Henri Plaat Mini-Day

‘To register, I want to register places and things before it gets destroyed by modernity and progression. Before it is lost forever.’ — Henri Plaat

‘The versatile Dutch artist, photographer and film maker Henri Plaat traveled a lot. He visited Greece, the Middle-East, India and Latin America, where remains of ‘places of history’, fascinated him. He filmed such locations and like in his drawings and paintings fantasy and reality supplemented each other in 8mm and 16mm footage. Plaat made some forty different films full of fragments of reality, sometimes absurd, surreal or melancholic.’ — Re:Voir

‘Filmmaker and artist Henri Plaat (Amsterdam 1936) made about forty short films. Plaat’s films could be described as a series of ‘travel documentaries without a narrative line’ that he made alongside surrealistically tinted films. In these travelogues, the boundaries between film and visual art have disappeared. In his films, Plaat emphasises the autonomy of the visual material in a poetic way. This can be seen in Spurs of Tango for which Plaat was given a Golden Calf in 1981, Moroccan Light (1995), and Luz Y Sombra (1989). The mood in Plaat’s oeuvre, which he describes as ‘the beauty of decay’ is shaped in the travelogues by the often fixed camera standpoint, as a result of which landscapes, people, animals or objects pass the eye in a stream of sometimes hallucinogenic images. Thus, the sequence of images, the precision of the framing and the frequent and subtle use of music play a major role.’ — Brooklyn Film Festival

‘Henri Platt is a visual artist who has been working with film since 1968, while continuing to paint, draw and make collages. In his films, Plaat combines a mild absurdum with documentary images he records on his travels through Europe, Asia, America and North Africa. These two styles are connected in his works through association. Fragments of reality – apparently unimportant villages on far mountain slopes, a turning fan in beautiful black and white, a man with an enormous lollypop… all the images are equally curious. The mystery of beauty is celebrated with exquisite compositions in the beautiful colours of the kodachrome 16mm reversal film.’ — Past Incubate

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Film stills

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A little further

Henri Plaat Website
Henri Plaat @ IMDb
DVD: ‘Seven Films by Henri Plaat’
‘Roger Katwijk; Henri Plaat – Mede te nemen bij brand!’
Henri Plaat @ mubi

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Portrait: Henri Platt
‘A pinhole movie presented by Jérôme Schlomoff. This film proposes a cinematographic portrait of the Dutch artist Henri Plaat, by filming the processing of the silver print letting appear its photographic portrait. At the same time as the image is created in the darkroom, the hands of Henri Plaat tear a board of paperboard. It creates in its turn, randomly of this uncontrolled “work of destruction” the ghostly images with the torn pieces. Characters, animals, landscapes, architectures, boats, as many images belonging to the artistic Universe of Henri Plaat, who practices painting, cutting paper & cinema.’ — JS

Watch the film here.

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Kettel meets Henri Plaat
‘Electronic music producer KETTEL creates a score for Henri Plaat’s films.’ — Cinesonic

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Collages

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4 of Henri Platt’s 35 films

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Other Thoughts 4 (2008)
‘‘Other Thoughts 4 is a series of portraits with images that are silenced as a binding element. A surrealistic world that is not strange, but rather consists of fragments of dreams and sometimes of worry. The assembly is determined by image and atmosphere. A melancholic film composed of material that Plaat collected in the course of his various travels.‘ — iffr.com

the entire film

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2nd War Hats (1986-87)
‘2nd War Hats shows a series of heads with absurd sumptuous covering peeping out of manhole covers. A number of questions emerge: prairie dogs sniffing, deciding whether or nor to come out of their burrows? Men dressed up as women? Unsafe to come out from the man-hole?’ — Senses of Cinema

Excerpt

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Fragments of Decay (1983)
‘Architectural shots of abandoned buildings, walls, the kind that appear in the nether landscapes of Cocteau’s Orpheus (1949), but emptied, worn, eroded, silent, pensive and wise.’ — Cine Sonic

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I am an old smoking, moving Indian Movie Star (1968)
‘A veiled Indian lady talks to the camera (silent). Her story is told in images.’ — re-voir.com

