Little is known about the two lost city films that painter Carlo Queeckers made about Brussels in 1929: Kermesse flamande and Mélodie bruxelloise. The first one, Queeckers’s debut film, depicts the popular Marolles neighborhood. La Nation belge described the film as made of
shots that are not only original but that also give away a sophisticated artistic taste. Of particular interest is the tour of the Hôtel de Ville that we only discover gradually and that literally launches its Saint Michael [statue] into the sky. We like its quarters, churches, and panoramas seen from unexpected angles… . This film is an excellent work, full of rhythm and movement [but] its too rapid succession of images hurts the eye.
In the same year, Queeckers also made Mélodie bruxelloise or Brusselse Melodie (1929), which covers several quarters of the Belgian capital in a similar style. It is one of the many city films with a musical term in its title. Later, Queeckers made a documentary on the abbey of Tongerloo (1930) and Paienne (1933), which was shot in Portugal.
Steven Jacobs
further reading
“Un jeune cinéaste belge: Carlo Queeckers,” La Libre Belgique (30 November 1934).
Thys, Marianne et al., Belgian Cinema/Le Cinéma belge/De Belgische film (Ghent: Ludion, 1999), 162.
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