Belgium

  • Leos Carax – Gradiva (2014)

    2011-2020ArthouseBelgiumDramaLeos CaraxShort Film

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    Two minutes in which Carax attempts to reach the essence of Art : sculpture, Cinema, actress, music, gallery, myth…
    a delicious mixture;
    Godard influence is still here and will always be with Carax;
    The short seems like the continuity of the movie Holy Motors, with always the small frontier between reality and Art.Read More »

  • Marion Hänsel – Dust (1985)

    1981-1990BelgiumDramaMarion Hänsel

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    Quote:
    J. M. COETZEE’S ”In the Heart of the Country” (published here as ”From the Heart of the Country”) is written as a diary, in the fierce, scathing, half-mad voice of a woman living in near-isolation on a South African sheep farm. With its startling clarity and its paradoxically hallucinatory style, this brief 1977 novel would seem to be well out of any film maker’s reach.

    But Marion Hansel, a Belgian director, has attempted to adapt it anyhow, and has done a job that is creditable if in some ways incomplete. The remote, barren setting for the story, on the veldt in Cape Province, has been hauntingly evoked (though the film was shot in Spain). And the characters, played by well-chosen, visually striking actors, are given life and stature.

    Miss Hansel’s ”Dust,” which opens today at Film Forum 2, has a handsome look that manages, in the manner of the great American westerns, to be both classical and wild. If it lacks the surprise and complexity of Mr. Coetzee’s vision, and if its stillness sometimes borders on the becalmed, it nonetheless has a stark, streamlined manner and an underlying urgency.Read More »

  • Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani – L’étrange couleur des larmes de ton corps AKA The Strange Colour Of Your Body’s Tears (2013)

    2011-2020ArthouseBelgiumGialloHélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani

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    Quote:
    Some movies are watched. “The Strange Color Of Your Body’s Tears” is a movie you live inside. This new film from directors Helene Cattet and Bruno Forzani touches you repeatedly, inappropriately, from the front and, delightfully, from the rear. To synopsize the film is folly, though it will be fun to see viewers try. This is the magic that Cattet and Forzani have weaved from their debut effort “Amer,” a hypnotic trip down the giallo rabbit hole. Very few filmmakers today are working with a radical new vocabulary, but Cattet and Forzani are using genre of the past to toss us, shouting, into the future.Read More »

  • Dominique Deruddere – Crazy Love (1987)

    1981-1990BelgiumCultDominique DeruddereDrama

    Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us

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    Quote:
    Crazy Love is the story of one man’s life told in three nights over the course of twenty years. The movie follows one Harry Voss, focusing on his difficult search for love. In 1955 we meet 13-year old Harry, a starry-eyed boy whose idea of romantic love is fashioned by melodramatic movies from Hollywood. Introduced to the mysteries of sex by an older friend, he begins to realize the messiness and pain of love. His vision of his parent’s marriage falls to the sight of them grunting under the sheets. Next we join Harry at age 19, as he’s about to graduate from school. The poor boy is afflicted with one of he worst cases of acne it is possible to imagine, covering him from head to toe in horrible bumps. It is made clear that he has no social life and few friends. Although introverted and shy, he’s convinced by a buddy to attend the graduation dance and goaded into asking the object of his affections to dance. He’s unable to work up the courage until he wraps his face and head in toilet paper — but even when the young girl sweetly accepts his invitation Harry still feels rejected. The night ends with him drunk and arrested. Then we jump to the man at age 33, when Harry has become an alcoholic loner. He runs into an old friend at a bar and the pair goes on a wild night of drinking, culminating in the theft of a dead body from an ambulance. When the corpse turns out to be a beautiful young woman Harry suddenly seems to sober up, becoming serious. When Harry claims to be in love with the dead girl his friend is unsure of what to do, but reluctantly goes along with a makeshift marriage ceremony on the beach.
    Read More »

  • Peter Monsaert – Offline (2012)

    2011-2020BelgiumDramaPeter Monsaert

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    After seven years in prison, Rudy Vandekerckhove has set himself two clear objectives: get back to work as a washing machine repairman, and – more importantly – become reconciled with the family he had left behind. But despite the help and support of Denise, a retired hairdresser, and his friend Rachid, his plans fail. Just when a reunion eventually comes within sight, the past gets the upper hand again, and Rudy has to take the toughest decision of his life.Read More »

  • Bouli Lanners – Eldorado (2008)

    2001-2010BelgiumBouli LannersComedyDrama

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    Quote:
    Yvan and Elie are two loners who wander aimlessly through their lives. Yvan is a quick-tempered 40-year-old vintage car dealer while Elie is a young burglar and ex-junkie. One day Yvan catches Elie trying to rob him. Instead of beating him up, he becomes strangely attached to him and agrees to drive him home to his parents in his old Chevrolet. Yvan and Elie are both nostalgic about lost relationships, which is what leads them to undertake a bizarre journey through a region that is as spectacular as it is crazy. Both are trying to find the pieces of a puzzle that they want to put back together, but it might be too late.
    Read More »

  • Frédéric Fonteyne – La Femme de Gilles AKA Gilles’ Wife (2004)

    2001-2010BelgiumDramaFrédéric Fonteyne

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    Review from IMDB:

    The Title, Sadly, Says It All, 23 October 2006
    10/10
    Author: gradyharp from United States

    ‘La Femme de Gilles’ (‘Gilles’ Wife’) began as a novel by Madeleine Bourdouxhe and was transformed for the screen by Philippe Blasband, Marion Hänsel and Frédéric Fonteyne who also directs this stunning and controversial art piece. Certainly one of the most visually magnificent films of recent years (cinematographer Virginie Saint-Martin) ‘Gilles’ Wife’ succeeds on every level: the story is unique, the direction is liquid and languorous, and the cast is superlative.Read More »

  • Marcel Broodthaers – Le corbeau et le renard (1967)

    1961-1970BelgiumExperimentalMarcel BroodthaersVideo Art

    Quote:
    Marcel Broodthaers (January 28, 1924 – January 28, 1976) was a Belgian poet, filmmaker and artist with a highly literate and often witty approach to creating art works.

    He was born in Brussels, Belgium, where he was associated with the Groupe Surréaliste-revolutionaire from 1945 and dabbled in journalism, film, and poetry. After spending 20 years in poverty as a struggling poet[1], he performed the symbolic act of embedding fifty unsold copies of his book of poems Pense-Bête in plaster, creating his first art object. That same year, 1964, for his first exhibition, he wrote a famous preface for the exhibition catalogue;Read More »

  • Claude Misonne – Le Crabe aux pinces d’or AKA The Crab with the Golden Claws (1947)

    1941-1950AnimationBelgiumClaude MisonneCult

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    Description: Stop-motion animated version of the classic TinTin story. Tintin is informed by the Thompsons of a case involving the ramblings of a drunken man, later killed, found with a scrap of paper from what appears to be a tin of crab-meat with the word Karaboudjan scrawled on it. His subsequent investigation and the kidnapping of a Japanese man interested in talking to him leads Tintin to a ship also called the Karaboudjan, where he is abducted by a syndicate of criminals who have been hiding opium in the crab tins. Escaping from his locked room, Tintin encounters Captain Haddock, an alcoholic who is manipulated by his first mate, Allan, and is unaware of his crew’s criminal activities. Escaping the ship in a lifeboat in an attempt to reach Spain, they are attacked by a seaplane. They hijack the plane and tie up the pilots, but a storm and Haddock’s drunken behaviour causes them to crash-land in the Sahara.Read More »

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