PSIFF10: The Misfortunates (De helaasheid der dingen, 2009)—An Evening Class Question and Q&A With Felix Van Groeningen

Along with The Over the Hill Band and Altiplano, the third Belgian feature I caught at PSIFF10 was Felix Van Groeningen's The Misfortunates (2009), Belgium's official submission to the Academy Awards® foreign language category. Though it did not make the Oscar® shortlist, The Misfortunates won the Prix Art et Essai at the Cannes Film Festival's Quinzaine des Réalisateurs, and three Golden Starfish Awards (Best Feature, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography) at the 17th Hamptons International Film Festival.

Adapted from Flemish author Dimitri Verhulst's semi-autobiographical novel De helaasheid der dingen (The Alasness of Things), the condensely-entitled Misfortunates is—as Boyd von Hoeij writes at Variety—"a bittersweet meditation on whether familial love and pride are enough to sustain a proper upbringing."

As with its Belgian counterpart Altiplano, The Misfortunates frequently shifts its palette from black and white to color and so I felt compelled to open the Q&A questioning on that stylistic choice.

* * *

Michael Guillén: I'm intrigued with your shifting palette between color and black and white footage and—as I couldn't see that it had anything to do with temporal placement—I'm curious about this stylistic choice?

Felix Van Groeningen: Technically, the film was completely digital [it was shot on The Red] so all the effects—the grainy looks, or the black and white, or the yellow or blue grading—were decided upon and added afterwards during the editing. I could say something about that; but, I'll make my answer a bit wider and speak about how I work in general. Generally, I just like to experiment with things, to start off with an idea and see where it takes me, usually without knowing in the beginning why it attracts me or why it could be good; to try a lot of things with that; to discover why it could work or why it works even though I didn't think of it upfront.

I wanted to do something with black and white—that was one of the first ideas in the beginning when I started the film—because there's an important Belgian photographer who makes beautiful portraits of people and of things that are disappearing in Belgium. They have a beautiful atmosphere. That photographer inspired me to do something in black and white, which we decided to try when we were editing. The most stupid thing to do was to put all the scenes in the past in black and white and to do all the other scenes in color. Because I started with this idea that I wanted to do something with the black and white, we tried that; but, it didn't seem to work. How can we push this idea further? What does it mean, this black and white?

It started working when my editor said, "Maybe we shouldn't just use black and white; but, also different colors, and different looks that refer to photos?" Then we thought, "Okay, this could work." All the scenes that play in the past are like photos, as if Gunther (Valentijn Dhaenens) is looking through a photo album of his youth, wherein he sees black and white pictures, Polaroid pictures, or pictures that have become yellow and faded because of the sun. Then we just played with those colors during editing and it started working for me emotionally. It added to making the film a journey into the past, into melancholy.

On Shifting Emotional Registers Between Comedy and Drama

That was the main thing with this adaptation. It's an adaptation of a book. When I read it, I found a lot of things hilarious but I chose to make a film out of it because—when I read the scene where Gunther goes to his grandmother and thanks her—I cried and was really touched by then. That's the real reason why I thought I should make a film out of it because in that scene everything came together. Although a lot of melancholy comes into Gunther's adult life and he becomes really cynical, in that scene with his grandmother he's okay with everything and he thanks her. I found that beautiful. That's the reason when I read the book, I thought, "This story is worth making a film about."

But, yeah, there were hilarious scenes. For example, the scene where one of the uncles invents his Tour de France game had to be in the movie because it was so inventive and hilarious. When I was writing, when I was directing, when we were shooting or editing, what I constantly had to keep in my mind was: "Yes, it can be funny; but, it has to be this story of this little boy, this dramatic story." I worked a lot with the actors to develop the scenes to make them emotional, to not just have them drinking and having fun. All the scenes had to relate to how this little boy was feeling. Then it was a matter in the editing of shifting between the film's two emotional registers. To be honest, in the editing we also tried a lot of things and the final film is really different from the shooting script because in the first cut it didn't work, it wasn't doing what it had to do, so we had to rethink how the two stories could develop together, but especially how you could get into the story and ride the good feeling while on the other hand understanding from the beginning what the problem is about this boy.

On Drunk Parents Raising Children

I guess it' s still around, but this story really talks about Belgium 20 years ago and the author wrote it because he's also saying that these things are happening less now. He is really happy that he got out of his situation and that there are social workers who take care of that and who try to do something about it. So he's actually saying that it exists less and less, although that's not really true. In Belgium nowadays there still are kids who accompany their parents to the bar and who maybe sleep on the billiards because their dad is drunk; but, it happened a lot more 15 years ago.

