17/12/2012 - Les Arcs is screening an eclectic panorama of Belgian films, from Jaco Van Dormael to Koen Mortier, via the Dardenne brothers, Van Looy, Lafosse, and Lanners

After Hungary, Denmark, and Italy, the Les Arcs European Film Festival  has chosen to highlight Belgian cinema. As well as the two productions selected for its competition (Marc-Henri Wajnberg’s Kinshasa Kids [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Marc-Henri Wajnberg
film profile], as well as Brosens and Woodworth’s The Fifth Season ) and the premiere of Patrick Ridremont’s Dead Man Talking [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (photo), the festival is also showcasing the mad creativity of Belgian filmmakers over the last 20 odd years with screenings of 14 features and 6 shorts. The journey starts in 1988 with Picpic et André, Patar and Aubier’s first folly, and go right up to last year with Bouli Lanners’ The Giants [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
interview: Bouli Lanners
film profile] as well as Abel and Gordon’s The Fairy [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon
film profile].

The programming, of course, reflects the diversity of film production from both the north and the south of the country. Indeed, the 2003 success of Erik Van Looy’s The Alzheimer Case [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (in 2008, Looy directed Loft [+see also:
trailer
film profile], the Belgian box office’s all-time Belgian number one) seems to have paved the way for a whole new generation of young Flemish filmmakers whose universes are distinct and singular, and whose films include a social romance (Christophe Van Rompaey’s Moscow, Belgium [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]), a paranoid thriller (Alex Stockman’s Pulsar [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), and a cynical, wild bombshell of a film (Koen Mortier’s Ex-Drummer [+see also:
trailer
film profile]). As for French-language films, we go back a little further to Jaco Van Dormael’s arthouse hit and masterstroke (Toto le héros, Golden Camera in 1991) and the Dardenne brother’s first Cannes adventure (La Promesse in 1996). The noughties revealed a new generation of nationally and internationally renowned filmmakers, like Bouli Lanners (The Giants) and Joachim Lafosse (Private Lessons [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jacques-Henri Bronckart
interview: Joachim Lafosse
film profile]), who regularly attend Cannes, or even Frédéric Fonteyne, who was recently selected for Venice.  

In parallel to this retrospective, five Belgian film projects are also taking part in the Co-production Village. These include three first features: Samuel Tilman’s Le Bénéfice du Doute (Eklektik Productions), Jean-Julien Colette’s Rabbits (Hélicotronc), and Raf Reyntjens’ Paradise Trips (Caviar Film).

(Translated from French)