Biography
Eric de Kuyper (born 2 September 1942) is a Belgian writer, semiologist, art critic and experimental film director. He graduated from the RITCS film school in Brussels in 1966 and later studied semiotics in Paris, obtaining a doctorate in 1979. He worked as a producer for Flemish television and taught film theory at Radboud University Nijmegen before serving as deputy director of the Dutch Film Museum from 1988 to 1992.
De Kuyper has directed several experimental features, including Casta Diva (1983), Naughty Boys (1983), A Strange Love Affair (1985) and Pink Ulysses (1990). He collaborated with Chantal Akerman on the screenplays for The Captive (2000) and Tomorrow We Move (2004), and contributed to her earlier film Je, tu, il, elle (1974). His work often explores themes of melodrama and homosexuality.
In addition to filmmaking, de Kuyper has published numerous autobiographical novels in Dutch and French, beginning with Aan zee in 1988, as well as essays on cinema, dance and semiotics. He received a Golden Calf Special Jury Prize at the Netherlands Film Festival for Naughty Boys.
