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Film: The Ordeal
Release date: 27th March 2006
Certificate: 18
Running time: 92 mins
Director: Fabrice Du Welz
Starring: Laurent Lucas, Jackie Berroyer, Philippe Nahon, Jean-Luc Couchard, Brigitte Lahaie
Genre: Drama/Horror
Studio: Tartan
Format: DVD
Country: Belgium/France/Luxembourg
The Ordeal is a film which lives up to its title to the most disturbing degrees. We have seen violent locals in the English countryside in Straw Dogs, Hillbilly cannibals in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and house invaders in rural Austria with Haneke’s Funny Games. Set in the deep French countryside, we are presented here with some country folk the likes of which we have never seen before.
Marc Stevens is a young cabaret singer who travels and performs in rural Belgium. Following a show at an elderly peoples’ home, Marc turns down the advances of two women - the first of which is one of the home’s residents - but Marc is set to attract the affections of much stranger suitors.
On the move through the wilderness of the Ardennes, Marc’s van breaks down on a country road. An oddball stranger guides him to the home of recluse Mr. Bartel in search of a place to stay for the night. Bartel is more than happy to have Marc stay, and offers his home until Marc’s van is fixed. The two connect over their love of entertainment; Bartel claims to have once been a comic. However, Marc soon notices some oddities in Bartel.
The man begins looking through Marc’s belongings, opposes him leaving to go to the nearby village, and becomes more and more distressed as he tells Marc of his estranged wife. Marc awakes one morning to discover his van being destroyed before he is knocked unconscious.
Marc awakes later bound to a chair, he has been dressed in a ladies summer dress and Bartel is shaving his head to make him unattractive to the other villagers. Bartel is convinced that Marc has more than just a passing resemblance to his wife, and gives a chilling warning: “Try to leave me again and I’ll split you like a log…”
Du Welz’s psychotic horror presents some deeply affecting images, but the comic tone is undeniable - were this not the case, it would make the film very hard to watch. The influences are clear, and we are treated to an ensemble of snarling farmers, perverted villagers and leering pub regulars - it is like watching an extreme version of the locals from Straw Dogs.
Fans of extreme cinema are in for a treat as Du Welz is not shy to push the boundaries - the sustained tone of weird is set about early on as we see a desperate seventy-something lady reaching for Marc’s groin. This doesn’t quite serve to prepare us for the bestiality, sodomy and various other tortures to come, but is a definite signifier to get out while you still can!
Viewers less used to this sort of darker than night comedy may struggle to see the fun in it, but this is material the league of gents would find rife for parody. Whether it’s the perverted captor giving himself a cheeky eyebrow raise and wink bed getting into bed with Marc, or an elderly lady branding herself a “silly whore,” you will more often find yourself tutting and hiding a grin, as opposed to reaching for the sick bucket.
As controversial as the subject matter may be, some of the direction is undeniably sound, and we are treated to two unforgettable scenes. Fans of Irreversible will know cinematographer Benoit Dobie for his captivating stylistics, and he showcases them again here: a scene at Christmas dinner breaks into an insane mix of laughter and desperate crying as the camera circles the table. The panic and claustrophobia are portrayed with pace as the camera moves as frantically as the action it is capturing.
Viewers will remember also the pub scene for which this film will always be associated. As Bartel threatens and leaves a pub load of curiously sized, slack jawed yokels, the barroom breaks out into an almost ritualistic dance of the disturbed. The high-pitched piano is haunting and will stay in your head long after the film’s climax, but it is the image of the freaks on show bopping and stamping that really stays with you.
As the film’s protagonist Marc is more victim than hero, Laurent Lukas plays the part as dumbfounded as the audience - and it really is a strong performance. He is the most believable thing in the film, and his suffocating tears and cries of anxiety are heartfelt.
This is cinema at its most bizarre. Du Welz contributes a truly out of the ordinary addition to a sub-genre that rarely strays away from Hillbilly America. It is hard to watch but harder to turn away from. This will not be everyone’s cup of tea, but for fans of the excessive, this is a must see. LW
Film: A Town Called Panic
Release date: 22nd November 2010
Certificate: PG
Running time: 78 mins
Director: Stephane Aubier & Vincent Patar
Starring: Stephane Aubier, Jeanne Balibar, Nicolas Buysse, Véronique Dumont, Bruce Ellison
Genre: Animation
Studio: Optimum
Format: DVD
Country: Belgium/Luxembourg/France
A spin-off of the Aardman Animation backed series of shorts produced in Belgium, Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar’s French-language film version of A Town Called Panic is just as memorable and bizarre as its TV progenitor. The film is as low budget as they come, yet the lovingly created herky-jerky stop motion animation shines through the miniature plastic and papier mache backgrounds to create something quite unique.
