Frans Zwartjes

Frans Zwartjes (1927-2017) was a Dutch filmmaker, musician, violin maker, painter and sculptor, born in Alkmaar. He became known in the late 1960s for intimate black-and-white experimental films, edited in the camera, and he improvised the soundtracks himself. Susan Sontag is reported to have called him the most important experimental filmmaker of his time. Zwartjes's films include Dolls, Sorbet and In Extremo, as well as Spectator (1970), Living (1971) and Medea (1982). His wife Trix appeared in several of them. He taught at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie and the Vrije Academie in The Hague.