Louis van Gasteren

A retrospective of events in director Louis van Gasteren’s life from 1964 to 1969, filmed by him in that period and reflected on from his vantage point over 40 years later at the age of 90.

Footage of a sunny village square in Sardinia leads to humorous, philosophical reflections on reality and the role of the ‘objectively recording’ documentary maker. Van Gasteren sees the square as a backdrop in his film, and the chance passers-by as extras. Then, as a ‘director of reality’, he gives an ironic commentary on what he sees. “For a moment I thought, from what source of information am I thinking up what I see. Or, did I just see exactly what I thought.”

Amsterdam is besieged by an alliance of Kennemers and Waterlanders, prepared to exact heavy vengeance on lord Gysbreght van Aemstel, the last remaining murderer of count Floris V. Filmed performance of Joost van den Vondel's classic play.

Do You Get It No. 3 deals with the behaviour of people who notice they are being filmed, without the viewer being directly aware of this. Van Gasteren films a traffic officer and the chaotic traffic at a busy intersection in Salerno, Italy. A passer-by seems to modify his behaviour the moment he notices that he’s being filmed. Van Gasteren analyses, image by image, what happens on the street and what role the camera plays in this.