The surreal plot (such as it is) of A Town Called Panic follows the comedic mishaps and calamities in the lives of a horse named Horse (Vincent Patar), a cowboy named Cowboy (Bruce Ellison) and an indian named, you guessed it, Indian (Stéphane Aubier).
Attempting to surprise the fairly sensible Horse for his birthday, dim-witted Cowboy and Indian attempt to surprise their equine friend by ordering exactly fifty bricks to build a barbeque. The only problem is that through a mishap in their online order, fifty-million bricks are ordered instead, where subsequently Horse and co’s house is flattened due to a stack of bricks being placed on the roof.
This kicks off a chain of events that sees the lo-fi animated trio go on a series of oddball adventures, ranging from freefalling towards the centre of the earth to being held hostage inside a giant snowball-firing mechanical penguin in a snow covered landscape, and chasing a family of underwater dwelling creatures who have built a house from the stolen walls of the three friends…
The biggest part of A Town Called Panic’s charm lies in its deliberately low-budget and rough around the edges appearance. In many instances, the plastic toy characters waddle along on a flat toy stand which keeps them upright (most comical in the cases of Cowboy and Indian). Indeed, the lo-fi charm of the whole painstaking stop motion production process is evocative of Aardman produced classics such as Wallace & Gromit (even if a little more crudely produced), so it’s no surprise that the company distributed the original television series preceding this feature-length version. The clever homemade ingenuity of directors Aubier and Patar (makers of the similarly styled Cravendale milk ads) is unmistakably present throughout the film, with the plastic and papier mache made miniature sets adding to the surrealism of the whole story.
As the brilliant animators at Pixar know well, there is great humour to be found in the interactions between toys brought to life. Except in A Town Called Panic these toy figures also live in a wacky world suiting their off-the-wall characters, where a horse can read a newspaper and drive a rickety car and a cowboy and indian can make online internet orders for fifty-million bricks. The central relationship between the toy trio is strangely endearing and hilarious, where Horse often plays the straight man (so to speak) to Cowboy and Indian’s often annoying, shouty stupidity.
The bizarre events that the friends go through are often frenetic in pace, and, as such, the 78 minute runtime seems to fly past from sequence to sequence. This means that what there is of a plot can often be confusing and hard to keep up with as a result; where one moment the toys are falling towards the centre of the earth and the next are landed in a desolate snowscape populated by animatronic giant penguins and angry mammoths.
However, Aubier and Patar never cease to make these events anything less than highly entertaining through the ingenious low budget visuals employed, particularly in the snow and water scenes (in addition to the fact that seeing a horse swimming underwater wearing a snorkel is just intrinsically funny). Indeed, the seemingly random and chaotic sequences of fantastic events that occur merely add to the film’s huge sense of fun. For instance, in one scene, in the underwater section, Cowboy, Indian and Horse pretend to be Santa and his helpers to lure the water people into a trap in order to retrieve back the walls for their house. The colours and actions of the animated characters are extremely well animated here, where the animators’ creativity shines through the obvious low-budget necessities. The fast pace and surrealism of events is perhaps even more admirable an achievement by Aubier and Patar when considering the notoriously laborious and time-consuming nature of stop motion animation.
The voice cast (including Aubier and Patar themselves) add a lot to the onscreen characters, from Cowboy and Indian’s high-pitched panicked chatter to the calmly seductive voice of Horse’s equine love interest Madame Longrée (Jeanne Balibar). The French voice cast is universally excellent, yet it is perhaps the voice of Steven (Benoit Poelvoorde) the next door neighbour of the main trio who steals the show with his permanently angry persona. This makes a scene where the underwater people invade his house even more comical, where the rapidly cried line “Oh no! My farm!” is bound to invoke at least a chuckle from the hardiest of souls.
A home-made slice of stop motion brilliance, A Town Called Panic is nothing more than 78 minutes of ingeniously produced joy. Perhaps a longer running time would be too much in the crazy world of Horse and friends, although the film is bound to raise laughs if only out of its sheer madcap inventiveness. DB
Animated plastic toys like Cowboy, Indian and Horse have problems, too.
