Brussels, a Belgian story
Through various works, Belgian directors make a point of presenting us with a Brussels that is strong in character. In 1972, the Brussels director Chantal Akerman painted a dark and harsh capital in her workJeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Brussels . The film depicts the daily life of a Brussels woman who, following the death of her husband, has to prostitute herself to support her son. Akerman's film is the masterpiece of her career and an inspiration to such renowned directors as Gus Van Sant and Michael Haneke. A year later, Benoît Lamy directed Home Sweet Home and gave Belgium some of its first international awards, including Best Film at the Montreal Film Festival and the Special Jury Prize in Moscow. Among the famous filmmakers from Brussels is Jaco Van Dormael, born in 1957 in the commune of Ixelles. After the triumph of Toto le héros (partly shot in the Cité du Logis in Watermael-Boisfort), Van Dormael came to the Belgian capital for a second time in 1996 to shoot his feature film The Eighth Day. This sensitive work depicts the meeting between Harry (Daniel Auteuil), a workaholic, and Georges (the Belgian Pascal Duquenne), a young man with Down's syndrome. In another register, Olivier Van Hoofstadt released Dikkenek in 2006, a work in the tradition of C'est arrivé près de chez vous (1992). This comedy, which has become a cult film in Belgium, is set in Brussels and features a host of well-known actors: Marion Cotillard, François Damiens, Mélanie Laurent, Catherine Jacob, Jean-Luc Couchard, Dominique Pinon, etc. Like C'est arrivé près de chez vous, Dikkenek divided the critics, going from "silly and perverse" to a masterpiece of humour in a split second. In 2008, the plot of the film JCVD (by Mabrouk El Mechri, a Franco-Belgian-Luxembourg co-production) takes place in the commune of Schaerbeek and revolves around an emblematic Belgian figure, the famous Jean-Claude Van Damme. In 2009, Brussels director Nabil Ben Yadir made a name for himself with Les Barons. Shot in several neighbourhoods of the Belgian capital (Molenbeek, Saint-Gilles, Forest...), this comedy follows the daily life of four unemployed friends who are experts in shenanigans and present themselves as the Barons of the neighbourhood. In 2014, filmmaker Erik Van Looy directed the very American thriller Vertigo. That same year, God also sits in Brussels in Jaco Van Dormael's The Very New Testament (2014). Poelvoorde plays an ugly, dirty, mean God who has his job turned upside down by his daughter's decision to leak the date and time of death of every person on Earth. Little Ea then sets out to find six new apostles to write the "brand new testament". As for Black by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (an adaptation of two novels by Flemish writer Dirk Bracke), it shows a dark and violent Brussels, that of urban gangs. This hard-hitting film will open the doors of Hollywood to the two directors
Events and institutions
In 1938, Brussels acquired a major asset in terms of cinema: the Royal Belgian Film Archive (Koninklijk Belgisch Filmarchief in Dutch). Founded by the filmmaker Henri Storck, the journalist André Thirifays and the politician Pierre Vermeyien, the aim of this institution is to select and preserve a collection of films whose particularity is to have a historical, aesthetic or technical aspect that transcends time. In other words, works that could be described as "cult". The Cinematheque also collects a wide range of documentation relating to the world of the 7th art. More commonly known as Cinematek
, it also organises screenings of the works stored, to the delight of Belgian and international film buffs. As far as events are concerned, every year Brussels hosts numerous festivals honouring Belgian cinema in all its forms, starting with the most famous of them all: the Magritte Film Awards (named after the famous Belgian painter René Magritte), the equivalent of the Césars in France. For the record, since 2012, a strange and self-proclaimed Académie des Machins has been handing out "in all partiality and in the worst faith" awards to the shadowy men of Belgian cinema, the technicians. Thus, on the eve of the Magritte ceremony, the entire small world of Belgian cinema gathers in good spirits to perhaps have the opportunity to win a Moule d'or... A prize that reflects Belgian humour. As far as festivals are concerned, let's also mention the BIFFF (Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival), the Brussels Film Festival or the BSFF (Brussels Short Film Festival). Brussels is also home to the renowned Institut national supérieur des arts du spectacle (INSAS), which trains new technicians for the film industry. Benoît Poelvoorde and Rémy Belvaux graduated from this institute and are currently directing C'est arrivé près de chez vous as part of their graduation project.Internationally
In Belgium, there is a tax exemption initiated by the federal government to encourage the development of the audiovisual sector in the country. It encourages companies to invest in the audiovisual sector in exchange for an attractive tax break. As the Tax Shelter is available to all Belgian companies or Belgian branches of a foreign company, it considerably increases the development of the film industry in the flat country. In this context, many international film shoots come to Belgium and the capital. Among the most famous are Chez Gino (2011, by Samuel Benchetrit) whose plot takes place entirely in Brussels, Boule et Bill (2012) by Alexandre Charlot and Franck Magnier, The Art of Running Away (2012) by Stephen McCauley, De rouille et d'os (2012) by Jacques Audiard, starring Marion Cotillard and Belgian Matthias Schoenaerts, Michel Gondry's L'Écume des jours (2013), Dany Boon's Supercondriaque (2014) and Tom Hooper's The Danish Girl (2015) (also starring Matthias Schoenarts), which gives us some great shots of the Parc Royal in Brussels as well as the café À la mort subite. In 2018, it's the impressive Kursk by the famous Dane Thomas Vinterberg, which passes by the Excelsior establishment on Place Cardinal Mercier in the commune of Jette. More recently, Brian de Palma is passing through several Belgian cities, including Brussels, for his film Domino: The Silent War (2019, with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Guy Pearce and Carice van Houten).
