(Days of Heaven)
There’s no point denying it. Brussels has seen far better film summers. This year, there will be no PleinOPENair, no Drive-In, no Cinédécouvertes/L’Âge d’Or, no Écran Total. Galeries is the only cinema bravely to resist the trend with L’heure d’été, a festival that brings Texas to Brussels.
It’s a great idea to forget New York and Los Angeles for once and to focus on the southern United States for a film festival. Texas has more to offer than the Bush dynasty and overwrought soap operas about oil barons from Dallas. Terrence Malick, for example.
Malick
All the films by the perfectionist mystic-film aesthete are being reprised. His two first films can be watched for free because they are being shown on big, open-air screens in the sports area of Brussel Bad/Bruxelles les Bains. L’heure d’été is thus linking the section at the cinema in the Koninginnegalerij/galerie de la Reine to an outdoor section. Malick only needed one film to put himself on the map in 1973. In Badlands, he combined a crime story (two alienated youths leave a trail of death and destruction in their wake) with lyrical visuals that transport viewers to higher planes. When the bucolic Days of Heaven also received effusive praise in 1978 but drew only very small crowds, the son of a Texan oil merchant withdrew for twenty years. Malick only re-emerged in 1998. At least, one of his films did: The Thin Red Line. The notoriously shy, retiring artist avoids all public appearances. He didn’t even go to collect his Golden Palm for The Tree of Life.
L’heure d’été: Brussels, Texas
(The New World)
Of all the films he made after his return, The New World is the most underestimated. In this radical, impressionist, grandly lyrical variation on the story of Pocahontas, he records the birth of the country to which he feels so connected, America.
Nichols
L’heure d’été is highlighting another of the directors we’re very partial to: Jeff Nichols. His Mud (see our film overview) is the best new film to be released this summer. Take Shelter was his earlier revelation. In that ominous story, an ordinary family man is plagued by nightmares about an apocalyptic storm, builds a hurricane bunker, and drags his family down into his spiralling, but possibly justified madness. Michael Shannon – the same actor we saw in Nichols’ directorial debut – played the lead.
Of all the films he made after his return, The New World is the most underestimated. In this radical, impressionist, grandly lyrical variation on the story of Pocahontas, he records the birth of the country to which he feels so connected, America.
Nichols
L’heure d’été is highlighting another of the directors we’re very partial to: Jeff Nichols. His Mud (see our film overview) is the best new film to be released this summer. Take Shelter was his earlier revelation. In that ominous story, an ordinary family man is plagued by nightmares about an apocalyptic storm, builds a hurricane bunker, and drags his family down into his spiralling, but possibly justified madness. Michael Shannon – the same actor we saw in Nichols’ directorial debut – played the lead.
(Take Shelter)
Shotgun Stories is a modern Greek tragedy about an escalating feud between the two families of a deceased patriarch. The Nichols section is complemented by three films from his own top ten favourites: North by Northwest by Alfred Hitchcock, Dreams by Akira Kurosawa, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind by Steven Spielberg. The choice of the latter is funny because in the press file for Take Shelter, Nichols was described as “a complex hybridization between Malick and Spielberg”. And Nichols makes no attempt to hide his admiration for Malick. In fact, Take Shelter featured Jessica Chastain, Malick’s muse from The Tree of Life. For Mud, he rang up Tye Sheridan, the little boy from The Tree of Life.
Gordon Green
Another director to be profoundly influenced by Malick is David Gordon Green, the third man L’Heure d’Été is highlighting. Malick was even credited as the producer in Gordon Green’s Undertow: an atmospherically dreamy film about two young brothers who run away from their abusive uncle.
Shotgun Stories is a modern Greek tragedy about an escalating feud between the two families of a deceased patriarch. The Nichols section is complemented by three films from his own top ten favourites: North by Northwest by Alfred Hitchcock, Dreams by Akira Kurosawa, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind by Steven Spielberg. The choice of the latter is funny because in the press file for Take Shelter, Nichols was described as “a complex hybridization between Malick and Spielberg”. And Nichols makes no attempt to hide his admiration for Malick. In fact, Take Shelter featured Jessica Chastain, Malick’s muse from The Tree of Life. For Mud, he rang up Tye Sheridan, the little boy from The Tree of Life.
