ESOC CinéClub history

07.02.2025

The Ciné-Club at ESOC was founded by Serge Rodgold in the 70s. At that time, it was difficult for francophones in Darmstadt to get access to French language films. There was no cable or satellite TV to receive international channels, DVD or Blu-ray and not even Streaming! The expatriate was much more isolated from the home country than is the case now.

At first, large reels of 16mm films were projected in the canteen at ESOC for the francophones. Alain Schuetz was one of the volunteers who ran the club for many years. During his time there video cassettes took over and were projected on to a screen in a small room at ESOC.

When Gerard Servoz came along, he thought that it was unfortunate that French language films were only accessible to club members and their families at ESOC. He wanted to bring French film culture to all inhabitants of Darmstadt. In the early 90s, he took the initiative to start a collaboration with the student cinema at the Technical University Darmstadt (Studentischer Filmkreis an der TU Darmstadt). From this point on, films were shown on 35mm film, and the film club took on the form that we know it as today. He not only created the logo, but also the tradition of the small Belgian chocolate logo as a welcome gift at the screenings.

When Gerard sadly died, far too early in 2007, Fabienne took over the Ciné-Club. During her time, there was the last change of film medium. In 2013, the studentischer Filmkreis at TU Darmstadt bought a digital projector, which significantly increased the availability of films in the original language with subtitles. The collaboration remained a success, with 30 years of joint cinema work celebrated in 2023. However, this year also marked the end of Fabienne’s time as President of the Ciné-Club, as she retired and so resigned from the club.

Simona Nichiteanu then took over as president and is currently writing the next chapter in the club’s history.

We are delighted that former presidents have documented their memories, which you can read below. And even though this page only mentions the presidents in the text above, we would also like to thank all the volunteers who have been involved in the history of the Ciné-Club.

The memoires of Serge Rodgold

(Founder of the ESOC Ciné-Club):

It was the British who first started an English language film club at ESOC. So the projection facilities already existed when I came in. I contacted the French Institute in Frankfurt to get hold of films in French. These were films worthy of the cinémathèque on rue d’Ulm and other Parisian experimental cinemas (Huchette, Pagode, Ursulines, etc.).

The audience was very small which created an intimate atmosphere. To round off the evenings, I had baguettes and garlic sausage brought in from France, particularly Strasbourg. With great pleasure, we washed these down with a rough red, which helped us to attract even a few non-French speaking members.

Parisian cinephile friends gave me the address of a movie rental company, which allowed us to show more recent films. One of them comes back to me especially. It was a very funny film about the rugby tournament of the five nations. The film’s message was ‘We’re the Best!’, and the subject attracted some English colleagues who we consoled their defeat in the film with sandwiches and a better quality wine (Brouilly). As we were often away on a mission, the responsibility of running the club was shared between colleagues.

During one of my last trips to Darmstadt, I learned that there was an ESOC Ciné-Club night scheduled, so I decided to stay over just so I could attend. By then, the Ciné-Club had already moved to Audimax. I was totally overwhelmed by the number of spectators who numbered dozens, if not hundreds.
Wonderful!!!

The memoires of Alain Schuetz

(president of the ESOC Ciné-Club from ≈1975 – 1985):

I took over the club around 1975. The reels of 16 mm film arrived by special courier the day before the screening and had to be returned the next day to be distributed to several other clubs in Hessen. The sessions were held in the canteen, but, as the number of B&W classic French films available was limited, pretty much the same movies were shown every two or three years and, as a result, the number of spectators decreased. But with advances in technology we moved on to project films from video cassettes in a small room on the top floor of the Meteosat building. It was Gerard Servoz who obtained the tapes, from a Belgian distributor, I think. Even though the films were more recent, the audience was still fairly small. In 1985, Serge and I went to Pasadena, California, to carry out the first launch attempt of the Ulysses satellite.

A word from Karin Servoz, wife of Gerard Servoz

(president of the ESOC Ciné-Club from 1985 – 2007):

Gerard found a very creative way to express his love of chocolate! As the Ciné-Club was quite successful and made a profit, and as we were often in Belgium, he thought that the Ciné-Club could offer a little chocolate snack with each ticket. The motif was initially a coffee cup. Once, during a business trip, he received chocolates made with the logo of the firm and thought that he could do the same for the Cine Club. Soon after, on one of our trips to Brussels, he contacted a small chocolate company specialising in logos and they then made the chocolates for the Ciné-Club using a mould that Gerard had a lot of fun in designing.

The memoires of Fabienne Delhaise

(president of the ESOC Ciné-Club from 2007 – 2023):

I took over the club in very sad circumstances. When Gerard Servoz knew that he would not survive cancer he sent out an email to all at ESOC asking for someone to take over the running of the club. As I had always been a fan of French cinema I accepted his invitation. Our job was to select the films, order and pay for them. To choose the 9 films per year we would often see up to 20 films in the cinema when we were in France or Belgium plus on DVDs bought in France. We also often used recommendations given to us by the Filmkreis and our audience. At first, the 35mm films arrived on enormous reels which were delivered to the Filmkreis* who arranged their projection. They also sold the tickets and banked the money in the Ciné- Club account. With this money, we could continue to the marvellous idea of Gerard Servoz to hand out Belgian chocolates made in the shape of our logo. We used to collect them from an artisan chocolatier “Concept Chocolate” in Brussels before each season. Delicious!

Then, in late 2013, the Filmkreis bought a digital projector. From this point on, only the Filmkreis could order the videos which arrived on a hard disk encrypted so that they could only be shown on the Filmkreis’s projector. It made sense then, for the students to handle all the finances which consisted of taking the ticket monies and paying for the video rentals. Our job then became to choose the films, send out the newsletters and to maintain the internet site plus introduce each film in the Audimax.

On December 13 2019, I was very pleased to invite members of the Filmkreis to ESOC. Daniel Werner took them for a guided tour, before we had lunch in the canteen. We were most fortunate with the timing as soon after, the COVID lockdown began and the Filmkreis had to close from early 2020 to November 2021.

On February 2 2023, the Filmkreis organised a champagne celebration with the screening of the French classic “Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain” (see photo) to mark the 30 years anniversary of the collaboration between the ESOC ciné- club and the Filmkreis. Kim and I were presented with beautiful bouquets of flowers and made to feel like royalty! A heartfelt thank you Filmkreis!

In December 2023, Kim Dorin and I were nominated by the Filmkreis for a certificate of honour for deserving citizens. On April 30 2024, we received the award from the mayor of Darmstadt at a ceremony at the Orangerie. Many thanks to Andreas Holzbeck (see photo) and the Filmkreis!

As I will be moving to Belgium after my retirement, I decided at the end of 2023, it was time to hand over the running of the ESOC ciné club. After much publicity within ESOC, Simona Nichiteanu took over as president. We are very fortunate to have found such a dedicated and competent French film cinephile.

I would like to sincerely thank our team:

Kim Dorin who helped me choose the films and maintained our website
Rachel Majchrzak our treasurer
Silvia-Beate Rottschäfer and Ulli Gräf who helped with translations into German.

It has been an immense pleasure working together with such professional, helpful and friendly Filmkreis members and I will take warm memories of my time in the ESOC ciné club with me in my retirement.

*the Filmkreis (Studentischer Filmkreis an der TU Darmstadt e.V.) is the Darmstadt Technical University (TU) student cinema. https://filmkreis.de