BELGIUM

By: Kenji

The Man Who Had His Hair Cut Short (1965), by André Delvaux- a teacher develops a crush on a teenage student and decides to smarten up his appearance.
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BELGIAN CINEMA

Belgium is essentially a bi-lingual country divided into the Dutch (Flemish)-speaking north and the French-speaking south. There is also a small community of German speakers in the border region with Germany. Belgium is further a federal country made up of three regions (the Flemish Region, the Walloon Region and the Brussels-Capital Region) and three language communities (the Flemish Community (Dutch-speaking), the French (i.e., French-speaking) Community and the German-speaking Community). Due to these linguistic and political divisions it is difficult to speak of a national, unified Cinema of Belgium. It would be more appropriate to talk about Flemish or Dutch-language cinema of Belgium and Walloon or French-language cinema of Belgium.

Early History
While the invention of the cinématographe by the French Lumière brothers is commonly regarded as the birth of cinema, a number of developments in photography preceded the advent of film. Among the people pioneering work on animation devices was a Belgian professor of experimental physics Joseph Plateau. Plateau, who was active at the Ghent University invented an early stroboscopic device in 1836, the “phenakistiscope”. It consisted of two disks, one with small equidistant radial windows, through which the viewer could look, and another containing a sequence of images. When the two disks rotated at the correct speed, the synchronization of the windows and the images created an animated effect. The projection of stroboscopic photographs, creating the illusion of motion, eventually led to the development of cinema.

The first public projection in Belgium took place on March 1, 1896 at the Kings Gallery in Brussels. In the following years there was a surge in activity, initially dominated by the French industrial Charles Pathé. One of his assistants, Alfred Machin founded the first production studio in 1910; some of his films are still preserved in the Royal Filmarchive in Brussels. The first Belgian movie producer was Hippolyte De Kempeneer, who produced several interesting films until his studio burned down in 1923. In 1929, the aristocratic Henri d’Ursel directed a notable dreamlike short The Pearl while Henri Storck’s For Your Beautiful Eyes also had a surreal quality.

The Pearl (d’Ursel) elegant erotic dreamlike silent

1930 – 1980
During the 1930s several prominent figures such as Charles Dekeukeleire and Henri Storck experimented with new filming techniques and founded the Belgian Documentary School, which was long regarded as one of the highlights of Belgian Cinema. Among Storck’s documentaries was Borinage, (1933, co-directed with Joris Ivens), on the struggles of a mining region. Directors such as Jan Vanderheyden also explored the possibilities of the medium, adapting popular literary works such as De Witte of Ernest Claes. De Witte proved to be a pivotal work in the history of Belgian Cinema. The film was a tremendous popular success and would spawn a future remake and a TV series that was widely acclaimed in its own right. However its rightwing politics are contentious.

While attempts to produce serious feature length films frequently met with difficulty, Belgian animated films slowly gained a reputation abroad, led by animators such as Raoul Servais, who won several awards throughout the sixties in a career that culminated with a Golden Palm for best short feature in 1979 for Harpya.

From 1964 on, government subsidies for cinema helped pave the way for a new generation of filmmakers such as André Delvaux (De Man Die Zijn Haar Kort Liet Knippen/ The Man Who Had His Hair Cut Short, after Johan Daisne’s novel), Roland Verhavert (Pallieter, after Felix Timmermans’s novel) and Harry Kümel (Malpertuis). 1975 saw the landmark feminist masterpiece Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, by Chantal Akerman, widely regarded as among the most important, assured and formally daring female directors- its status cemented in the 2012 Sight & Sound poll, highest placed film by a woman. Lesser known film-makers Guido Henderickx and Jean-Jacques Andrien also impressed in 1975 with respectively Verbrande Brug and Le Fils d’Amr est Mort.

Jeanne Dielman (Akerman) Landmark minimalist feminism in long takes (of household routines) and pastels

1980 – 2000
In 1981, Andrien’s admired Walloon film Le Grand Paysage d’Alexis Droeven addressed both a bitter conflict between Flemish and Walloon inhabitants, and also dramatic changes affecting the agricultural world. In the 80s there was a move from stagy rural based traditions towards more personal and gritty filmmaking, led by people such as Marc Didden (Brussels by Night) and Robbe De Hert (Blueberry Hill, Brylcream Boulevard). 1985 saw the release of the ambitious but spectacular failure De Leeuw van Vlaanderen, written and directed by Hugo Claus, after Hendrik Conscience’s novel. Belgian acclaim in animation continued with an academy award for best animated short in 1987 with A Greek Tragedy, by Nicole van Goethem.

Belgian cinema enjoyed international prominence during the 1990s with such films as Man Bites Dog (with Benoît Poelvoorde), Daens (directed by Stijn Coninx), Rosetta (directed by the Dardenne brothers) and Toto le Héros (Toto the hero) by Jaco Van Dormael. Toto le Héros was a popular and critical success, winning both the César Award for best foreign film and the Camera d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

Peter Brosens has taken a keen interest in what happens far away from his native land; his debut an award-winning documentary filmed in Ecuador in 1992, “The Path of Time”, followed by his internationally admired Mongolian documentaries “City of the Steppes” (1993), “State of Dogs” (1998) “Poets of Mongolia” (1999) and “Khadak” (2006). His latest foray into far horizons is Altiplano (2009), a drama set in the High Andes.

