Koekoekswals

Summary

To the music of the famous Koekoekswals, Van Moerkerken edits people and objects in motion. In the process, he makes frequent use of delay, repetition, or the reversal of images. This gives the film a playful and sometimes parody-like character, especially when he reduces bishops to a procession of actors dancing to the beat of the music. Everything gets its own choreography; sometimes playful and sometimes provocative, in keeping with Van Moerkerken’s personality.

Koekoekswals was one of the three Dutch films that were accepted at the festival of experimental film that was held in Brussels in 1958. The other two entries were Gyromorphosis and Autumn Spectrum, both by the American filmmaker Hy Hirsch, who lived in the Netherlands.