Dirty Mind

Exciting new film-making talent Pieter Van Hees fulfills and surpasses the expectations raised by his sensational feature debut LINKEROEVER. Advance information had caused a flurry of raised eye-brows however. A dark farce starring controversial Flemish stand-up comedian and TV personality Wim Helsen ? Would Helsen just extend his nerdy small screen persona to fit the multiplex or was there really a whole other side to him he and Van Hees could catch us off guard with ? Tantalizingly, the answer's a bit of both…

Doormat to his stuntman brother Cisse (Robbie Cleiren with a fearlessly dumb two-tone hair-do), for whom he engineers the death-defying logistics that allow him to shine as daredevil on a local cop show, painfully shy Diego (Helsen) finds himself pressed into duty when his sibling winds up with a broken arm. Jumping out of a third story window at the wrong moment, he misses his mark and lands on his head, passing out and rushed to the emergency room. Regaining consciousness, he doesn't seem to have suffered much from the fall but claims he feels "sexy" and demands being called Tony T. Respected brain surgeon David Vandewoestijne (angular Peter Van den Begin, oozing subtle menace) and his fawning grad student Jaana (lovely Kristine Van Pellicom) suspect that Diego may be suffering from frontal lobe syndrome where a blow to the head can radically alter someone's personality – a genuine affliction, by the way – and urge him to take further tests in preparation for what they consider an inevitable operation that would "restore" him to his former self.

Rampaging his way to the top of the stunt-performing profession as well as eclipsing his brother's womanizing skills, Tony T. hardly wants to go back to being mild-mannered Diego, the guy everyone loves to ignore. Still, Jaana has caught his eye and if she wants to hang out and study his behavior, that's fine by him. Family and friends start seeing him in a whole new light, and in a sly fashion that's just what Van Hees has accomplished with Helsen, responding with initial delight turned sour when they realize they can't push formerly meek Diego around anymore. Is the director perhaps offering a dark yet truthful comment on how people seek to idolize certain personalities in media or world politics but, once established, can't wait to tarnish those same self-created icons ? The unlikely yet oddly persuasive romance that grows between Tony and the conflicted Jaana, torn between what the medical community considers Diego's best interests and the man she's falling for, might just prove to be this year's sucker punch love story. The disco sequence where Jaana first discovers her attraction to Tony, only to be cut off at the knees because of his unintentionally withering response (which I will let you find out for yourselves but, trust me, it's a classic), all set to Spanish girl group Paradisio's insanely infectious Bailando, consolidates the young director's unerring eye (and ear) for pure cinema that grabs hold of an audience on both the aesthetic and emotional level.

Shot in a coarse, grainy fashion punched up by the primary colors of Tony's bold outfits by stalwart DoP Jan Vancaillie, who did a similarly splendid if stylistically entirely different job on Frank Van Passel's underrated VILLA DES ROSES, DIRTY MIND defiantly dares viewers to re-evaluate their concepts of taste and beauty, uncovering unexpected warmth beneath its gaudy exterior. The second installment in a proposed trilogy of love and pain, its concluding chapter currently tentatively titled WASTELAND as of this writing, this is as eloquent an exploration of the human condition as my country's cinema has yielded of late. Van Hees' screenplay is both literate and compassionate, frequently funny yet tinged with tragedy as characters attempt to combat loneliness and encroaching alienation in apparently absurd ways, and the cast – mostly familiar from extensive TV work – handles each line and nuance perfectly. Helsen may be the star attraction, and he's absolutely perfect in the (double ?) role, but this is far from a one man show. The previously underwhelming Van Pellicom, who I was unfortunately most familiar with from Paul Cox' disastrous geriatric romance INNOCENCE where she portrayed the younger version of the dreary heroine in clumsy flashback footage, really lights up the screen and always welcome character actress Sien Eggers delivers a heartbreaking turn as Diego's long-suffering mother whose comment to Jaana at the graveyard, responding to the girl's comment on how you can be perfectly happy living on your own, perfectly encapsulates the film's theme and presumably Van Hees' personally held ideology.

Pieter van Hees is one of the many young director talents surfacing on Belgian soil. With Linkeroever, his first film, he established himself as a director with a definite sense of style, Dirty Mind takes him a little further into the world of quality cinema. He leaves the horror genre for what is it and takes on comedy with a dash of drama and action.

The idea behind Dirty Mind is pretty interesting. Diego is a pretty big loser living under the wings of his older brother. The both of them form a pretty unsuccessful stunt team, until one day Diego is forced to do a stunt himself and lands pretty hard on his head. He is diagnosed with frontal lobe syndrome, a disease which takes away the human restraints and makes you enjoy life at the expense of losing your feeling of empathy.

Diego becomes Tony T and launches the stunt business to instant stardom. Tony's sudden change in character leads to some pretty funny scenes but at the same time holds a definite level of sadness as the audience is constantly aware of Tony's disease. Van Hees and actor Van Helsen succeed in exploiting this feeling to bring some very powerful scenes in between the laughter.

In essence though, Dirty Mind is still pretty much a hardcore comedy with a sense of humor that's starting to become pretty typical for the alternative Belgian cinema. It shows the lowest, simplest side of the human mind and links it to everyday tragedy. It is definitely not to everyone's liking (we were pretty much the only ones laughing) but it is certainly the type of humor I appreciate.

Visually Dirty Mind is kept very grainy. It suits the film and the characters but apart from that Van Hees serves us some cool shots and pretty imagery. It is good to see that a young director like him at least pays good attention to the visual side of his film. Also remarkable are the intertitles in between segments of the film as they are integrated pretty well in the scenery of the film. Pretty cool font too.

In the end though, it really is Van Helsen, the main actor, who makes this film work. His character has the potential to greatly irritate an audience but he pulls it off to make his a pretty interesting guy nonetheless. As the film progresses he turns into a complete asshole but never loses the sympathy of the audience. The humor becomes grittier too as the film nears its end and becomes quite black in tone, but it never crosses the line of being too dramatic or tragic to switch the feel of the film.

Van Hees really proved his worth with his second film. Dirty Mind is funny, bears a good and original story and is well directed on all fronts to help create a solid feel for the film. Soundtrack and picture quality could be seen as negative points but fit the characters and setting so well that it could hardly be seen as a lack of talent. Dirty Mind is a funny film, but delivers a few smart punches and leaves some interesting questions, though the film itself is not too concerned with hammering them into the minds of the audience. Make sure to catch it if you get the chance. 4.0*/5.0*