13/04/2011

Everyone knows Belgium is a country split in two by a deeply-entrenched linguistic boundary and Belgian audiences only rarely cross this dividing line when it comes to films. The (re)release in Wallonia of Michael R. Roskam’s Flemish film Bullhead [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bart Van Langendonck
interview: Michaël R. Roskam
film profile] is therefore something of an event.

A little over two years ago, Flemish cinema enjoyed its greatest hit of all time with Erik Van Looy’s compelling American-style thriller Loft [+see also:
trailer
film profile]. Loft managed to amass 1,200,000 admissions and dominate the year’s Belgian box-office rankings through Flemish audiences alone, with the exception of a few Francophone Brussels residents who made the effort to go and see the film phenomenon that somewhat slipped under the French-speaking media radar at the time.

After this surprise hit, questions were asked about this cinematic split. In 2009, The Misfortunates [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Felix van Groeningen
film profile], boosted by its Cannes auteurist label, was released nationwide. As for Belgian Francophone films (often selected for festival screenings), they are often exhibited in major Flemish cities too (Antwerp, Ghent and Leuven). Little by little, the boundary is therefore becoming more porous, as today’s release of Bullhead in Namur, Liège, Charleroi and Mons shows.

Bullhead is shaping up to be the Flemish hit of the year. By early April, it had already drawn more than 400,000 viewers, after a little over two months on release. We can therefore expect the film to surpass the 450,000 admissions garnered by The Misfortunates, thus becoming the third best-performing Flemish (and Belgian) film at the Belgian box office since 2000, after Loft and The Alzheimer Case (800,000 admissions).

We may nonetheless wonder why the film is being released at a later date in Wallonia. Indeed, the French-speaking press covered the “national” release in February, so it’s somewhat old news. Whatever the case, the porousness of the linguistic boundary in cinema, which is already happening on a professional level, can only help strengthen Belgian cinema as a whole.

(Translated from French)