In 2000, Dominique Deruddere’s Everybody Famous! was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Like Rosetta, the socially committed Dardenne brothers’ 2005 film L’Enfant won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Other important Walloon directors include Fabrice du Welz, Lucas Belvaux, Bouli Lanners and Vincent Lannoo.

Toto the Hero (Van Dormael)- popular childhood comic drama

Present
In 2003 Erik Van Looy’s stylish detective movie The Alzheimer Case (known internationally as The Memory of a Killer) was well received. In 2008, Van Looy’s follow up thriller Loft opened to rave reviews in Belgium, and had twice as many opening weekend admissions as The Alzheimer Case. The film won several awards and has been in talks for a remake. BenX directed by Nic Balthazar became an international success after its release in 2007 and won multiple awards all over the world. The movie was the Belgian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film in 2007 but failed to receive the actual nomination.

Classic literary works continue to be adapted, in particular the work of Willem Elsschot, and often in coproduction with Dutch film companies.

Adapations of new literary works are also frequent. The Misfortunates directed by Felix Van Groeningen and released in 2009 is an adaptation of the book De helaasheid der dingen by Flemish writer Dimitri Verhulst. The film won several awards including the Prix Art et Essai at the Cannes Film Festival’s Quinzaine des Réalisateurs and three Golden Starfish Awards at the 17th Hamptons International Film Festival. The film is the official Belgian entry for the 82nd Academy Awards in 2010 in the category Best Foreign Language Film. Another example of a film adaptation of a modern novel is the 2007 movie Ex Drummer directed by Koen Mortier that was based on the book by Herman Brusselmans of the same name. In 2011 The Kid with a Bike by the Dardenne brother proved among the critically admired films of the year internationally.

Belgium also annually hosts several film festivals, the most important of which are the Flanders International Film Festival-Ghent and the Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film

(wikipedia + additions, alterations by Kenji)
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Rosetta

“The heart that is low now will be at the full tomorrow” (R.S.Thomas)

The award of the 1999 Cannes Palme d’Or to Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne’s “Rosetta” met with general surprise and confusion. Screened at the very end of competition, the film had slipped through a crowd of acclaimed rivals, unheralded and largely unnoticed.

Reminiscent of Bresson’s “Mouchette”, it concerns a teenage loner who lives in a run-down Belgian trailer park with an alcoholic mother, battles desperately to find work and is obliged to draw on her own resources to survive – emotionally and physically – a tough, bleak life.

In “Rosetta” the hand-held camera clings to the central character like an umbilical cord. Yet such is the film’s rigorous authenticity and power that it breaks free of its constraints and soars.

This achievement owes much to the director’s searching unsentimental honesty but more still to an outstanding, intensely concentrated performance from young Emilie Dequenne. Inhabiting her character in her breathing, her posture, in every minutest detail, Dequenne simply is Rosetta. Vulnerable, burdened and suspicious, but fiercely, at times ferociously, determined, she is a seemingly indomitable warrior with no trace of self-pity, charged with an extraordinary feral force.

From its dramatic expressive opening, in which Rosetta’s walk conveys a world of meaning, the film is endowed with scenes of memorable impact, most notably the near-drownings and the tender, reassuring repetitions with which Rosetta sends herself to sleep.

“Rosetta” might even be said to justify Godard’s famous statement that film is the truth twenty four times a second, and never more so than in its final moment. Mercilessly hounded by a young man whose friendship she had betrayed, Rosetta at last crumples in tearful, defeated exhaustion. By resolutely continuing to focus not on his reaction but on the girl herself, the Dardennes capture an expression which conveys a wonderful sense of compassion, acceptance and hope.

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Films in main list below, by year. It is not intended to be a complete listing of all things Belgian, but most notable and essential films. Belgium did pretty well in last year’s Auteurs World Cup, topping the group with USA, Czech Republic and S.E.Asia, before going down to China. Agnes Varda is from Belgium but i’m only including indigenous/officially Belgian films here, including Le Départ by the Pole Jerzy Skolimowski which won the Golden Bear at Berlin in 1967

Not on Mubi:

Verbrande Brug
Le Fils d’Amr est Mort
Le Grand Paysage d’Alexis Droeven
Ultranova

oh and some famous Belgians- Tintin (picture above) and Poirot are fictional. So many murders with Poirot around- by the laws of probability, how could he not be the culprit?. Also: Pieter Paul Rubens, Eddie Merckx (probably the greatest cyclist), Kim Clijsters, Justine Henin, Jackie Ickx, René Magritte, Rogier Van der Weyden, Gerard David, Jacques Brel, Herman Van Rompuy (1st EU President), Django Reinhardt, Pater Damiaan (Catholic missionary), Paul Janssen (scientist), Hergé. Argentinian writer Julio Cortazar was born in Belgium.

Belgian inventions include French fries and the saxophone

Van Der Weyden: Deposition