Gilles Willems
Biographic Data
| ID | 1110367 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Gilles Willems |
| GIVEN NAMES | Gilles |
| FAMILY NAME | Willems |
| SIGNATURE | WILLEMS G |
| AFFILIATIONS | Ghent University Hospital |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7125-4161 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 13 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 18 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1995 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
A Gathering Place for Outlaws
This article examines the distribution activities of Fugitive Cinema, a Belgian film collective established in 1966. It argues that Fugitive Cinema, alongside other socially engaged European film groups, extended its mission beyond film production, aiming to reshape the existing film industry and culture more broadly. Film distribution was a critical strategy within this endeavour. The article investigates Fugitive Cinema’s role in the distributi…
Entering the Walloon Gothic
Over the last decade, Belgium’s Dutch-speaking region of Flanders has been marked by a nationalist impulse. This is most clearly visible in the discourses and electoral success of nationalist parties, which call for a greater degree of Flemish independence from the Belgian state and its southern, French-speaking region of Wallonia. This article analyzes how a certain strand within contemporary Flemish cinema relates to such Flemish nationalist di…
Discourses of cultural diversity and inclusion in film policy
This article examines how Flemish film policy actors and industry stakeholders have conceptualized, framed and operationalized cultural diversity and inclusion over the past two decades (2002–2022). Drawing on critical discourse and interpretive policy analysis of policy documents and a series of in-depth expert interviews, we investigate how discourses of diversity in cultural policymaking are consistently shaped by (neo-)liberal continuations o…
The Magic Realism of The Man Who Had His Hair Cut Short (1965)
1965 saw the release of André Delvaux’s feature film debut The Man Who Had His Hair Cut Short (De man die zijn haar kort liet knippen). The film soon gained international critical acclaim and became widely regarded as a modernist classic from Belgian cinema. In 2021, the Royal Belgian Film Archive CINEMATEK made a restoration of the film, which is now being picked up by several film institutions and distributors throughout Europe. The sophisticat…
The nation on and beyond the screen
Most research on the relationship between film and nation‐building focuses on the content of films (the nation on the screen). Much less common is research on the structural organisation of the film sector (the nation beyond the screen). This article argues for a combined focus in order to gain deeper insight into the relationship between film and nation‐building. This is illustrated by a case study focusing on Flanders. The Flemish case shows th…
Robbe De Hert
Het oeuvre van de Belgische cineast Robbe De Hert (20 september 1942 – 24 augustus 2020) is erg divers. Hij realiseerde experimentele animatiefilms ( A Funny Thing Happened on my Way to Golgotha ) en maatschappijkritische filmpamfletten ( Camera sutra ), maar evengoed een populaire komedie ( Zware jongens ), een adaptatie van een historische plattelandsroman ( De Witte van Sichem ) of een Willem Elsschotverfilming ( Lijmen/Het been ). De Hert was…
Radio drama as art and industry
This article argues that in order to obtain a deeper comprehension of the radio play as a work of art, one should complement the dominant method of textual analysis with industry analysis. This argument is illustrated by means of a case study on the 1967 Belgian radio play The Slow Motion Film . This radio play is an adaptation (in fact, a re-adaptation as there had been radio adaptations in 1940 and 1950) of the innovative theatre play The Slow …
Remaking identities and stereotypes
When films are being remade, they undergo several transformations, including changes related to (the representation of) national, disability, and gender identities. By drawing on the case of the Flemish film Hasta La Vista and its Dutch remake Adios Amigos, this article critically investigates the (dis)similarities on these levels through the prism of the film remake. Both films are popular road trip movies dealing with the adventure of three fri…
Local flavors and regional markers
The practice of Dutch-Flemish film remaking that came into existence in the new millennium quickly appeared to be of great importance in the film industries of Flanders and The Netherlands – and consequently of Europe. Inspired by methods used in television (format) studies, this article conducts a systematic comparative film analysis of nine Dutch-Flemish remakes together with their nine source films. Considering the remake as a prism that aids …
