An entire flank of the festival palace in Cannes, also known as the bunker, is covered with meters high images of the latest feature films from Flanders and Wallonia. Costs a fortune, says Christian De Schutter, manager of Flanders Image, the export agency of Flemish cinema. ‘But it stands out more than some advertisements in foreign film magazines.’ Early in the morning of the first day of the festival, he is already busy with international sales agents who stop by the sleek Belgian pavilion in a corner of the palace. The placards are also there, with a record number of selections for the official program. Four titles stand out. closea drama about the intimate friendship between two 13-year-old boys of the Flemish super talent Lukas Dhont who was promoted to the Palm Competition, who caused a furore here in 2018 with his debut girl† Rebelthe ‘personal’ film about Flemish Syria-goers by the successful duo Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, which was awarded the midnight spot of honor in the programme, which is taking some time off before the festival to shoot their next Hollywood production batgirl† Then the Italian novel adaptation, which also went up for the Golden Palm The Eight Mountains†Le otto montagne by the celebrated film-maker Felix Van Groeningen and his directing wife Charlotte Vandermeersch. And finally the most guaranteed Cannes selection in advance Tori et Lokita, a social drama about two African refugees who moved to Belgium by the brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. The Walloon veterans and two-time Golden Palm winners, who erected their own pillar in world cinema from the post-industrial grounds around Liège.
beef head
Twenty years ago, when De Schutter manned a stand in Cannes for the first time, he was advised to ‘put himself a bit hidden’. After all, there was hardly any foreign interest in Flemish cinema. Tom Barman had recently smashed a door with Any Way the Wind Blows, his free and playful mosaic film from 2003 about life in Antwerp. In a ‘statement of intent’ provided with his film, the dEUS singer and failed film academy student grumbled about Flemish films: ‘I rarely recognize myself or my environment, it frustrates me that I have to resort to Spanish, French or Danish films.’ The Flemish Audiovisual Fund had also just been established, which promised to work on film culture. Then a long climb began. Michaël R. Roskam’s cattle hormones-crime boom beef head (with Matthias Schoenaerts) was a milestone in 2011. The same goes for Van Groeningen’s crushing musical family drama The Broken Circle Breakdown, from a year later. Both films were nominated for an Oscar and lifted the careers of the directors (also) to Hollywood.
In the meantime (with an interruption of the covid years), about 150 contacts from all kinds of foreign film parties travel to Flanders every year, to get acquainted with new Flemish films, series and their makers for three days. The guests invited by De Schutter are accommodated in a luxurious hotel and receive good food and drink. In addition to the programmers of international festivals, the scouts from streamers such as Netflix and Amazon are also among the invited. Spain also does it like this: a fully organized exhibition in Malaga for three days every year. Flemish directors hear regularly abroad: that De Schutter is worth gold. But the Flemish cinema oiler wants to put his share into perspective. ‘I can put a nice bow around it. But if what’s in the box is disappointing, people won’t choose the film.’
No harvest year
From the Belgian pavilion it is a short walk to the Dutch promotional tent on the Croisette. No posters here, but large television screens showing Ellie Lust upon entering: the former policewoman is now also an actress, in the ‘family film’ Buoys! Not selected for the Cannes film festival, but under the title kidnapped offered for international resale.
Unlike Belgium, the Netherlands is not experiencing a harvest year, here in Cannes. Not again. Paul Verhoeven (83) is the only Dutchman for whom the red carpet in Cannes never seems like a hurdle, but he now focuses on French films. In 2013, Alex van Warmerdam (69) once again broke the spell with his dark comedy Borgman† the first Dutch feature film in the competition for the Golden Palm in 38 years. The prestigious second program Un Certain Regard, from which a few new voices come through every year, also appears to be quite unattainable for Dutch directors these days. There, the last selection dates back to 2010: David Verbeek’s film about a burned-out professional gamer RU There†
‘It has to be better’, says Ido Abram, director of See NL. De Schutter’s Dutch counterpart can give an enthusiastic story about the Dutch film industry, and he will, in the coming days in Cannes. That the Netherlands is represented as co-producer and financier, that the Amsterdam Topkapi films contributed to Lukas Dhont’s competition film closethat the selection of the Dutch short animation film It’s Nice in Here (Robert-Jonathan Koeyers) for the program part Semaine de la Critique is very beautiful, and says a lot about the high quality of Dutch animation, or whether Dutch films regularly (also this year) appear at the festivals in Berlin, Venice or Sundance.
