Variations sur le geste

Before the word, there was the gesture… says the commentary. This film explores the universal language of the body as expressed by the dancer Juana.

Firstly the hands, with their functions of survival (taking, embracing, caressing, etc.), then the gestures of prayer common to all religions, finally the plunge into pantomime, dance and its ritual of communication through different civilisations: China, Albania, Hawaii, Japan, India. The cinematographic set up is austere, voluntarily theatrical, excluding any possibility of becoming distracted by an anecdotal backdrop so as to fix attention on the very substance of the subject: the body and its gestures. A fade to black and the commentary mark the passages from one dance to another. This is a sober and didactic approach to body language.

Director : Henri Storck

Argument : Juana

Text : Juana, adapted by Jacques Delcorde

Choreography : Joy Dillingham

Sets and stage effects : Corneille Hannoset

Camera : Paul De Fru, assisted by Jacques Moniquet

Voice : Jeanine Cherel and Jacques Delcorde

Guitar music : Nicolas Alfonso

Sound : Westrex

Continuity girl : Françoise Storck

Production : CEP

Director of production : Louis Boogaerts

Laboratory : Dassonville

Gevaert film

Film commissioned by the Ministry of Education and Culture.

Dutch version entitled Twee handen.

English version entitled One pair of hands.

35mm/B and W/23’/1962

To wach the film please send an email to info@fondshenristorck.be, ask the password and click here

The grace of dance combined with anthropological dryness.

Francis Bolen, Histoire authentique du cinéma belge, Ed. Mémo et Codec, 1978