From Political Biography to Political Event
This article examines how Louis Paul Boon's historical novel Pieter Daens (1971) and Stijn Coninx's biopic Daens (1992) have contributed to the "Daens myth," in which the Belgian priest and politician Adolf Daens is idealized as a self-assured hero fighting social injustice. The article focuses on how Daens is related to Flemish nation-building and how the political biopic became a political event itself
Cinema, the Government, and the Popular
This article examines the evolution of both the popular and the commercial aspects within the official film production support in Flanders between 1964 and 2002. The article sheds light on the policy motivations underlying the cultural-commercial tension, which was a continuous issue of conflict for the Flemish film policy actors
Le Bien contre le Mal contre Claus
Cet article analyse le film Le Lion des Flandres (Hugo Claus, 1984), en se basant sur une analyse de textes et sur l’exploitation d’archives. Il se concentre sur les relations complexes que ce film entretient avec la question nationale belge et flamande. Cette coproduction flamande et néerlandaise (également adaptée en série télévisée en 1985) est une adaptation du roman historique romantique du même nom d'Hendrik Conscience, publié en 1838, une …
Nationalism and the cinema in France
Hugo Frey opens his book Nationalism and the cinema in France by positioning it as complementary to the rise of scholarship on the transnational dimensions of cinema. Although he sees transnational and national cinema as two sides of the same coin that are often interwoven, Frey concentrates on the latter, thereby focusing on France in the period 1945-1995. The aim of the book is twofold. On the one hand, Frey aims to discern the ‘political myths…
The Europeanness of European cinema
According to its editors, the aim of The Europeanness of European cinema is ‘to revisit the issue of the significance of European cinema as a category in the wake of the recent acceleration in transnational filmmaking and globalization as a whole’ (p. 7). Taking the transnational prominence of European cinema as a starting point, the anthology’s introduction presents some brief reflections about what ‘Europeanness’ – the central, overarching conc…
Film policy, national identity and period adaptations in Flanders during the 1970s and 1980s
During the 1970s and 1980s, ‘period adaptations,’ or period films based on the Flemish literary patrimony, were the most prominent and prestigious genre of film production in Flanders, the northern, Dutch-speaking region of Belgium. Connecting the observation that official film policy largely determines Flemish film production with the dominant interpretation of period adaptations in Flemish cultural and national terms, these films are often seen…
The People's Pictures
The British Film Institute, the government and film culture, 1933-2000
Geoffrey Nowell-Smith and Christophe Dupin (Eds), Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2012, xvi+331 pp., illus., bibliography, index, £65.00 (cloth) The British Film Institute, the government
Les origines du groupe Pathe-Natan et le modele americain
The origins of the Pathé-Natan group and the American model, Gilles Willems. The development of movie companies in the United States during the 1920s follows a pattern of industrial and financial transformation based on concentration and expansion. By comparison, the French cinema industry lost its pre-war primacy, demonstrated by the difrïculties of the Charles Pathé group. But the French case was synonymous with modernization and mergers, as sh…
Film policy, national identity and period adaptations in Flanders during the 1970s and 1980s
During the 1970s and 1980s, ‘period adaptations,’ or period films based on the Flemish literary patrimony, were the most prominent and prestigious genre of film production in Flanders, the northern, Dutch-speaking region of Belgium. Connecting the observation that official film policy largely determines Flemish film production with the dominant interpretation of period adaptations in Flemish cultural and national terms, these films are often seen…
The British Film Institute, the government and film culture, 1933-2000
Geoffrey Nowell-Smith and Christophe Dupin (Eds), Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2012, xvi+331 pp., illus., bibliography, index, £65.00 (cloth) The British Film Institute, the government
The nation on and beyond the screen
Most research on the relationship between film and nation‐building focuses on the content of films (the nation on the screen). Much less common is research on the structural organisation of the film sector (the nation beyond the screen). This article argues for a combined focus in order to gain deeper insight into the relationship between film and nation‐building. This is illustrated by a case study focusing on Flanders. The Flemish case shows th…
