2025/03-04-05 Edmond Bernhard

EDUCATION

Edmond Bernhard

To mark the publication of a new book dedicated to his work by filmmaker and professor Olivier Smolders (INSAS), CINEMATEK pays tribute to Edmond Bernhard by presenting his entire filmography in newly restored versions. The book, Dimanche et autres essais d’Edmond Bernhard, is published by Yellow Now.

Today, Edmond Bernhard remains virtually unknown. Yet, behind the scenes of Belgian cinema history, his name holds a singular brilliance. This unconventional filmmaker, who taught at INSAS for two decades, left behind a body of work consisting of just five short films—each widely acclaimed at international festivals. Originally conceived as commissioned films, his works transcend their initial purpose, becoming cinematic poems. Often set within confined spaces—an empty church, a museum, a chessboard—his films reflect a deep fascination with the passage of time: the time of rituals, of history, of iguanodons and childhood memories, the time of a life, or a game of chess. A time that moves forward, yet perhaps never truly does, trapping us in invisible temporal loops.