Rouge
ROUGE, a feature film by Mieke Daneels
When the umbilical cord is cut between Rouge and her child, she struggles with an empty gut feeling, loneliness that triggers and anxious tension. Rouge conducts an inner dialogue with Mieke Moes, the other Rouge in her head. She helps Rouge through her dark moments and loneliness. Her psychiatrist penetrates her emotional ballast and maybe goes just that little bit too far. Mieke Moes watches over Rouge. Rouge takes matters into her own hands again and gets rid of her blockages through sexual discharge.
Director’s Statement, objective
The viewer becomes a voyeur in the mind of the main character Rouge and her inner voice Mieke Moes, both played by the director Mieke Daneels.
We follow her inner dialogue during loneliness and her struggle with letting in / opening up to her psychiatrist who tries to help her analyse.
The minimalistic narrative style, imagery and free association are the medium here.
Mieke Moes, the character of the inner voice, is portrayed with black and white images that were sourced from the director's personal film archive and were originally intended for a different project with her ex-partner Kris De Meester. From this same archive she used the pregnancy and foetus footage (real images of her son Napoleon).
These autobiographical images were filtered and edited with sound and music, and supplemented with new recordings of Rouge (iPhone, mostly on a selfie tripod) to create a cinematically voyeuristic print.
Director’s Statement, subjective
Who am I
Those voices in my head
Are they me
How many am I
Do they like me
Are we kind to each other
We understand what we feel and do
Even though it's a barrel of contradictions
My constant companion
Who I ignore and beg
To stand by me
Don't leave me alone
Keep on talking
With me
Lead me through
This maze
What we call life
Call
Loving and letting go
From our children
Growing life within us
Two heartbeats
A human inside a human
Cutting the umbilical cord
And giving life
Being a woman
Becoming a mother
Cherish
Not knowing
What
And how
That pain
The emptiness comes
The doctor
Let in
Into our soul
Searching
Why
The loneliness
Experienced emptiness
Strangles us
Seats sleep
Day and night
Eventually
We repel the intruder
Who means well
And satisfy ourselves
With an orgasm
Actress | Producer | Director | Writer
Actress
2022 ‘Rouge’ / Rouge and Mieke Moes
2015 'Johnny Walker' / Lubke
2014 'Gesmoord' / Mother
2012 'Plankton' (Short) / Woman
2009 'Four Roses' / Lubke
Producer
2022 ‘Rouge’ (producer)
2015 'Johnny Walker' (co-producer)
2014 'Gesmoord' (producer)
2012 'Plankton' (Short) (producer)
Director
2022 ‘Rouge’
2014 'Gesmoord'
2012 'Plankton' (Short)
Writer
2022 ‘Rouge’
2014 'Gesmoord'
2012 'Plankton' (Short)
Q&A with MIEKE DANEELS
Filmmaker and actress Mieke Daneels is an artist who gives her whole self to what she does. She undresses all that is not real to her artistic and self-revealing work. A confession as an experimental poem. With "Rouge", she won the prizes as finalist for Best Script for an Experimental Feature Film, semi-finalist for Best Actress in an Experimental Feature Film, and finalist for Best Soundtrack in an Experimental Feature Film. The full interview: Experimental Brasil.
Artist Biography
Mieke Daneels (°1978, Belgium) is a Belgium based film director, photographer, actress and visual artist.
Her work is exuberant, colourful and intuitive.
Sexual, sensual, explicit.
Dreamlike, associative, visual.
Poetic.