Reviews

Starting with an image of the Atomium in Brussels, "Blue Belgium" intends to give the watcher a possible explanation for what went wrong in Belgium during the last two decades, going from the raids of the "gang of Nijvel", over "pink ballets" and "virgin hunting parties", to the Dutroux-affair. The story connects all this events - made up or real - in a plot-theory being a right-wing attempt to evoke agitation in the country and seize power. Up to that point, I have no complaints. Where things really go wrong is in how this is done. First of all, none of the "actors" seem to be bothered by any acting qualities nor decent knowledge of the English pronunciation, the story is sewed together by the one improbable event after the other, the sound track is purely imbecile ("On the road again" when they are driving a car), and there is not the least attempt to sustain any internal logic, not to mention the technical "qualities" of this creation. In other words: Ed Wood would have done better !

It is clear that this is a very cheap attempt to earn some quick money on an international eager-for-sensation video-watching audience. In principle there is nothing wrong with that as long as they would keep it away from real movie houses and as long as the director and his crew would not be that conceited (or simply naive ?) to expect some applause for "daring to treat this national taboo" (his words !). Ashamed to be a Belgian !

At the very moment his father is walking towards the courtroom to be judged in what is called THE Belgian corruption scandal of the last decade, director Willem Wallyn sends an actor along with him in the role of himself. This is the start of a remarkable debut long play movie about the media as a powerful tool to make or destroy peoples lives. The trial itself, which took place in December 1998, is further only the setting of the story in which Willem Wallyn (played by Peter Van Den Begin) is taking revenge for being threatened by a television journalist (played by Herbert Flack) who wants to get to the so-called "juicy" details of his fathers involvement in the corruption scandal. Although this could be the start of a rather boring Hollywood story about good and bad, it is not the case. We get a quite balanced picture of the two main characters : a television journalist who is squeezed between "good manners" and his own weakness for fame; and the son, a lawyer, who justifies his behavior by seeming to defend the honor of this father but who is at the same time very anxious about his personal success. The story is further designed in a very grasping way: little explaining but lively dialogues and a lot of good use of visual and audible effects which create the right aggressive and grim atmosphere of the world of media and lawyers. Congratulations !