Watch This: The Work of Monique Renault and Ellen Meske
The Eye Filmmuseum is a cinema/museum based in Amsterdam the Netherlands. The venue screens films and hosts exhibitions related to film-related topics. Additionally, the museum runs its own streaming service, so that the audience can enjoy a selection of the films at home. Recently added to the line-up is two compilations from two key figures in Dutch animation- Monique Renault and Ellen Meske. The films have been fully restored and are available to watch for free on Eye Player.
Renault and Meske were two of the few female animators working in the Netherlands during the 70s. The two regularly collaborated and together they set up the Vruchtboom (Fruittree) Animator's Collective in 1982.
Renault was born in France in 1939 and studied fine arts in academies in Rennes and Paris. By 1972 she was head of animation at the French AAA Production Studio, before relocating to the Netherlands, where she worked as an independent filmmaker. Techniques she employed included pencil on paper and rotoscoping. In her early work, she used humour to playfully explore topics like women's rights, the church's attitude to women and the nuclear arms race. Her later films were more personal and deal with themes such as dance and art. In 1988, with the animator Gerrit van Dijk she made the film Pas à deux, which won several awards including a Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Watch the compilation here
Featured Films
Psychoderche
France 1972 | 2 min.
A woman kicks a man who is doing his morning ablutions on the backside, then laughs at her actions. One way for a woman to get rid of a man. Screened in France upon its release ahead of La Grande Bouffe (1973, Marco Ferreri).
Swiss Graffitti
France 1975 | 6 min.
The creation of the earth, revised and corrected by two women.
A la votre
France 1975 | 3 min.
A big woman and a small superman play an erotic game. Eventually, she dissolves him like an effervescent tablet in a glass of water.
Borderline 1 & 2
Netherlands 1981 | 5 min.
Borderline 1 & 2 addresses two questions. What is the situation in relation to the equal treatment of men and women holding equal positions in the workplace? And what’s going on behind the hedge that’s making these two women laugh so much?
Out
Netherlands 1982 | 3 min.
A protest film against all the nuclear weapons in the world, with texts by Sonja van der Gaast set to music from Boudewijn de Groot’s well-known protest song 'Welterusten, meneer de president' (‘Sleep Well, Mister President’).
In nomine domini
Netherlands 1982 | 4 min. | English subtitles
Animated illustrations of statements by male church leaders about women and their role in society. According to our Catholic teachers, women are harmful animals, failed men or diabolical creatures, fit only for childbirth... This reveals the momentous influence of the church in the centuries-old oppression of women.
Long Live the Sexual Revolution
Nederland 1983 | 5 min.
A man does the family planning, preparing future love-making sessions with his partner, without worrying about whether the desire is mutually felt. She doesn't seem to have the same desire as him, or rather not quite exactly the samen.
Hands Off
Netherlands 1984 | 18 min. | English subtitles
A three-part information film on the abuse of women: 1. The expectations of girls concerning marriage and the reality, which within this framework ends in abuse. 2. Social views on the abuse of women through the centuries. 3. Information on the existence of Blijf van mijn Lijf-huizen (women’s refuges) as a possible escape-route for abused women.
La donna è Mobile
Great Britain/Belgium/Netherlands/France 1993 | 4 min.
‘Woman is Fickle’ is based on the famous aria from the opera Rigoletto by Verdi. No woman is safe from the dissolute Duke of Mantua, who dreams of naked, languid beauties. But he also complains about their capriciousness. The women in the film refer to famous paintings: by Matisse, Botticelli, Degas. The film is a trip through male fantasies, seen through the eyes of a woman.
L'alliance
France 1995 | 3 min.
Is there life after the constricting marriage contract?
Holy Smoke
Netherlands 2000| 10 min.
A woman writes a letter and looks back on the most significant cigarettes in her life.
Meske was born in the United States in 1952 and moved to the Netherlands in the 70s, where she studied at the Vrije Academie Psychopolis art academy in The Hague. She was inspired by the artists Paul Driessen and Hans Nassenstein. In 1979 she completed her first film The Inflatable Alphabet produced by Nico Crama. The film was produced using drawings on paper. In the early 80s she joined with Monique Renault to form the Vruchtboom Collective, and together they produced several films on feminism. Meske used stop-motion for the first time in the 1988 series House Holding made for the Joke Smit Stichting foundation. She continued to use the same animation technique for her personal film Capriccio in 1995. In addition to her personal films, she also made many films commissioned by broadcasters including NOS, Teleac, VPRO and MTV. Meske passed away in 2022.
Watch the compilation here
Featured films:
The Inflatable Alphabet
Netherlands 1979 | 8 min.
Animated film made using the 'pen on paper' technique, with blown-up shapes forming the letters of the alphabet. A drawn man tangles with these letters.
House Holding
Netherlands 1988 | 19 min.
A series of humorous claymation films about an alternative distribution of household responsibilities between men and women. House Holding, Overkoken, Ingewikkeld, Gelijk oversteken and Day Care.
Capriccio
Netherlands 1995 | 12 min.
Claymation about a young woman who is inspired in her musical studies by three playful winged beings. But on the evening of her debut playing with a large orchestra, their arrival has unexpected consequences.
