Camping Cosmos

This movie surprises me every time I look at it. It is hard to believe that Lolo Ferrari is dead because in the movie she is a great actress and she is more than a Barbie-doll. As a Belgian I am able to recognize some of the characters but I think they are universal. The postman with his bag with the initials C.C.C.P. is a secretive person: does he make love with Miss Vandeputte (Lolo Ferrari)? The beach-master (Arno) who is a homosexual, the autistic painter (Herman Brusselmans) who puts slogans on the caravans like: "This is not a work of art", the cyclist who adores Eddy Merckx, the radio-operator (Claude Semalle), the famous writer Piere Mertens (pie-thrower Noël Godin) who cannot dress up his armchair on the sand at the beach, are such funny characters that you must laugh with them. The boxing-match is realistic with a real challenger of Muhamed Alli and it is one of the big moments in the movie. The beauty-contest reveals something about people on holiday because they prefer watching beautiful girls rather than a play by Bertold Brecht. Then there are the returning Belgian items like frites, beer and football. The intellectuals who try to bring the working class near to culture and literature must admit their failure. But the representative of the Belgian Ministry of Culture (Jan Bucquoy) finds satisfaction in the fact that his daughter who was kidnapped and who came back on the caravan park, admires him for his determination.

Another small-scale Belgian masterpiece.

Don't be fooled by the obvious over-the-top-ness of this production. Camping Cosmos is a film about the differences in culture between (cultural) animator Jan Bucquoy and the so-called lower classes residing at Camping Cosmos. eg: Bucquoy organizes a poetry night, during the 'larger than legendary' football match Belgium-USSR (Mexico '86, 4-3)...

Plenty of elements in the film are deeply rooted in Belgian popular culture. (Tintin, surrealism, Sandra Kim, Eddy Merckx, vacations at the Belgian Coast,etc...)

I'd compare this movie to a Magritte painting... the images you see look so obvious and simple, but remember: ceci n'est pas une pipe!!! There's more to it than meets the eye.

It's a bit like the Simpsons, if you miss the levels beyond the obvious, you'll miss the best part.

On this campsite at a Belgian beach the residents want to enjoy life and nothing more. The cultural animator (Jean-Henri Compère) who played also in "La vie sexuelle des Belges 1950-1978" is apparently a fan of the plays of Bertolt Brecht and his "Mutter Courage" but that is not of the taste of the residents who don't show up . I liked miss Vandeputte (Lolo Ferrari) who is behaving as a woman in search for love. The scene with the Russian folksong when she has an orgasm is fabulous. The daughter of the cultural animator (Fanny Hanciaux) is a girl with much sensibility and she tries to understand her father. The writer Pierre Mertens (Noël Godin) is ridiculous with his armchair in the sand at the beach. The radio-operator Tintin (Claude Semal) is pathetic and he is really the person to commit suicide. Football is very important for the Belgians and you see some excerpts of the match Belgium-Russia of 1986 but there is also a boxing-match with the Belgian challenger of Cassius Clay (Jean-Pierre Coopman) for the world-title. There is also a song-contest and a beauty-contest in this movie while the director wants us to show real life at a caravan park in a comical way.

Apology of bad Belgian taste

This movie is in the tradition of Belgian Surrealism: Marcel Broothaerdts, Marcel Marien... but there was never a Belgian Surrealist long feature movie. So there it is now.

Camping Cosmos develops around the items: Beer, Football and Revolution. Behind, there is the strange story of the daughter of the cultural animator who returns at the campsite where her beloved father is after she was kidnapped in Italy. One does not always know where one should find himself in this patchwork of beauty contests and song contests. The pie throwing of Pierre Mertens is a story in itself too. I believe that the author wanted to give an impression of Belgian working class families on a holiday camp. There is no culture, only sport and entertainment.

Everybody looks discouraged because of their interrupted sex life that cannot take ground in this unnatural surroundings with its deprived individuals at the edge of society.

The camp site is manned by fascinating individualistic persons who live a life without adventure. There is no hope for a better life on this Belgian beach which has everything of a nudist camp without the flair and the passion of a normal sex life.

So this second part of the "Sexual Life of the Belgians" is not only a statement of the lack of cultural life in this vacation circumstances, but also of the sentimental emptiness of the common Belgians at retirement.

Camping Cosmos is the surrealist belgian movie of the last ten years. Jan Bucquoy, the spiritual son of the great surrealist Marcel mariën, shows us how strange the belgians can be. Surrealism seems to be the belgian way of life. Bucquoy shows us a large range of people from all horizons, having all their own ambitions and finding all the most unexpected ways to realize their dreams In the camp we meet pie-thrower Le Gloupier, Tintin with his dog working now as a radio-animator,Lolo Ferrari who cannot find the real love: all this shown in a holliday atmosphere with the beach and tourists . All is told with a lot of sensibility, some times a little vulgarity, but if you read between the lines you'll laugh about it and appreciate it at its best.