Gordon Green
Another director to be profoundly influenced by Malick is David Gordon Green, the third man L’Heure d’Été is highlighting. Malick was even credited as the producer in Gordon Green’s Undertow: an atmospherically dreamy film about two young brothers who run away from their abusive uncle.
(Undertow)
His debut George Washington was about four teenagers who spend a holiday in the southern USA unsupervised by their parents. When one of them dies in an accident, they each have to process feelings of sadness and guilt in their own way. His latest film, Prince Avalanche, is supposedly a comic road movie starring Emile Hirsch (Into the Wild) and Paul Rudd (one of Judd Apatow’s favourites). After a strong start, David Gordon Green’s career faded somewhat, and he seems to have moved in the direction of commercial comedies.
Linklater
Richard Linklater is best known as the director of the dialogue-driven films he makes every nine years with Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke. Before Midnight was recently released in cinemas. L’Heure d’Été is more interested in three other films by the director who purposely ignored Los Angeles and, in his native city of Austin, founded the Austin Film Society and Austin Films Studios. The School of Rock starring Jack Black as a rock musician who finds himself teaching a class, is intended to amuse Brussel Bad/Bruxelles les Bains.
His debut George Washington was about four teenagers who spend a holiday in the southern USA unsupervised by their parents. When one of them dies in an accident, they each have to process feelings of sadness and guilt in their own way. His latest film, Prince Avalanche, is supposedly a comic road movie starring Emile Hirsch (Into the Wild) and Paul Rudd (one of Judd Apatow’s favourites). After a strong start, David Gordon Green’s career faded somewhat, and he seems to have moved in the direction of commercial comedies.
Linklater
Richard Linklater is best known as the director of the dialogue-driven films he makes every nine years with Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke. Before Midnight was recently released in cinemas. L’Heure d’Été is more interested in three other films by the director who purposely ignored Los Angeles and, in his native city of Austin, founded the Austin Film Society and Austin Films Studios. The School of Rock starring Jack Black as a rock musician who finds himself teaching a class, is intended to amuse Brussel Bad/Bruxelles les Bains.
(A Scanner Darkly)
There is also the interesting choice of A Scanner Darkly, an experimental animated film that we consider to be one of the better adaptations of Philip K. Dick’s paranoiac stories.
The cycle of these four Southern filmmakers will be supplemented with a selection of films that depict Texas and its impressive landscape, such as Paris, Texas by Wim Wenders, the western True Grit by the Coen brothers, and the cult classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. We only hope Tobe Hooper’s ode to the chainsaw doesn’t give anybody any ideas during the Cine Karaoke Brussel Bad/Bruxelles les Bains is organising on 6 July.
L’HEURE D’ÉTÉ • 5/7 > 10/8, indoor: €4/6, Galeries, Koninginnegalerij 26 Galerie de la Reine, Brussel/Bruxelles, outdoor: gratis/gratuit/free, Brussel Bad/Bruxelles les Bains, heuredete.be
There is also the interesting choice of A Scanner Darkly, an experimental animated film that we consider to be one of the better adaptations of Philip K. Dick’s paranoiac stories.
The cycle of these four Southern filmmakers will be supplemented with a selection of films that depict Texas and its impressive landscape, such as Paris, Texas by Wim Wenders, the western True Grit by the Coen brothers, and the cult classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. We only hope Tobe Hooper’s ode to the chainsaw doesn’t give anybody any ideas during the Cine Karaoke Brussel Bad/Bruxelles les Bains is organising on 6 July.
L’HEURE D’ÉTÉ • 5/7 > 10/8, indoor: €4/6, Galeries, Koninginnegalerij 26 Galerie de la Reine, Brussel/Bruxelles, outdoor: gratis/gratuit/free, Brussel Bad/Bruxelles les Bains, heuredete.be
Read more about: Events & Festivals , Film
Fijn dat je wil reageren. Wie reageert, gaat akkoord met onze huisregels. Hoe reageren via Disqus? Een woordje uitleg.