Van Hees’ Dirty Mind on display

29/01/2009

This week’s line-up has a European flavour, as five films from the continent hit Belgian screens.

Local director Pieter Van Hees’ Dirty Mind [+see also:
trailer
film profile] – produced by Caviar Films – is being launched by Kinepolis. Van Hees won acclaim in 2008 with his horror film Left Bank [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which attracted almost 40,000 viewers and claimed tenth position in the box office rankings for Belgian film.

Dirty Mind tells the story of Diego, an introverted, unassuming and shy man, who wakes up transformed after an accident. Melancholy Diego disappears and becomes Tony P, a loud-mouthed pilot with a hectic life. While a young neurologist tries to understand the reasons for this transformation, Tony has only one thought on his mind: seeing Diego disappear forever.

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Van Hees describes his film as a cross between The Big Lebowski and Bridget Jones, a meeting of opposites. Exploring the workings of the brain, Dirty Mind is the second instalment of a trilogy entitled Anatomy of Love and Pain, which began with Left Bank (centred on the body), and will close with A Love Supreme (focused on the soul).

Also hitting theatres this week is German director Uli Edel’s The Baader-Meinhof Complex [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which looks back at the activities of the Red Army Faction, a terrorist-communist group. The film – which has enjoyed popular and critical success (over 1m admissions in Germany in 10 days) – was selected to represent Germany at the Golden Globes, Oscars and BAFTA Awards.

The title was produced by Germany’s Constantin Film AG, France’s Nouvelles Editions de Films, and the Czech Republic’s GT Film Production.

Other European releases include Gilles Bréhat’s Diamond 13 [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (co-produced by Belgium’s Artemis), which sees a head-on confrontation between Gérard Depardieu and Olivier Marchal; and two Norwegian films: Arne Lindtner Naess’ SOS for young viewers, and Bent Hamer’s festival favourite O'Horten [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile].