André Delvaux’s final feature film, based on the novel L’oeuvre au noir (Het hermetisch zwart/The Abyss) by Belgian-born novelist Marguerite Yourcenar, tells the story of Zeno, a doctor and alchemist whose quest for knowledge takes him around 16th-century Europe. The film focuses on the end of Zeno’s travels, when he has returned to Bruges to contemplate his life. Living quietly under an assumed name, he treats the sick in one of the town’s religious houses. But once his identity becomes known, the church authorities put him on trial.
Tag: BELGIUM
In Macedonia, former Yugoslavia, two Sheikhs squabble for power in a Dervish brotherhood. In this fragile, unsteady society, far from God and traditional Sufism, their petty quarrel focuses on the issue of which group will pierce themselves at the Nevruz ceremony. Through the rivalry between these two characters, who correspond to two opposing archetypes of religious leaders, the documentary offers a living glimpse of spiritual experience at a popular level which, despite the humorous situations and extraordinary images, may shock our sensitivity.
Mathieu Grégoire is an esteemed author who lives in Spa with his wife and daughter and leads a carefully structured life. One day, while out in the desolate landscape of the High Fens he meets a mysterious woman whom he calls ‘Belle’. An obsessive passion is kindled in Mathieu and in a short space of time he loses all control over his existence.
A police chief goes in search of a professor who has mysteriously disappeared after death threats. Throughout the investigation, he is obsessed with the presence of small erasers and seeks to escape a strange fatality. Variation of the Nouveau Roman inspired by the myth of Oedipus.
Mompelaar is a withdrawn young man who lives with his domineering mother somewhere in the Flemish countryside. One of his daily walks through the fields is interrupted by a strange encounter with some locals.
Film professor Michael falls in love with one of his students and is confronted with his pupil’s father, with whom he had an affair over 15 years ago. This unexpected meeting abruptly overturns the lives of all the characters. When the tutor decides to undertake a planned trip to London, not with the son but with the father, he is once again forced to choose; this time between his wife and his friend.
Edward Monskii, is in a very bad shape, and Botter Gaarman, obviously tired, are in the terrace of a coffee of a Mediterranean city, ready for a long time prepared mission. When a quite old man, Ernest Carpentier, joined their table, the situation becomes tense and dangerous.
Francis, a 16-year-old boy, is unaware of any connection he may have to his new teacher, but it clear that the weight of the past is heavy burden on Olivier. While struggling to maintain a professional distance in Francis’ presence, he can’t stop himself from following the boy through the training center hallways and through the city streets after class. In vain, Olivier tries to understand the motivations of his acts, however, as the film advances, they slowly come to know each other and the relationship between the two psychologically bruised characters is strengthened.