On Whether Alcoholism In His Own Upbringing Influenced the Film

I had an uncle, yeah. My mom and dad weren't alcoholics but my father had a bar so I saw a lot of things. And then I had the alcoholic uncle. What I got from experiencing being with my uncle was that he could also have a great deal of fun. That's one of the things that I think is special about this film. That was also in the book. They're alcoholics and there's a lot of bad things going on but they're also having a lot of fun. It starts with a lot of fun and then it goes wrong. It always goes wrong also; but, it always starts out as a lot of fun.

On the Locations

Actually, it was quite hard to find the bars. We wanted real authentic bars from the '80s and the ones that we saw in the beginning, there were too many elements that were from today that were hard to take out. Then we found some empty bars and put all kinds of props to make it look like the '80s, to make it authentic. They are disappearing, those kinds of bars.

On the Film's Budget

The film's budget was about 2,200,000 Euros, which is a good budget for a Belgian film. It's not huge; but, it's a good budget.

On Using Natural Light

My DP would have wanted to use more natural light; but, because it was shot in digital—using The Red—you need some lights to make it look beautiful. If you shoot in 35mm you can use real natural light. If you have one bulb, you can make beautiful images with it. We didn't do that but that's because of the format, I would say.

On What He Would Change If He Had An Extra Day to Edit

Nothing. Actually I wanted to change some things before it got accepted at Cannes. We sent it to Cannes and we were waiting two or three weeks—the film was finished, the editing was finished—and we were waiting to hear if we were going to be accepted or not. I had the editing suite at my home and then I thought, "I think I can make it better" and I changed some things. I showed it to the editor and the producer and they were like, "Felix, don't do it. Now you're really pushing it." I couldn't let go of it. I didn't have this with my other films. It was very strange. My other films, when they were finished, they were finished. I worked really hard on this film. I felt that this film had to be a big step in my career and I wanted to make the best possible film. I just couldn't let go of it. I'm really happy that my editor and producer stopped me. I really would have blown it, I think, because I couldn't let go. Really. But now I'm okay with it. I will never ever change it.

On Whether His Future Plans Include Hollywood

I'm developing a new Belgian movie. Actually, it is fairly easy to make a film in Belgium compared to Hollywood, I've learned. There aren't so many people. Once you have accomplished a few films, it's fairly easy to go on. At this point. Maybe in 10 years it won't be that possible; but, now I think I have to continue making Belgian films because the strength of this film is also its authenticity. It would be a lot harder for me to make a film with the same authenticity in Hollywood. But, on the other hand, it would also be nice to make a film in Hollywood. Who knows?

Cross-published on Twitch.

TIFF09: HADEWIJCH—The Auteurs Notebook Interview With Bruno Dumont

In Bruno Dumont's Hadewijch, Céline (Julie Sokolowski, in a compelling first turn) has taken on the name of Hadewijch, the patron saint of the convent where she has been received as novice. At the convent her self-mortification in the name of Christ is disruptive to the rules of the nunnery; her behavior perceived as evidence of vanity. As penance, she is sent back into the world of her former life in hopes that she will gain a clearer understanding of how her spiritual calling might apply to the real world. Reluctant to re-enter the bourgeois environment of her Parisian diplomat father, Céline struggles with finding a way to reconcile her passion for God with her social world. She befriends two Muslim brothers Yassine and Nassir who introduce her to the dangers of religious extremism and force her to make a life-determining choice.

Bruno Dumont's Hadewijch boasted its world premiere in the Special Presentations Program at this year's Toronto International, where it was awarded the FIPRESCI Prize. At The Auteurs Daily, David Hudson has gathered reviews from the film's screenings at both Toronto and the NYFF.

My thanks to Stephen Lan for facilitating this interview, to Robert Gray for his interpretive assistance, and to Danny Kasman at The Auteurs for publishing the transcript, which can be found here.

Cross-published on Twitch.

ELDORADO—A Critical Overview

The San Francisco Film Society's longstanding working relationship with Film Movement ensures the theatrical exhibition of several festival-lauded films on the Sundance Kabuki's SFFS Screen. For this, Bay Area audiences should be especially grateful. Recently, Film Movement's collaboration with SFFS provided Munyurangabo; this week they're providing Eldorado (July 3-9); and in future weeks they'll be providing encore screenings of both La Ventana (July 17-23) and Lake Tahoe (July 24-30), which were featured at the 52nd edition of the San Francisco International Film Festival.

This week's entry, Belgian director Bouli Lanners' Eldorado—a "small but damn-near perfectly formed serio-comedy" (Leslie Felperin, Variety)—was selected for the 40th anniversary of the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs (Directors' Fortnight) at the 2008 61st Cannes Film Festival where it won Best European Film. Eldorado was likewise the official entry from Belgium for the 81st Annual Academy Awards (Oscars®), received a special mention at Italy's Pesaro Film Festival, and was nominated for a César for Best Foreign Feature.

