Anne Dudley x Stijn Coninx
Anne Dudley
There was no plan B. Anne Dudley (Chatham, Kent, May 7, 1956) simply had to make a career in music. She started studying classical music, but ended up in the world of jazz. From the age of 14 she started performing in jazz and pop groups, which is how she met Trevor Horn, eventually leading to the avant-garde pop group Art of Noise. Dudley wrote musical arrangements for artists such as Tom Jones, Rod Stewart, Paul McCartney and Elton John. Filmmakers used songs from Art of Noise, which led to Dudley becoming more affiliated with the world of film music. She composed music for over forty films. Most famous are her scores for The Crying Game, The Full Monty, American History X, Tristan & Isolde and A Man Apart.
© BenedettaShe collaborated with Paul Verhoeven on three films: Zwartboek, Elle and Benedetta. Dudley praises his “musical knowledge and capacity to get the most out of his composers by pushing their boundaries.” Verhoeven likewise praises Dudley because she can manage any genre. She also writes music for television and releases her own albums. When she won the Oscar for best Film Music in 1998 for The Full Monty, Dudley was just the second woman to win this Oscar. Meanwhile there are three: Rachel Portman, Anne Dudley and Hildur Guðnadóttir.
© Michaël Pas, Stijn Coninx & Nic BalthazarStijn Coninx
After studying at the RITCS in Brussels, Stijn Coninx, born on 21 February 1957 in Neerpelt, began his film career as an assistant director. He can be found in the credits of such films as Zaman, De Leeuw van Vlaanderen, Skin and Blueberry Hill. With his Urbanus films Hector and Coco Flanel, he joined a trend of introducing local comedians as central film characters, with resounding success. The 1990-dated Coco Flanel was the biggest film hit in Flanders for 18 years, with more than a million viewers.
And then in 1993 came Daens, based on the book Pieter Daens by Louis-Paul Boon. The film has rightly been called Stijn Coninx's magnum opus and arguably remains an important event in the history of Flemish cinema. Daens caused a stir all the way to the Vatican and received an Oscar nomination for best non-English-language film. Films like Licht and Verder dan de maan remained in Daens' shadow. After the documentary To Walk Again, Coninx made two biographical films, Soeur Sourire in 2009 and Marina, about Rocco Granata, in 2013. With Niet schieten, he drew attention to the victims of the Nijvel gang robbery in Aalst. To his filmography a lot of theatre and television work should be added, plus his activities in professional associations. He also taught at the RITCS and was artistic director there for a time.
