'Pol en Piet'.
Raoul Servais was one of the most notable Belgian animators in the world. He made several classic shorts, which often experimented with graphic style, animation technique and/or content. Among his best regarded films are 'Chromophobia' (1966), 'To Speak or Not tot Speak' (1970) and the Palme d'Or for 'Best Short' winner 'Harpya' (1979). While he was best known as an animator, Servais has also made live-action films. Still, these pictures often used hand-designed graphics, sets, backgrounds, special effects and occasional animation. Earlier in his career, Servais also drew a short-running comic series named 'Pol en Piet' (1953), which ran in the magazine Vriendschap.
Early life and career
Raoul Servais was born in 1928 in Ostend, hence his nickname "The Wizard of Ostend". His father was an amateur film director who frequently showed pictures by Charlie Chaplin, Charles Vanel and cartoons of Pat Sullivan and Otto Messmer's 'Felix the Cat' in his local film theater. This inspired Servais to become an animator. After World War II he studied decorative arts at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent. Together with some fellow students he founded his own amateur animation studio, but by lack of available information, they had to learn the craft entirely by self study. His debut, 'Spokenhistorie' was filmed with a camera made out of a cigar box. When he finally purchased a "professional" camera in the 1950s, it was a model made in 1928, his birth year! Hungry for more reliable information and equipment, Servais went so far to disguise himself as a journalist and visit both Ray Goossens' animation studio in Antwerp and the Gémeaux Studios in Paris, founded by Paul Grimault. While his ploy managed to fool everyone, he still wasn't allowed inside the actual animators' department.
Instead, Servais turned to live-action documentaries and experimental shorts for a while. He was also active as an illustrator and co-transponed designs by Belgian surrealist painter René Magritte on the walls of a circular room in the casino of Knokke. Despite having an argument with the maestro about technical aspects of the decoration, Servais still regarded Magritte as one of his graphic influences, along with that other Belgian surrealist icon, Paul Delvaux.
Cover illustration for the magazine Vriendschap, issue #2, September 1954.
Pol en Piet and other comics
Servais was also briefly active in comics. As a member of the Belgian Socialist Party, he published comics in their magazines Vooruit, Le Peuple and Germinal. One of his gag series was 'Pol en Piet' (1953) in the magazine Vriendschap. It centered around an identical twin. However, he soon turned his back on the medium, feeling comics weren't really his thing. 'Pol en Piet' was therefore continued for a short while by Jean de Cocq. Only in 1981 did Servais make a comic drawing again to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the magazine Tintin. It was a parody of Bob De Moor's series 'Barelli'.
Teaching career
In 1960, Servais became an art teacher at his former school, the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent. Three years later, he founded the university's first course in animation. This was not only a scoop for Belgian universities, but also the first school of its kind on the European Continent. Later Servais would also teach at the Institut Supérieur de la Cambre in Brussels. One of his pupils who later became famous as a cartoonist was Kim Duchateau.
Still from 'To Speak or not to Speak'.
Animation career
His job as art teacher allowed Servais to hone his technical skills and raise money to make his own cartoons. His debut film 'Havenlichten' ('Harbor Lights', 1960) was somewhat clumsy in certain fields, but showed enough promise to win First Prize at the National Festival of Belgian Film in Antwerp. Servais invested the prize money in his next animated film, 'De Valse Noot' ('The False Note', 1963), which won the "Best Animated Film" award at the Benelux Film Festival in 's Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands. 'Chromophobia' (1966), winner of the Primo Premio at the International Filmfestival of Venice, was his international breakthrough. The work made a strong stance against war and tyranny, a theme that would run through his next cartoons as well, such as 'Sirene' (1968), 'To Speak or Not to Speak' (1970) and 'Operation X-70' (1971), the latter receiving the Prix Spécial du Jury at the Cannes Film Festival and the First Prize at the International Film Festival of Animation in Zagreb.