the entire film

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p.s. Hey. ** Jamie, Hey, bud. Me too. Charmed. Well, duh. I love mini-golf courses as destinations and obstacle courses. Hitting the ball is okay too. What an odd course: that one in your picture. All that open space. That long bridge hole is very cool. Oh, seeing my old friend was super nice, like reengaging immediately without a blip, just in older looking bodies and with an unusual ton to catch up on. No, no idea on when we’ll film the new film. First we need to totally finish the script, then get it translated into French, then finesse the translation, then give it to our producer who will determine the budget we’ll need to film it, and then we have to apply for government grants and hope that we get some, plus Zac and I are going to see if we can attain some funding from the US and from generous individuals. The time all of that will take is unknown. We’re hoping we can shoot it next year sometime. We’re to try everything we can to do that. I don’t have the Sam Riviere book yet, but I’m on the chase. I’ll let you know. Yay about the Paris trip being a done deal! What are your dates here? And I look forward to meeting Kate. Yippee! My Thursday was trying to survive the almost unbearable heat, a big phone meeting with Zac and Gisele about the TV script. (We’ll start drafting up a revised proposal for ARTE today). And … did I mention the heat? It made everything else seem too daunting to do. Wow, it’s Friday, and it’s Zac’s birthday, and how did you spend this magical day? May it have spontaneously produced beautiful nearby rivers where there were none. Typing with one finger love, Dennis. ** Steve Erickson, Sounds like a great interview/conversation. I look forward to being one of its looks-loos. I get the feeling that earning whatever money one earns from DVD and VOD sales is pretty standard, based on my experiences with producers and distributors. I’m not on Spotify. I resist it. I haven’t heard that Fauxe album, but will. Yeah, at the time of his ‘comeback’, I was hitting lots of Captain Beefheart shows, and his record company’s having forced him to clean up ‘Bat Chain Puller’ into ‘Shiny Beast’ for them was something he talked about incessantly on stage. And about how they finally ‘relented’ and let him put out ‘Doc at the Radar Station’, my fave of late period Beefheart, in the form he wanted. The ‘Bat Chain Puller’ (re)issue — it was heavily bootlegged back then — is a boon. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi. Yes, I got the guest post! It’s wonderful, thank you! I’ll launch it here next Thursday. Super great of you to do that, Ben. ** Sypha, Hey. Thanks for alerting me to it. Yeah, for me the best mini-golf courses are extremely frustrating, but then actually playing them is secondary to me to walking around in them admiringly. I really only used that gif of Bieber because he was wearing a Slayer t-shirt in it, which seemed, well, curious. I did somehow miss the release of the new Sypha Nadon album! I’ll get it. Everyone, Sypha makes music under the name Sypha Nadon, and it’s excellent stuff, and Nadon has a new album out! And many of the songs sort of have vocals! And you can download it here for absolutely free, meaning this is your very lucky day! ** Corey Heiferman, Hi. You think? I guess mini-courses have a kind of heaviness about them. There actually are mini-golf courses in South Korea. And least a handful. I was looking at them when I made the post, but none of them looked all that amazing. They need more kitsch, less golfing practicality. Claw game post … no, I haven’t. But, yes, I will now find out if there’s enough good stuff to fill up a relayed post. Good idea. Thank you. ** Bernard, You do? Did I know that? We’ll have even so much more to talk about when I see you next. Maybe I did know that falling off = weirdly smooth cheek story, though. I think I remember you telling me that and my eyes making a beeline to your cheek to check for strangeness, which I don’t recall finding. But I think you were more than 24 when I met you. Not a lot more, but … ** Damien Ark, Thanks, Mr. Ark. I think the funeral home one is gently intended black humor? It is odd. Nine months! Yikes. Okay. Uh, I’ll think about other publisher ideas. It’s like a zillion degrees here, and my brain is a saggy, uncomplicated mess at the moment. Jon Hassell … mm, I admire what he does. Honestly, my attention span tends to veer elsewhere rather quickly once I start listening to him, so I don’t do that much. But it’s admirable stuff. You like his thing? ** Ferdinand, Well, hi there! Obviously very good to see you! What?! Why is that visa so difficult? How strange and obnoxious. I’m surprised. I look forward to read your new piece as soon as the heatwave stops murdering my brain, which is supposed to happen tomorrow. Everyone, Fine writer, d.l., and other things Ferdinand … and here I begin to quote him … ‘made this 500 word retelling of Cather in the Rye and would love to share it here with your blog. It’s called The catch and here it goes.’ Hit it, folks! ** Misanthrope, G. Thank you. I don’t know squat about what Jesus wants. He probably thinks anything that happens is intriguing and cool? Hm, well, big up about the mysteriously self-correcting feet thing. I knew a Dennis Dennison back in my high school days. He was really into math. He’s the only double double guy that springs to mind. ** Schlix, Hi! Yeah, Tripsdrill looks sweet. And there’s this weird looking, fake fairytale cabin-in-the-woods type theme ‘hotel’ there where I’m hoping we can stay. I think we’ll drive, yeah. Wow, then, if you’ll be around, we should meet for a coffee or meal when we’re going through your area! I don’t when we’ll be going yet and probably won’t know for another week or so. Maybe we should exchange ph#s so we can keep in touch. It would be cool to see you. ** Right. I’m calling this day a Mini-Day because there’s every little online about Henri Platt. I gathered what I could, and I suggest you see what he’s about. Thank you. see you tomorrow.