Cowboy and Indian's plan to surprise Horse with a homemade birthday gift backfires when they destroy his house instead. Surreal adventures ensue as the trio travel to the centre of the earth, trek across frozen tundra and discover a parallel underwater universe where pointy headed (and dishonest!) creatures live.
With panic a permanent feature of life in this papier mache town, will Horse and his girlfriend ever be alone?
Each speedy character is voiced - and animated - as if their very air contains both amphetamines and laughing gas.
Film: A Town Called Panic
Release date: 8th October 2010
Certificate: PG
Running time: 78 mins
Director: Stephane Aubier & Vincent Patar
Starring: Stephane Aubier, Jeanne Balibar, Nicolas Buysse, Véronique Dumont, Bruce Ellison
Genre: Animation
Studio: Optimum
Format: Cinema
Country: Belgium/Luxembourg/France
Film: Daughters Of Darkness
Release date: 30th August 2010
Certificate: 18
Running time: 96 mins
Director: Harry Kuemel
Starring: Paul Esser, John Karlen, Delphine Seyrig, Daniele Quimet, George Jamin
Genre: Erotica/Horror
Studio: Optimum
Format: DVD
Country: Belgium/France/West Germany
Newlyweds Stefan and Valerie are celebrating their spontaneous marriage in Childen Manor, Ostend, Belgium, when things take a turn for the worse, and certainly for the bizarre. A plot thick with surreal and thrilling events; Harry Kümel screens a rather original (if not still a little predictable) take on a vampire horror surrounding a ghoulishly grim honeymoon with a difference!
Everything seems to be running smoothly, and in the normal post marital fashion for honeymooners Stefan and Valerie - even in the middle of winter, at a seaside resort, they appear perfectly happy as though nothing could spoil their joyous bliss. This is until they realise they are not the only guests staying in Childen Manor. The Hungarian Countess Elizabeth Bathory and her faithful assistant Ilona are also occupying a suite close by.
From here on in, strange episodes come to pass, arising suspicion between Stefan and Valerie, and the Concierge Pierre, who swears the Countess has not changed or aged one bit in the forty years since he last set eyes on her in the Manor as a young boy.
News reports of sadistic occurrences begin to emerge: three young girls, all virgins, and all patently beautiful, have been murdered by way of blood drainage in close by towns, leaving not a shred of evidence in order to begin looking for a perpetrator. Stefan, too, begins to act warily different, and even more so when the two mystifying women are present, expressing a deeper interest in the dead, and especially for those of the recent corpses.
It is increasingly obvious that the Countess and her assistant are up to no good, but are noticeably skilled in covering their tracks. However, when Elizabeth gets carried away one night in an oddly pleasurable description of her ancestors’ means of claiming eternal youth via killing and drinking the blood of copious virgins, there is no doubt who the true slayer is. The question is, will Stefan and Valerie live to enjoy a lengthy married life together, or will they be the next victims of the ferocious Countess and her partner in crime Ilona?
The performances are well delivered, despite one or two slightly over dramatic scenes from Valerie, and a few unclear audio moments, helping us feel a part of the action. It is possible to feel afraid for the fated couple, but, simultaneously, feel empowered at the idea of holding the control and beauty of Elizabeth.
An interesting element of cinematography is used between scenes, where the screen is filled with the colour red, whilst an accompaniment of horror harmonies is played before the next scene is quickly cut to - indicating the vast bloodshed to be expected. However, despite a couple of nice scenes in Bruges, there aren’t many interesting landscape shots or captivating screen fillers, as most of the film is shot inside the hotel or outside in the dark of night. Besides the pretty faces, there’s little beauty on screen.
The idea of sexual yearning is present throughout, and portrayed between Valerie and Stefan, as well as Ilona and Stefan, but there is an emphasis upon lesbianism, too, with a seemingly sexual relationship portrayed between the Countess and Ilona, and also amid Countess and Valerie nearing the end: “Did you see her skin, her lips?”
It must be said that although the film is a fine piece of cinema for its time, and would certainly have made an impact in the 1970s, it reveals its age in certain scenes with the predictable lines and plot developments - for example, a vampire’s struggle for eternal youth and what this leads them to do to mere humans, and the sexualisation of such characters and their prey. In saying this, the film does hold surprising plot twists, which are admirable and add to the intriguing quality Kümel has acquired and displayed. The ending, in particular, deserves credit for the way in which it is shot and revealed.
