Movies in Belgium

By | April 14, 2020

Belgium has regularly given film talents to the French film industry, among them significant personalities such as director Jacques Feyder and screenwriter Charles Spaak.

Of the inter-war feature film directors, mention should be made of Gaston Schoukens with a.k.a. Tu ne sauras jamais (1927) and Les croix de l’Yser (1938), and Jan Vanderheyden with De Witte (1934). Of greater importance, however, were the documentary filmmakers Henri Storck and Charles Dekeukeleire, of whom Storck in particular made his mark internationally with films such as Images d’Ostende (1929) and Borinage (1933; in collaboration with Joris Ivens).

Movies in Belgium

A breakthrough for the feature film came when the Belgian state in the 1960s began to get involved in film production. André Delvaux received a lot of attention with his both gloomy and beautiful debut film De Man die zijn Haar short song (1966) and has since consolidated his position as Belgium’s leading director with introspective films such as Un Soir un Train (An Evening, a Train, 1968) and Rendezvous à Bray (1971). An outsider has been Chantal Akerman, with Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai de Commerce, 1080 Brussels (1975). Belgian animation films, including All night’s films about Asterix , Tintin and Lucky Luke from the company Belvision, have been widely distributed.

In the 1980s and 1990s, a slew of feature film directors have made their mark internationally, such as Dominique Deruddere with the Bukowski filming Crazy Love (1987), Jaco Van Dormael with Toto les Héros (Totos Merits, 1992) and Stijn Coninx with the big movie success of Daens (Father Daens, 1993). The brothers Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne have received a lot of attention with their socially realistic films. La Promesse (Promise, 1996), Rosetta (1999) and Le Fils (Son, 2002).