Brussels by Night

This depressing and disturbing film starts great. The protagonist is interesting, the soundtrack superb and the overall atmosphere feels desolate. But once the plot focuses on a love triangle and not so much on that interesting protagonist, the film starts to lose itself. A pity because this could have been a great social drama / film noir. At the end we get back to the reason why this man is wondering through nighttime Brussels, but the entire middle section of the film (and the finale as well) makes him a jealous member of a ménage a troi. It is a shame, a focus on his central problem would have been much more interesting.

This is kinda pre-mental health, when mental health wasn't really on the table, and when the issue did come up it was overplayed to some extreme. The lead character is showing pretty accurate signs you would expect to see in his behaviour patterns.

Unlike other reviewers, the end threw me. To be honest I seen it in him all along, but you just kind of ignore it, and pretend that element of his personality isn't there. The violent and suicidal tendencies etc, but when I realised what he had done I was still shocked. The shock is really because, despite him being a unlikeable character, this all comes out of left field at the end of the movie. Its the hiding in plain sight sort of thing. You knew the signs were there, but you were too naïve to realise it. As a viewer you can't help but to feel fooled, in a manner of speaking.

It reminded me a bit of British director Mike Leighs movie Naked in some respects, which came out 10 years later to much acclaim.

Brussels by Night is a dark powerfull human condition movie which focuses on the travellings of the main male character thru the grey streets of Brussels. A frustrated men in his thirties, early fourties seams to want to escape, especially himself.

In his searchings he encounters with a couple of underclass characters, full of never to be reached dreams.

This movie grabbed me by the throath from the very beginning on, due to the enormous actingperformance of De Beuckelaere and the straight in your face confrontation with the solitude of anonymous citylife.

Marc Didden used to be one of the most famous Belgian directors. Mind you, he is still alive but Belgian movies are rather rare and knowing that Didden only made a second movie ("Istanbul") says enough about the quantity of Belgian movies. But good I saw by coincidence tons of Belgian movies this month and "Brussels by night" happened to be the most dated. The subject is paranoia and racism.... The uncontrollable outbursts from Max (François Beukelaers) are finely acted but the second subject (racism) is based on too many clichés. They all might have been true in 1983 but they're not current (sadly enough racism is still current though) as they're too much based on cynical jokes we heard too much and that's exactly the platform of this whole movie. Being a Belgian myself, I can only tell that the title suits the film : Brussels by night, and we all know there is nothing to do.... Watching this film isn't a waste of time but it absolutely does not deserve its cultstatus.

Brussels by Night, starts with a man, sitting upright in his bed, putting a gun in his mouth. He pulls the trigger but nothing happens. This must be one of the most impressive beginnings of a Belgian movie I've ever seen if you ask me. Immediately you know this will be a dark, dramatic movie.

The movie isn't bad, but it's not as convincing and powerful as I hoped it would be at the beginning. From time to time much interesting isn't happening, making me lose almost all interest in the movie. In fact, all the movie shows is a man wandering around in Brussels, meeting some people, talking, drinking and trying to phone someone... Only at the end you'll fully understand why he acts so strange during the entire story, who he is actually calling and why no-one picks up the phone. What I liked best about the movie is the way it shows Brussels in the eighties. It's a concrete desert, full of desperation and loneliness, where not much is happening...

The images in combination with the melancholic sound track (The only problem for the people who are not from here is that it is sung in French and Dutch, so impossible to understand for the most of you), make sure this movie is rather depressing, which as you'll see fits the subject perfectly. Even though the movie had its moments it wasn't a complete success. I give it a 6/10.