Remaking identities and stereotypes
When films are being remade, they undergo several transformations, including changes related to (the representation of) national, disability, and gender identities. By drawing on the case of the Flemish film Hasta La Vista and its Dutch remake Adios Amigos, this article critically investigates the (dis)similarities on these levels through the prism of the film remake. Both films are popular road trip movies dealing with the adventure of three fri…
Radio drama as art and industry
This article argues that in order to obtain a deeper comprehension of the radio play as a work of art, one should complement the dominant method of textual analysis with industry analysis. This argument is illustrated by means of a case study on the 1967 Belgian radio play The Slow Motion Film . This radio play is an adaptation (in fact, a re-adaptation as there had been radio adaptations in 1940 and 1950) of the innovative theatre play The Slow …
From Political Biography to Political Event
This article examines how Louis Paul Boon's historical novel Pieter Daens (1971) and Stijn Coninx's biopic Daens (1992) have contributed to the "Daens myth," in which the Belgian priest and politician Adolf Daens is idealized as a self-assured hero fighting social injustice. The article focuses on how Daens is related to Flemish nation-building and how the political biopic became a political event itself
Les origines du groupe Pathe-Natan et le modele americain
The origins of the Pathé-Natan group and the American model, Gilles Willems. The development of movie companies in the United States during the 1920s follows a pattern of industrial and financial transformation based on concentration and expansion. By comparison, the French cinema industry lost its pre-war primacy, demonstrated by the difrïculties of the Charles Pathé group. But the French case was synonymous with modernization and mergers, as sh…
The People's Pictures
The British Film Institute, the government and film culture, 1933-2000
Geoffrey Nowell-Smith and Christophe Dupin (Eds), Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2012, xvi+331 pp., illus., bibliography, index, £65.00 (cloth) The British Film Institute, the government
Nationalism and the cinema in France
Hugo Frey opens his book Nationalism and the cinema in France by positioning it as complementary to the rise of scholarship on the transnational dimensions of cinema. Although he sees transnational and national cinema as two sides of the same coin that are often interwoven, Frey concentrates on the latter, thereby focusing on France in the period 1945-1995. The aim of the book is twofold. On the one hand, Frey aims to discern the ‘political myths…
The Europeanness of European cinema
According to its editors, the aim of The Europeanness of European cinema is ‘to revisit the issue of the significance of European cinema as a category in the wake of the recent acceleration in transnational filmmaking and globalization as a whole’ (p. 7). Taking the transnational prominence of European cinema as a starting point, the anthology’s introduction presents some brief reflections about what ‘Europeanness’ – the central, overarching conc…
Film policy, national identity and period adaptations in Flanders during the 1970s and 1980s
During the 1970s and 1980s, ‘period adaptations,’ or period films based on the Flemish literary patrimony, were the most prominent and prestigious genre of film production in Flanders, the northern, Dutch-speaking region of Belgium. Connecting the observation that official film policy largely determines Flemish film production with the dominant interpretation of period adaptations in Flemish cultural and national terms, these films are often seen…
Cinema, the Government, and the Popular
This article examines the evolution of both the popular and the commercial aspects within the official film production support in Flanders between 1964 and 2002. The article sheds light on the policy motivations underlying the cultural-commercial tension, which was a continuous issue of conflict for the Flemish film policy actors
Le Bien contre le Mal contre Claus
Cet article analyse le film Le Lion des Flandres (Hugo Claus, 1984), en se basant sur une analyse de textes et sur l’exploitation d’archives. Il se concentre sur les relations complexes que ce film entretient avec la question nationale belge et flamande. Cette coproduction flamande et néerlandaise (également adaptée en série télévisée en 1985) est une adaptation du roman historique romantique du même nom d'Hendrik Conscience, publié en 1838, une …
From Political Biography to Political Event
