House of Creations

He comes for an order of unbreakable chamber pots for the army, he stays to share all his experience of intestinal problems with the Follavoine family. And then there is the matter of his adulterous wife... Meet Aristide Chouilloux, or... Julien Behr.

No one escapes the expanding dreamworld of Is this the End?#2. From treacherous sphinxes to sneaky goblins: our Chorus has been utterly transformed. 

On the occasion of an interview with Philippe Boesmans for this blog, our in-house photographer Simon Van Rompay took the opportunity to immortalise the Belgian composer, during his work on the end of his new opera...

This Tuesday 8 February, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the nominations for the 94th Academy Awards, the world's most famous and prestigious film awards ceremony. Thirty-eight years ago, in 1984, Fanny och Alexander won no less than four golden statuettes, in the categories of Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Cinematography (Sven Nykvist) and Best Foreign Language Film, an award which, in the absence of Ingmar Bergman, was accepted on his behalf by his wife Ingrid von Rosen and - not without a dry sense of humor - by the film's producer.  

The woman is a living mystery, with many faces and even more secrets. Luckily, mezzo-soprano Albane Carrère is a woman of many skills. A short try-out and then she’s ready for her close-up.

Cinematograph is the name of the production and distribution company founded by Ingmar Bergman himself, which has (co)produced all his feature films from Skammen (1968) to Fanny och Alexander (1983) and which has been led by his son Ingmar Junior since 2019. One of Cinematograph's daughter companies, Hammars Drama Production, was responsible for the cultural entertainment at the Nobel Prize banquet in 2018 and for this occasion knocked on the door of Swedish composer Mikael Karlsson. The beginning of a creative collaboration that now continues with the opera Fanny och Alexander, in which Cinematograph will be involved as a partner.

No problem in these winter conditions, but what if you need snow in August? Just leave that to our props department! A look behind the scenes of the video shoot with Amaury Massion last summer.

"Constipation is no laughing matter!" The character of Julie Follavoine in On purge bébé has only one mission: her constipated son Toto must and will drink his laxative drink. Whether this is indeed something nót to laugh about, remains to be seen, but we do know one thing for sure: Jodie Devos is the perfect singer for this role. In this first of three cast reveals, the Belgian coloratura soprano looks forward to her first contemporary opera project.

Costumes? Check. Make-up? Go! Albane Carrère (The Woman), Sarah Defrise (The Teenager) and Amaury Massion (The Man) are finally ready to fully step into the shoes of their characters. Time for the video shoot!

It is no coincidence that Fanny och Alexander is scheduled as an end-of-year production. The opulent, magical Christmas festivities with which Bergman’s movie opens, makes it for many one of the most beautiful Christmas films of all time. The meticulous preparations at the Ekdahl house, the grandiose buffet, the perfect Christmas tree, the Nativity scene, the dances and authentic carols ("Nu är det Jul igen")... No wonder that, in Sweden, people still speak of a "Fanny och Alexander Christmas”.