Camping Cosmos

This second part of "The Sexual Life of the Belgians" is more like a satire upon people on a holidays-campsite. British working-class on a camping ground would never react like the Belgians do in this movie. Lolo Ferrari as madame Vandeputte is very funny. The scene with the song-contest too. One wonders why people on their holidays behave so strange; because they are far away from their home, their friends and relatives? The sexual aberrations of the protagonists are a curiosity and do make us reflect on the Dutroux-case. But the film has a moral statement: sex without love has no value. The other Belgian items are well placed, such as there are: beer, French(=Belgian) frites and soccer. Indeed one is well aware of the universal message of the movie which is also a defense of the naturalness of youth in the person of the daughter of the organiser of cultural events (Jean-Henri Compère). Culture and pleasure can they go together when people only think about doing nothing during their vacations?

This second opus of "The Sex life of the Belgians" is one of the most entertaining piece Bucquoy delivered so far. In an almost mainstream colorful setup, the director takes us deep into shameless Belgian trailer park culture. Summer camp sized, the belgo-bucquoy society including its regular nefarious revolutionary characters and adult-fake Tintin is quiet enjoyable. Featuring a couple of neat local celebrities such as Arno or Noel Godin (totally insane as usual), and dead but cult figure, the hyper breasted Lolo Ferrari.

This movie ends a first part of the Jan Bucquoy's cinematographic career. Camping Cosmos is in fact the second and the last traditional movie directed by the Belgian director, chief of the "irregulars" Belgian directors. Traditional means spectacular, filmed with 35mm camera, with a technical crew, based on a film script and with a traditional production and distribution system. T hat is the second production of the period called by Bucquoy himself of "temporary integration" in the classical movie system. Bucquoy makes all the possible to provoke the laughter, that's why Camping Cosmos is a very funny comedy, full of citations of the surrealist and "situationnist" culture, full of amazing situations. Also the happy end takes place in this movie! How make a "popular" and intellectual movie? How talk about the Belgian culture to the Belgians? How talk about revolution in early eighties? That's the challenge of Bucquoy who keep on tailing the adventures of his favourite character: Jan Bucquoy. The protagonist of his first movie. Adult and divorced he is now the cultural director of a camping on the Belgian coast trying to learn to the holidaymakers the principal arguments of his counterculture. His daughter's arrival in the camping give him once again the chance to think about his life and dreams. A summer on the Belgian coast, a trip in the Belgian culture. An original portrait of many different universal characters. Really funny.

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.