Questa pazzia e fantastica - Paysages fabriens

Jan Fabre prepares in Aldenbiesen castle the first part of his “The Minds of Helena Troubleyn” trilogy. This opera is created in collaboration with composer Eugeniusz Knapik.

In Alden Biesen castle, Jan Fabre prepares the first part of his trilogy The Minds of Helena Troubleyn, an opera created in partnership with Eugeniusz Knapik (the composer). Herman Van Eyken observes the work of the director/choreographer and gives his documentary an original form, more suggestive than explanatory, plunging the spectator directly into Jan Fabre’s universe. 

Herman Van Eycken shows how Jan Fabre observes his team during the improvisations and ‘exercises’, capturing the creative forces and the personalities; how he then groups the material he has created, moving from the role of receiver to that of transmitter. Through the interviews presented in a voice off, as through the instructions given during rehearsals, we grasp the essence of Jan Fabre’s work, based on “musicality, rhythm, silences and movements”, of an exacting standard. The atmosphere of Van Eycken’s film is imbibed with that of Fabre’s show, a strange universe, at times enigmatic, a nocturnal kingdom dominated by the owl’s gaze, invasion of blue, the colour of the settings and costumes, obtained by scribbling in all directions using a blue ballpoint pen!