Kümel is a Belgian director and screenplay writer. As a young man, he received several awards for his short films. He worked as a program director for television, first in Belgium and later in Netherlands. Afterwards, he worked as a professor at the Netherlands Film and Theatre Academy. He made many short and documentary films, such as the short film about the Italian actress by the same name, Claudia Cardinale (1966) and Josef von Sternberg, een retrospektieve (1969), a documentary about the Austrian filmmaker whom he knew personally. He also devoted his feature film Monsieur Hawarden (1969) to Sternberg. Later he made Le rouge aux lčvres (1971), a campy horror involving sex, lesbians and vampires, inspired by his contemporary Jean Rollin. The critics did not accept his next film very well, and after Malpertuis (1972), the film adaptation of Jean Ray’s novel, Kümel turned to television and made the TV series Série rose (1986-1990). He returned to feature films occasionally and made Het verloren paradijs (1978), The Secrets of Love (1986) and Eline Vere (1991)