout croque au sel du large une jolie galerie de portraits »

Dominique Legrand, Le Soir, 1995 · Our translation.

1992God save the QueenJan Hertogs, Humo · PDF ↗
1993Huis-clos transatlantiqueBéatrice Bocard, Libération · PDF ↗
1995Les mythes sur écran ont la vie dureDominique Legrand, Le Soir · PDF ↗
2022A floating cityMarc-Emmanuel Mélon, The Mise en Scène of the Real, Yellow Now, provisional translation · PDF ↗

Photographs

Four men in a ship’s salon, one of them an officer in a white uniform jacket and bow tie — 1992Queen Elizabeth 2, scouting, Louis-Philippe Capelle, Jean-Philippe Laroche, Captain R.A. Woodall and Rob Rombout

A bearded officer in a white shirt with epaulettes on the telephone, lit by a desk lamp — 1992On board the Queen Elizabeth 2, Captain Warwick

A group of ten people in formal clothes standing in a row, an officer in white uniform among them — 1992Southampton to New York, Louis-Philippe Capelle, Marc Ridley and Zoë Salmon

The long pale bow of the liner seen from above, dark sea and clouds ahead — 1992Southampton to New York

A wet wooden deck with blue deck chairs, the red and black funnel of the Queen Elizabeth 2 behind — 1992Southampton to New York

The bow of the liner at its berth, the Manhattan skyline beyond the quay — 1992New York, scouting

A man with a camera round his neck and a woman in a red down jacket on deck, the funnel behind them — 1992Southampton to New York, Jean-Philippe Laroche and Zoë Salmon

A cameraman at a film camera by the rail, the crew around him and the sea behind — 1992Southampton to New York, Louis-Philippe Capelle

Two men in green jackets by a film camera at the rail, the grey ocean behind — 1992Southampton to New York, Marc Ridley and Louis-Philippe Capelle

Technical sheet

Title: Transatlantique, Queen Elizabeth 2
Year: 1992
Runtime: 58 min
Countries: Belgium
Languages: English, French
Production: Nota Bene, with RTBF, BRTN and Wallonie Image Production
Availability: On request
Versions: 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′.

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