Yet. Every year the same story is heard: that there was one Dutch feature that was in the race for such a coveted spot in Un Certain Regard for a very long time, but it just didn’t get it. ‘It really is,’ Abram agrees. ‘Again this year. And a wonderful movie. I already put my money on it. Then why does it fail? I can’t explain that. They don’t really explain it either, in Cannes.’
Flemish golf
Dirk Impens (64) must be just about the most qualified Belgian to say something about the flourishing of Belgian cinema. ‘Beware of statements’, warns the producer of all Flemish films by Van Groeningen and those by Dhont. ‘It would be too good to attribute this to fertile soil or something, the Flemish policy. No, that sort of thing comes in cycles. Oh, I’m fine! Oh wait, now it’s bad! And then a year and a half later will be the new one nouvelle vague flamande discovers. I am happy with the selection for Cannes by Lukas, for whom I produced the film. And also happy for the Belgian competitors. But first of all, by farthe talent of those people.’
Impens was also a producer of the first films of the Dardennes in the 1990s. ‘They didn’t look like anything yet. But they had to make them to see that. Then they directed la promissory notefantastic movie. Wallonia was really not the earthly paradise for a film production. Yet they succeeded, because they are super talented and followed their own voice. It’s the same with Felix and Lukas. And I’ll say something old-fashioned: they work extremely hard and are never satisfied. As a producer you sometimes want to do something to them, because it is never good enough. Is that a result of policy? I do not think so. But let me mention the strictness of the Flemish fund, which is good: that you send 17 of the 23 projects home. Sorry, not good enough. Sounds paternalistic, but I have great respect for that. Those 17 filmmakers will curse you, so that’s just the way to go.’
Felix Van Groeningen (44) can – with pleasure – be amazed at the generation after him. ‘When I was a student, making a film was already something, something you didn’t do before you were thirty anyway. Now it’s like: you make a film and you take it to Cannes, or to the Oscars. Others do it, so that’s what we’re going for.’
Charlotte Vandermeersch (38): ‘There is a small danger in thinking that talent just happens, just get up. Young makers should be given the opportunity to develop. Not everyone can make a first film like Lukas and immediately follow such a course in the film world.’
Adil El Arbi (33) compares the Flemish film makers with the Red Devils, the national football team. ‘That suddenly a golden generation arises, which the next generation then leans towards. For Bilall and me it started with Van Groeningen and Roskam, those Oscar nominations. That gave us the feeling that something was really possible. Before that time, Flemish films were either resolutely commercial or resolutely arthouse.’
As a film student, Lukas Dhont (31) made the making-ofs of Felix van Groeningen’s films. “I grew up on his sets. I saw his talent, how hard he worked. For the first time I was so close to a director: Felix allowed it. I stood next to him and heard how he handled things: that enormous drive with which he communicates to everyone. Not only to his actors, but also to costumers who came on set.’
Viewed from the Netherlands, Flemish filmmakers often seem a little more familiar with the artistic side of filmmaking. ‘I have the feeling that we have come to realize that you can also reach an audience if you make more daring choices,’ says Van Groeningen. ‘Perhaps that has spread in Flanders. Ha, like a virus or something. Although we also make a lot of films that are very average.’
Vandermeersch: ‘I suddenly think of Rubens. You also have beautifully painted. But suddenly a southerner arrives who makes much fuller, fierce paintings. Lively, dripping with juices, very visceral. Well, I’m not saying that the Dutch don’t have that in them. But maybe we’ll let it flow a little more freely?’
Cannes 2022
The 75th edition of the Cannes film festival opened on Tuesday evening with the premiere of Coupez! (Final Cut), a slapstick horror pastiche by Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist), based on the Japanese horror film One Cut of the Dead (2017). Beforehand, Ukrainian President Zelensky addressed the gala audience from the screen: the film world must continue to make critical films about dictators, as Charlie Chaplin once did. Meanwhile, the continuously faltering online ticket system drives Cannes visitors to despair. According to the festival, this is due to attacks by ‘bots’.