Vampires, virgins and violence: the perfect recipe for a fierce and haunting piece of terror fuelled cinema. For a 1970s horror film, Harry Kümel comes out on top, but in comparison to a horror film of today’s standards, Daughters Of Darkness simply doesn’t measures up. VMF
Film: JCVD
Release date: 2nd February 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 93 mins
Director: Mabrouk El Mechri
Starring: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Francois Damiens, Karim Belkhadra, Jean-Francois Wolff, Anne Paulicevich
Genre: Crime/Drama/Action
Studio: Revolver
Format: DVD
Country: Belgium/Luxembourg/France
As an actor, Jean-Claude Van Damme is a strange man. It is not often one could reasonably assert that, as a career has dwindled, the performances have grown better. Gone are the days of Timecop or Bloodsport - films characterised by oiled muscles and flashy action - in their place we see performances like that witnessed in Until Death: gritty, downtrodden, filthy and ultimately fantastic. JCVD is one of the latter.
JCVD tells the story of a 'real-life' Jean-Claude Van Damme as he tries to come to terms with a broken marriage, tax problems and a dwindling career. Now, initially one might read that and wonder how exactly a film so exclusively about one man's personal problems could be considered an action/crime drama. However, having established Van Damme as a hugely sympathetic character who has seen his life more or less fall apart around him, Director Mabrouk El Mechri places him in the midst an attempted post-office robbery in Belgium - an attempt to juxtapose his real-life problems (many of which are based on reality) with problems his previous characters have historically been faced with. In doing so, the film allows Van Damme a return to what he is famous for, without ever ceasing to be self-aware or relentlessly 'real'.
Working in support are Herve Sogne as the brilliantly downtrodden police lieutenant attempting to reconcile what he and the general public perceive to be going on (i.e. That Van Damme has robbed the post office) with what his better judgement is telling him. The disjointed (and occasionally outright neurotic) criminals, played by Fracois Damiens, Jean-Francois Wolffe and Karim Belkhadra, do a fine job of placing Van Damme in an apparently untenable position. Will he protect those who have also been taken hostage, let the police work it out and hope for the best, or join with the criminals in order to ease his spiralling debts? It is a question asked frequently of him, and ultimately leads to a bitter-sweet conclusion…
The star performer, without a shadow of a doubt, is Van Damme himself who, for essentially the full 97 minutes, is the focal character, and the hub around which all of the action flows - and make no mistake about it, there is action in this film. Perhaps not as much as a fan of his previous work might be used to, and perhaps not in the same style, but the film deliberately and cleverly compromises ostentatious action for a sense of realism that compliments Van Damme's portrayal of a character that is, for all intents and purposes, himself.
In fact, the action is almost below-par in some scenes, and this is not down to it being poorly executed, but merely because at times it just doesn't seem to suit the mood. Indeed, part of what makes Van Damme's character so sympathetic are the occasional day dreams he has where he fantasises about taking out all the bad guys single-handedly. This is poignantly demonstrated when, in one of the final scenes, what Van Damme's character can do is powerfully contrasted with what he as a man is capable of. This is a theme that runs right the way through the film: an attempted humanisation of someone who is so frequently (both within the film, and the wider world) viewed as a stereotype. The weakened action hero is a role that could really go both ways, but such is the power of Van Damme's performance that how we feel about his character rarely comes into question. While this may ostensibly be a film about action and crime, at its heart there lies the story of man still trapped by his past successes.
The film, set almost entirely within the shuttered-up post office, or the shop across the road which becomes the base of operations for Sogne, attempts to establish a claustrophobic atmosphere in order to compound what is going on inside the protagonists mind. It is always ambitious to limit oneself so directly in terms of where you can shoot (although recording actually took place across Belgium, Luxembourg and France); however, the setting occasionally feels too drab. That is not to say that the attempt at realism doesn't work, just that the best moments of the film are the parts where Van Damme revisits former glories in his own mind. Never is this more evident than during the films finest moment when a nearly-broken-but-still-fighting Van Damme turns to the camera and delivers a heart-breaking soliloquy about his life, drugs, infidelity and money. It is as enthralling as it is tragic, and could only have been delivered by a man such as Van Damme; someone who has experienced first-hand and can therefore imbue it with real emotion. This and other scenes like it are what make this film more than just another low-budget action flick. One could argue that they would not work as well if they weren't so starkly contrasted with the boring, real-life interior of the post office set, but it would have been nice to have more of them.
