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Close-up: Belgium takes a starring role in films

08:03 16/04/2017
Belgium has stood in for a variety of locations on film, from peculiar children’s homes to bohemian Paris – and it sometimes takes on a starring role as itself

Belgium is becoming a film star, appearing as itself and in countless disguises in an increasing number of movies. Local directors are devising new ways of portraying life in Belgium, while international productions are drawn here by incentives from the regional film funds and the Tax Shelter, which encourages private investment in movie making. Then there are the great locations, which mean that Belgium can be almost anywhere you want it to be.

Sum of Histories
Lukas Bossuyt, 2015, Belgium
Tourists head to Leuven for its ancient buildings and market squares, but this Flemish sci-fi thriller suggests another city, combining sleek high-tech offices and apartments with eco-friendly living. This future Leuven is extrapolated from the university’s campuses (particularly the engineering faculty at Arenberg Park) and other locations around town, from the Province House and the cemetery to cafes such as Zoff and De Blauwe Kater.

Diamant Noir
Arthur Harari, 2015, France
A family feud in Antwerp’s diamond trade provides the backdrop for this tense mixture of heist film and psychological drama. The best scenes unfold in the diamond workshops, but there are also encounters on the streets, on the banks of the river Scheldt, and in the city’s distinctive Central Station. Even the statue of Silvius Brabo throwing a giant’s hand into the river becomes part of the plot.

The Brand New Testament
Jaco Van Dormael, 2015, Belgium
“God exists. He lives in Brussels...” So begins the irresistible tag line of this irreverent comedy, in which God’s daughter causes chaos by revealing to the people of Earth exactly when they will die. Brussels makes its first appearance as a model, swept with rain as God (Benoît Poelvoorde) douses it with a watering can. But the action soon switches to the streets and parks of the real city, as the angry deity goes in search of his wayward child. And for the final act, there is a trip to the seaside at Blankenberge.

The Fifth Estate
Bill Condon, 2013, UK-Belgium
The story of Wikileaks and its founder Julian Assange (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) is a thriller that switches rapidly between Berlin, London and Reykjavik, with stops in Nairobi, Tripoli and Washington DC. Yet the route between them often passes through Belgium. There is a tense meeting with a source in the futuristic Liège-Guillemins station, a new media convention in Antwerp’s Museum aan de Stroom, and negotiations in the cafe on top of Brussels’ Musical Instrument Museum. Brussels streets also double for foreign locations, while interiors at the Hélécine castle in Walloon Brabant stand in for the White House.

Black
Adil El Arbi & Bilall Fallah, 2015, Belgium
This Romeo-and-Juliet tale of love between members of rival Brussels gangs unfolds in familiar locations across the city, yet it casts them in a dark and disturbing light. There are thefts among the luxury shops of Avenue Louise and running battles on the metro, while scenes in the gangs’ respective heartlands – the Marolles and the Congolese Matonge neighbourhood – underline the city’s racial divisions.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
Tim Burton, 2016, US
People assume that modern fantasy films are built inside computers, but Miss Peregrine’s home is real, though you will find it in Belgium rather than on the Welsh island of the film’s story. Castle Torenhof in Brasschaat, near Antwerp, was built towards the end of the 19th century by biscuit mogul Eduard De Beukelaar as a summer residence. Its eclectic style, with neorenaissance elements, makes it seem both authentic and eccentric, just right for Tim Burton’s unique visual universe.

The Danish Girl
Tom Hooper, 2015, UK
The life of transgender artist Lili Elbe (played by Eddie Redmayne) unfolds between straight-laced Copenhagen and bohemian Paris in the early 20th century. But the Parisian interiors come largely from Brussels, particularly the magnificent Art Nouveau of the Horta House Museum, the Hôtel Max Hallet and the Hôtel Hannon. There are also scenes in the brasserie A La Mort Subite and the Falstaff restaurant, a walk-through for the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert and a violent pursuit in Brussels Park, ending in blood on the bandstand.

The Expatriate
Philipp Stölzl, 2012, US
Security consultant Ben Logan (Aaron Eckhart) is baffled when the company he works for in Antwerp disappears overnight, its offices closed and his colleagues killed. The trail leads to Brussels, but following it puts his teenage daughter in the firing line. This cross between Taken and the Bourne films plays fast and loose with its Brussels locations, passing off streets from the capital as part of Antwerp. But there are tense action sequences at Bourse metro, the Hotel Metropole and the Justice Palace, while the real Central Station in Antwerp is used to stunning effect.

La Fille inconnue
Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 2016, Belgium
The socially aware films of the Dardenne brothers are strongly rooted in Belgium’s industrial south-east, a landscape of present desolation and past industrial grandeur that often constrains their characters’ lives. In their latest, a young doctor (Adèle Haenel) tries to discover the name of a girl who dies violently after visiting her surgery in Seraing late one night. This quest leads her from the banks of the river Meuse, where her body is found, via lost urban spaces such as underpasses and abandoned factories, into the backstreets of Liège.

This article first appeared in ING Expat Time

 

Written by Ian Mundell