'Sirene' was an unexpected succcess in Iran and Servais was invited by empress Farah Diba with the request to create an animation school in Teheran, an offer he politely refused. From 'Goldframe' (1969) on, which won the Special Jury Prize at the International Film Festival of Sydney, Servais regularly surprised his audience by drastically changing his graphic style and animation techniques. One can often hardly tell it's made by the same director. The animated cartoon 'To Speak or Not To Speak' (1970) was notable for featuring characters talking in speech balloons on screen, showing his debt to the comics medium. Servais was co-founder of the animation studio PEN-film in Ghent in 1970. The studio regularly hired former students from the Ghent-based Academy as assistant directors and animators, including Dirk De Paepe, Paul De Meyer, Katrien Alliet, Catherine Vandamme, Jean-Pierre Van den Broecke and Eric Turc. Two of Servais' former animators who'd also have an active comics career were Gilbert Declercq and Willy Verschelde. In 1979 Servais collaborated on the animated TV adaptation of GoT's children's comic 'Jonas en de Wonderwinkel', produced by PEN-film for the BRT.
Still from 'Chromophobia' (1966).
Servais' most famous work is the short 'Harpya' (1979), crowned with the Palme d'Or for "Best Short" at the Festival of Cannes. 'Harpya' follows a man who is plagued by a terrifying harpy. A horror movie to some, a black comedy to others, it effortlessly became a cult picture. Much of the scenery and atmosphere was inspired by the haunting paintings of Belgian surrealist Paul Delvaux. 'Harpya' was Servais' first live-action film, yet still used animated backdrops put in front of live-action cut-outs. Servais dubbed this technique "Servaisgraphy" and used it again in his next two films until CGI technology made the process outdated. In 1995 he directed his first feature film, 'Taxandria' (1995), slightly based on François Schuiten and Benoît Peeters' comic strip 'Les Cités Obscures'. Schuiten was also the film's art director. The film also featured contributions by Etienne Schréder. Despite lukewarm reviews, the picture did win the Grand Award at the International Festival of the Fantastic Film in both Rome as well as Porto, Portugal.
'Nachtvlinders' ('Night Butterflies', 1998) was a homage to the work of the then recently deceased Belgian surrealist painter Paul Delvaux and received the Prize of International Film Criticism in Annecy, France. 'Atraksion' (2001) marked Servais' first experiments with digital media, featuring a group of chained prisoners trying to seek freedom by climbing to a huge light in the sky. It won the Special Jury Prize at the International Festival in Valladolid, the Grand Prize for Best Short and the Silver Méliès for Best European Fantastic Film in Porto. After a contribution to the anthology film 'Fuyo no hi' ('Winter Days', 2003) by Kihachiro Kawamoto, Servais directed 'Tank' (2015), an animated short set during the Battle of the Somme during World War I, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of that event. The picture won the Espiga de Plata at the International Film Festival of Valladolid. HIs final film was 'Der lange Kerl' (2022), which he co-directed with Rudy Pinceel.
Raoul Servais by Bob De Moor.
Other activities
In 1973 Servais became a member of the Royal Academy of Science and Arts. Between 1985 and 1994, he was head of the International Association of Film Animators and co-founder of Het Vlaams Audiovisueel Fonds. Over the years, his duties slowed down the production of his new film projects.
Recognition
In 2005, Servais ended at the 108th place in the Flemish version of "De Grootste Belg" ("The Greatest Belgian") election. In 2016 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Animation Film Festival of Zagreb. Between 2018 and 2021, an overview exposition of Servais' work, including drawings, designs and film fragments, was shown in a special wing of the Mu.ZEE in Ostend. Around the start of the exhibition, the documentary film 'Servais' (2018) by Rudy Pinceel premiered at the Ostend Film Festival.
Death
On Friday 17 March 2023, Raoul Servais died in his home in Leffinge. He was 94 years old.
Books about Raoul Servais
For those interested in Servais' life and career, Philippe Moins and Maurice Corbet's book 'Voyage en Servaisgraphie' (Éditions de l'Oeuil / Musée d'Annecy, 2013) and Moins' 'Raoul Servais Panoramic' (Borgerhoff & Lamberigts, 2018) are highly recommended.
Still from 'Harpya' (1979).