As a 15 certificate, one might expect JCVD to deliver slightly more bang for your buck in terms of action, so those who are hoping for a straight-up guns-blazing kind of film might be better suited to some of Van Damme's previous work. However in terms of acting talent on show, quality of writing and emotive content, it is hard to be dissatisfied with what it offers.
Rarely do former action-stars branch out as brilliantly as this and, although the film is not without its flaws, JCVD provides proof that the ‘Muscles from Brussels’ is as much heart as he is biceps. JC
Film: Man Bites Dog
Release date: 9th October 2000
Certificate: 18
Running time: 92 mins
Director: Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel & Benoît Poelvoorde
Starring: Benoît Poelvoorde, Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel
Genre: Crime
Studio: Tartan
Format: DVD
Country: Belgium
Shot on a shoestring budget by a group of Belgian film students, this documentary-style black comedy went on to win numerous awards at Cannes, and across Europe.
Ben is a charismatic serial killer who makes his by living stealing from his hapless victims. Joined by a group of filmmakers, Ben is given a chance to share his wisdoms with the world, from explaining the intimate details of how to sink a dead body, to the mating patterns of pigeons.
Taking the crew through his daily routine of murder, thievery and rape, he still finds time to introduce them to his family and friends. As the relationship between Ben and the crew develops, they find themselves plunged further and further into his world, dealing with deaths, rivalries and other such “occupational hazards” to their own lives, but all the time keeping an unshakeable commitment to their film...
Simultaneously directed by and starring a group of adventurous film students, it would be easy to expect something run of the mill, it is, however, far from this. Its documentary style fits perfectly, constantly crossing and blurring lines between reality and fiction, achieving a realistic and believable mock documentary. From Shane Meadows' Le-Donk Vs Scor-Zay-Zee back to Spinal Tap, no other mock documentary film has possessed the subtlety which makes this such a success.
This falls massively on the shoulders of Benoît Poelvoorde as the films anti-hero Ben. His role as poet, philosopher-cum-serial killer is powerful enough to move from loveable to truly disgusting within a single sentence. The film opens with a brutal murder, portrayed with shocking reality and raw, unrelenting detail, though this is instantly contradicted with the almost cartoon-like Ben explaining the techniques for sinking the dead bodies of midgets and children in a brilliantly dark yet hilarious tone (this sets you up perfectly for the remainder of the film).
Our misguided leading man sees himself as a man of high society, known in exclusive circles of the art world, as well as a musician, food and drink connoisseur, boxer extraordinaire and poet. A generous, loving, well educated scholar, he is naturally made to be a star. This is far from true, with Ben being a twisted macabre character - racist, sexist, perverted and exploitive but with tongue so deeply in cheek it's almost coming out the other side. A wannabe Hannibal Lector, but more akin to The Office’s David Brent.
The ability of this film to truly move between the realms of reality and fiction is its true genius. Ben's family are the best example of this. They are the filmmakers’ family, in true low budget student film style, yet seem so attuned to the presence of the camera, it borders on documentary, yet Ben stands among them with such comfort and style that you can truly believe he is part of this family unit, with all its charm and character still so intact.
This is complimented by a technical knowledge that sits almost invisible within its own surroundings that it draws you in all the more. Seamless editing brings you through what could so easily be quite a long drawn out scene in a matter of seconds. At times feeling like a precursor to the likes of The Blair Witch Project, it can shock and disorient with skilful use of sound and handheld camera techniques - in fact, the last shot of the film is near identical to that of The Blair Witch Project. Also, when Ben robs a suburban household after being mocked by the film crew for only preying on old women, the death of the whole family is shown in realism and style with handheld camera shaking its way through woods and darkness.
The film does drag towards the end, when the film takes a more serious turn - losing its otherwise masterful sense of pace and rhythm in what feels like an attempt to hit the feature length time limit, but this does not take away from the enjoyment of this cult classic. The biggest compliment is that the film rarely reveals its student film roots, whilst mocking them with a sensibility that gives it a depth missing from so many films of a similar ilk.
A true masterpiece and a cornerstone for low budget film, Man Bites Dog (C'est Arrivé Près De Chez Vous) is created with such skill and creativity that it shall remain a timeless classic forever deserved of its cult reputation. JP
