Belgium

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A sculptor is fighting his final battle against death on his houseboat on the frozen Schelde river. Two women are at his side: his first wife, who he is divorced from, and his second wife. The latter is most concerned about his death as she realizes that in the end the only result will be irrevocable loneliness. She wants to postpone the fatal moment and therefore tries to find comfort in her reminiscences from the times when she was happy with him. A story about fidelity till after death.Read More »

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A young girl shuts herself away in her apartment and goes about her business in a strange way, as she wastes the night in her apartment.Read More »

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What I have the honor of reviewing here is something totally unique and probably ranks quite high on the worldwide list of obscure Sci-Fi/horror movies. “The Afterman” is a Belgian post-apocalyptic thriller, but even in its own country of release (which is really small) it only received a minimal distribution and finding a decent copy on VHS is about as rare as encountering a salsa-dancing elephant. Fortunately – or unfortunately if you wish – there are not many people on the lookout for this film and that’s mainly either because they don’t know it exists or because the reputation of writer/director Rob Van Eyck isn’t exactly favorable around here. His most famous film “Blue Belgium”, inspired by the infamous Mark Dutroux pedophilia scandal, is generally considered as one of the worst Belgian movies ever and doesn’t really stimulate viewers to check out the director’s other works. Too bad, actually, since “The Afterman” is a truly special and deeply intriguing cinematic experiment, accomplished with an absolute minimum of financial means yet with a massive amount of controversial themes and downright shocking ideas in the screenplay.Read More »

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The Conscript (Dutch: De loteling) is a 1974 Belgian drama film directed by Roland Verhavert based on the eponymous novel published in 1850 by Hendrik Conscience. It was entered into the 24th Berlin International Film Festival. It was also selected as the Belgian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 47th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.Read More »

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A singular work in film history, Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles meticulously details, with a sense of impending doom, the daily routine of a middle-aged widow—whose chores include making the beds, cooking dinner for her son, and turning the occasional trick. In its enormous spareness, Akerman’s film seems simple, but it encompasses an entire world. Whether seen as an exacting character study or one of cinema’s most hypnotic and complete depictions of space and time, Jeanne Dielman is an astonishing, compelling movie experiment, one that has been analyzed and argued over for decadesRead More »

This is the DOGMA film number 20.
An excellent film about dominating factors in theatre schools over innocent apprentice acting students. Their relations with teachers, directors, stress and competition in auditions, etc. A moving topic pseudo-document realistic film.
( from IMDB )Read More »

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Peace in the Fields takes place around 1925. Stanne a wealthy Flemish farmer, is alleged to have murdered his fiancée 20 years before. Although the case against him was dismissed fierce resentment still burns between his family and that of Johanna, the victim’s mother. And then the farmer’s son falls in love with the girl’s younger sister. Johanna forbids their marriage and her old enemy starts to feel again the pangs of conscience, the need to confess the crime.Read More »

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The story of a woman’s love for two young men. Antwerp, 1940. Lieve marries Adriaan, a Flemish idealist who is drawn towards Germany by the occupation to the Eastern Front. She shelters the resistant François in 1942 and discovers with him what love is really about. At the liberation, she’s reunited with a bruised and sentenced Adriaan. In spite of her passion for François, she cannot bring herself to abandon him in these trying circumstances. But she slowly drifts away from her husband, while she senses that François, who is monopolized by his career, is slowly drifting away from her.Read More »

A diverse group of people from different nationalities struggle to earn a living in a Belgian coal-mining town. Hoping to find a better life, the dreams are shattered when coal prices hit an all-time low and production wipes out the main industry and livelihood of the workers.

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What was supposed to be a documentary to show the progressive nature of Belgium in regards to its immigration policy, turned out to be something completely the opposite. Struck by what he saw, the director decided to take the funds issued to him by the Belgian government to make a film which showed life as it really was in the mining region of Borinage. The promise of a better life for the immigrants, which the Belgian government wanted to show, was nowhere to be found in this film. Instead, we look in on reality of life in Borinage, with staggering unemployment, and a feeling by many of displacement and homesickness.Read More »