With our Troops on the Yser. Film propaganda and the First World War

After four years of horror, the First World War ends on 11 November 1918. Ten years later, a veteran named Clemens De Landtsheer makes his film on the 'Great War': With Our Troops on the Yser. The film is not a triumphant retrospective view, but a bitter complaint, in which the suffering of 'our boys', the simple soldiers on the front, is central. Neither is it an objective documentary. As secretary of the Committee of the Yser pilgrimage, De Landtsheer is part of a movement with a political agenda. His film contains a mix of historic and staged images, provided with a tendentious commentary. It makes this flamingant pamphlet into a fascinating historical document. In the extras on this DVD, Daniël Biltereyst and Roel Vande Winkel place this unique experiment in its historical context.

When Clemens De Landtsheer makes With Our Troops on the Yser in 1928, he has practically no experience in filmmaking. He is secretary of the Yser pilgrimage Committee, veteran of the First World War and he will make a film, by order of his organisation, which serves the Flemish cause: a Flemish propaganda film.

For this purpose, De Landtsheer essentially makes use of archival material from the First World War, completed with staged images from existing fiction films. His film is not an objective retrospective view of the 'Great War', but helps support a very specific view on the First World War. A vision in which the suffering of the Flemish soldiers at the front is at the centre, and in which the social abuses from the First World War are mythified for political reasons.

With Our Troops on the Yser was screened more than 400 times in the interwar period. This success inspired De Landtsheer to found the company Flandria Film, which produced and distributed a number of films between 1929 and 1940. The fascinating story behind De Landtsheer’s film activities is illustrated in the extras to this DVD. They also contain a number of Flandria Film productions.

With Our Troops on the Yser was released in 1928, but was repeatedly revised and augmented. The version on this DVD is the definitive colour version of 1933, restored by Noël Desmet (Royal Belgian Film Archive, 1991). The soundtrack is based on the original phonograph records used by De Landtsheer to provide music to the images.

CONTENT

Met onze jongens aan den IJzer Feature film 83 min
Audio commentary by Bruno Mestdagh, Daniël Biltereyst, Roel Vande Winkel and Leen Engelen, 87 min
10th Yser Pilgrimage (Clemens De Landtsheer, 1930, 12 min)
Winter Has Come – Ice Festivities at Temse (Clemens De Landtsheer, 1933-1934, 5 min)
Jules Van Hevel Tribute (Clemens De Landtsheer, 1935, 9 min)
Clemens De Landtsheer Short documentary by Daniël Biltereyst, Roel Vande Winkel and Erik Martens, 25 min