Daens

This is an excellent movie that has very believable characters. The mixture of French, Flemmish/Dutch, and Latin make this a very interesting movie. The cinematography is also wonderful. Like many movies where French is spoken there is a sad undertone. In many ways it reminds me of Jean de Floret, another wonderful epic. Americans who like foreign films should watch this movie. I hope you like it!

Jan Decleir stars as the real-life populist preacher Father Daens, who helped textile workers in Europe struggle for justice in the late 19th century. This is a very moving and powerful film which squarely takes on many problems which our modern industrial societies have inherited from the Industrial Revolution.

Especially heartbreaking and infuriating are the scenes which juxtapose young factory children being overworked, abused and mangled by the textile machines with rich and powerful nobles around their sumptuous dinner tables. The emotional high point of the film, for me, came when Daens gives an impromptu speech in a church, shouting out, "People scream, 'we are hungry!' Loud and clear!" It is difficult not to be emotionally caught by such a scene.

Father Daens ultimately shows in this film what Gandhi told someone: that one's religion is in one's actions, not in one's words, clothes or wealth.

"Daens" is based on a novel by the famous Belgian writer Louis Paul Boon. The novel is called "Pieter Daens" but the real lead character in the novel (and the film) is his brother Adolf Daens. Adolf Daens was an enlighted priest who lived from 1839 - 1907. He supported the textile workers in his hometown Aalst (Belgium) in their struggle for higher wages and better working conditions. This brought him into conflict with the Catholic political party, who supported the employers. Deans was the founder of "Daensisme", a Christian political movement to the left in the politcal spectrum. His political activities were not to the taste of the Vatican, and Daens was obliged to choose between politics and priesthood. He chose the first. In 2015 Deans was rehabilitated by the Vatican.

"Daens" is a socially motivated film. One is inclined to compare it with the English kitchen sink movement, but that would not be entirely justified. Kitchen sink films are about laborers in the mid 20th centry, "Daens is situated at the end of the 19th century. With "Marina" (2013) director Stijn Coninx would later make a movie that is more in line with English kitchen sink.

A better comparison is with "How green was my valley" (1941, John Ford). Both films are situated in the same time frame and in both films there is an enlighted priest. "How green was my valley" contains however far more human interest and is far less openly political. The film "Daens" takes itself very seriously, but it must be said that the shocking working conditions leave very little room for humor. Only in the end, in the scene in which Jefke died, there was a poetic moment involving a circus. A moment that seems to be directly derived from a Bergman movie.

Serious or not, "Daens" is a very beautifully made film. The set pieces are very convincing. It was not by accident that "Daens" was nominaed for an Oscar for best foreign language movie. The Oscar was however won by "Indochine" (1992, Regis Wargnier). Five years later lead actor Jan Decleir played in the Dutch movie "Character" (1997, Mike van Diem) and this move did win the Oscar for best foreign langauge movie.

Some of us like to complain about how hard life is. Watch this film, which I think is very close to the reality of life in the late 19th century, and it will put your problems into perspective. Yes, most of the wealth is still in the hands of the happy few. We still need to fight injustice. But in comparison to what you see here, we are currently living in gods paradise. This film also reveals the politics at that time in Belgium (and the western world? ), serving the upper class helped by the church. The harsh reality is enlightened by a few very good jokes (take the ring home. Then you can kiss it as many times as you want). Everything is beautifully embodied by Belgiums finest. Very well directed. After almost 30 years it looks a tad outdated but this doesn't really spoil the party... It's not a science fiction.

This is the best Belgian film I've ever seen. And since I am Belgian, I've seen a lot of them. Antje De Boeck is such a wonderful actress and Jan Declair is absolutely our best actor. You could recently see him in "De zaak Alzheimer" as Ledda. The story is as realistic as possible, but luckily there is that little romance to bring happiness in the rather depressing story. To understand the full beauty of the movie you should have to understand Dutch, or even both French and Dutch (as most Flemish people do (=inhabitants of the northern half of Belgium)), because even the accents have been adapted to the right time span. Just a note to the Flemish: (Ik zal het in het Engels moeten doen, want deze site accepteert niet veel in het Nederlands) If you haven't seen this movie yet, you should do it right away! You can learn more from it than from all history classes at school! Because in my opinion, history is still about people, not about facts.