This article examines how Louis Paul Boon's historical novel Pieter Daens (1971) and Stijn Coninx's biopic Daens (1992) have contributed to the "Daens myth," in which the Belgian priest and politician Adolf Daens is idealized as a self-assured hero fighting social injustice. The article focuses on how Daens is related to Flemish nation-building and how the political biopic became a political event itself
Remaking identities and stereotypes
When films are being remade, they undergo several transformations, including changes related to (the representation of) national, disability, and gender identities. By drawing on the case of the Flemish film Hasta La Vista and its Dutch remake Adios Amigos, this article critically investigates the (dis)similarities on these levels through the prism of the film remake. Both films are popular road trip movies dealing with the adventure of three fri…
Local flavors and regional markers
The practice of Dutch-Flemish film remaking that came into existence in the new millennium quickly appeared to be of great importance in the film industries of Flanders and The Netherlands – and consequently of Europe. Inspired by methods used in television (format) studies, this article conducts a systematic comparative film analysis of nine Dutch-Flemish remakes together with their nine source films. Considering the remake as a prism that aids …
Robbe De Hert
Het oeuvre van de Belgische cineast Robbe De Hert (20 september 1942 – 24 augustus 2020) is erg divers. Hij realiseerde experimentele animatiefilms ( A Funny Thing Happened on my Way to Golgotha ) en maatschappijkritische filmpamfletten ( Camera sutra ), maar evengoed een populaire komedie ( Zware jongens ), een adaptatie van een historische plattelandsroman ( De Witte van Sichem ) of een Willem Elsschotverfilming ( Lijmen/Het been ). De Hert was…
Radio drama as art and industry
This article argues that in order to obtain a deeper comprehension of the radio play as a work of art, one should complement the dominant method of textual analysis with industry analysis. This argument is illustrated by means of a case study on the 1967 Belgian radio play The Slow Motion Film . This radio play is an adaptation (in fact, a re-adaptation as there had been radio adaptations in 1940 and 1950) of the innovative theatre play The Slow …
The nation on and beyond the screen
Most research on the relationship between film and nation‐building focuses on the content of films (the nation on the screen). Much less common is research on the structural organisation of the film sector (the nation beyond the screen). This article argues for a combined focus in order to gain deeper insight into the relationship between film and nation‐building. This is illustrated by a case study focusing on Flanders. The Flemish case shows th…
The Magic Realism of The Man Who Had His Hair Cut Short (1965)
1965 saw the release of André Delvaux’s feature film debut The Man Who Had His Hair Cut Short (De man die zijn haar kort liet knippen). The film soon gained international critical acclaim and became widely regarded as a modernist classic from Belgian cinema. In 2021, the Royal Belgian Film Archive CINEMATEK made a restoration of the film, which is now being picked up by several film institutions and distributors throughout Europe. The sophisticat…
Entering the Walloon Gothic
Over the last decade, Belgium’s Dutch-speaking region of Flanders has been marked by a nationalist impulse. This is most clearly visible in the discourses and electoral success of nationalist parties, which call for a greater degree of Flemish independence from the Belgian state and its southern, French-speaking region of Wallonia. This article analyzes how a certain strand within contemporary Flemish cinema relates to such Flemish nationalist di…
Discourses of cultural diversity and inclusion in film policy
This article examines how Flemish film policy actors and industry stakeholders have conceptualized, framed and operationalized cultural diversity and inclusion over the past two decades (2002–2022). Drawing on critical discourse and interpretive policy analysis of policy documents and a series of in-depth expert interviews, we investigate how discourses of diversity in cultural policymaking are consistently shaped by (neo-)liberal continuations o…
A Gathering Place for Outlaws
This article examines the distribution activities of Fugitive Cinema, a Belgian film collective established in 1966. It argues that Fugitive Cinema, alongside other socially engaged European film groups, extended its mission beyond film production, aiming to reshape the existing film industry and culture more broadly. Film distribution was a critical strategy within this endeavour. The article investigates Fugitive Cinema’s role in the distributi…
Art (15 works) · Political science (14 works) · Sociology (13 works) · Law (11 works) · History (9 works) · Movie theater (9 works) · Media studies (8 works) · Art history (7 works) · Law (7 works) · Aesthetics (6 works)