Bouli Lanners—as profiled when Eldorado was featured in the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs—was born in Belgium in 1965, opposite an orchard. Painter, autodidact, he worked in a wide variety of jobs on film sets before becoming popular on Canal+Belgium with Les Snuls. Since then, he has directed films and played supporting parts in Belgian and French films. In 1999, he wrote and directed Travellinckx, a black and white Super 8 road movie which traveled the international festival trail. Two years later, Muno confirmed the director's singularity and was selected for the Directors' Fortnight. Not only has he directed Eldorado, but he is also the film's screenwriter, and one of its two lead actors.

With Eldorado, Lanners returns to the genre of the road film to express his sad, absurd tale of temporary companionship on route to disparate destinies. The skillful balance between humor and melancholy is—as Felperin states it—"just so" and the film "never puts a wrong foot forward in the direction of sentimentality or cliche." Plot points "that cruder hands might have milked for more pathos" are "unfussily revealed." As Melissa Anderson states in her Village Voice review: "When the traveling companions reveal their backstories, the monologues avoid mawkishness, further upending all low expectations of this frequently trite genre. In its final act, Lanners's film is smart and confident enough to acknowledge that certain lives are dead ends, while others get tired of just spinning their wheels."

Though Slant's Joseph Jon Lanthier found the film flawed for its "sheer incredulity", he astutely acknowledged the "visual chemistry" successfully (and comically) engendered by the "mismatched physiques" of the film's two leads: Yvan (played by Lanners) is "beefy", "overweight and unkempt", whereas Elie (Fabrice Adde) is "smack-scrawny", "incompetent" and "pathetic." In a Cineuropa interview with Aurore Engelen, Lanners admitted he was "immediately touched by Adde's "beanpole appearance" when they first met. He added: "Our Laurel and Hardy-like duo interested me, for it had definite comic potential. It was a question of striking the right balance so as to avoid crude parody, whilst still infusing a sense of humor." Lanthier picks up on the Laurel & Hardy riff, describing it as "bewhiskered" and "bohemian."

Not only is the visual chemistry between the two lead actors notable, but the beautiful and desolate summertime landscape of the Wallonia region of Belgium—"filmed to resemble a miniaturized American West" (Stephen Holden, New York Times)—is contrasted against claustrophobic car interiors. Lanners explained in his interview with Engelen: "[T]he car is a sort of artificial cocoon in which the characters come into close contact with each other. It acts as a catalyst in the relationship between Yvan and Elie. Trapped inside the car, they are forced to listen to one another and communicate. We were originally supposed to shoot the film in a Cadillac Eldorado (whence the title), as it fitted the mood of the film." This contrast between exterior and interior shots stages a compelling visual tension. Lanthier states: "[E]ffectively placed edits juxtapose wide shots of the overcast Belgian countryside with tight, in-vehicle close-ups to emphasize the characters' isolation—as though the duo has been expelled from the rural Eden in their very midst as a punishment for their social atrophy." At Trustmovies, James van Maanen observes that the wide-screen format used by Lanners and his cinematographer Jean-Paul de Zaetijd "produce some memorable vistas", yet the view the audience takes away is precisely "interior." He articulates: "The bond that forms between the two stems from the need and desire to help, and this keeps the movie on a kind of moral ground from which it never veers."

That bond is particularly poignant for being so fugacious and—before the final act's reveal—nearly mysterious. The look Yvan gives Elie when he recognizes the boy is an incompetent heroin addict—a look that seems almost like Yvan has fallen in love—belies a commitment limned with regretful hindsight. Matched against a countenance of concerned resignation at film's end, a depth trembles in Eldorado's seeming insouciance. The haphazard and absurd adventures of their shared road trip converts into precise meaning and acquired insight.

"Once Yvan and Elie reach their destination," Stephen Holden writes, "Eldorado turns into a sad contemplation of fractured family relationships and eternal regrets. Elie's mother (Françoise Chichéry) regards her wastrel son with the stricken look of a woman who knows in her bones that he is doomed but loves him with a hopeless desperation. When Elie briefly disappears and we hear in the background the shouts of a savage father-son battle, the mother clutches Yvan's hand, her eyes wild with grief and terror." What makes this scene so wrenching, however, is that the camera is held tight on the two of them looking at each other as they overhear the argument, and only belatedly backs away to reveal that they have been grasping each others' hands. And when Yvan drives away from Elie's parents' home, Elie looks back bereaved, muttering, "Mama." The breadth of this scene is devastating.

Holden interprets this as a reflection on "the consequences of forsaking human (especially family) connections to go it alone in the world. Because Yvan understands the personal cost of ignoring ties that bind until it's too late, he tries to be an older brother to Elie. But for men fleeing pain for the freedom of the wide open spaces, whether of Montana or Wallonia, the movie suggests, the price of that freedom may be an unbearable loneliness."

If, for some reason, you're unable to catch Eldorado at the SFFS Screen, Film Movement will be releasing the film on DVD come July 14th, 2009.

Cross-published on Twitch.