Frans Zwartjes

Frans Zwartjes (*Alkmaar, 1927) is a film maker, musician, violin maker, artist and sculptor. In the late 1960’s he became well known with films showing grotesquely dressed up actors involved in little power-mad sexual games. Hysterics and cruelty are his regular topics. Susan Sontag called Zwartjes ‘the most important contemporary experimental film maker’.

Zwartjes made over fifty films. ‘Pentimento’ (1979), ‘Living’ (1971) and ‘Ín Extremo’ (1981) seem to be his best known films. Director Ruud Monster’s documentary ‘The Great Wizard’ portrays Zwartjes as a self-conscious artist who comments on the world in a farcical way. The film was partly shot at Zwartjes’s home, while he was composing.