John1986

Belgium, 1959. The real paradise for: Juxeboxes, cars, Vintage, Rock and Roll, Vinyl records and of course beautiful Girls! This is a kind of autobiography of the director: Robbe de Hert, althrough his real name is "Robin". The character is portrayed by Michael Pas, with his sad eyes he is the perfect "rebel withouth a cause", who is in love with a girl who is somewhat "out of his league". On school he (and the rest of his class) are terrorized by the school secretary Mr. Verbies AKA the "cactus". The class is about to face the final exam, but instead of studyng, Robin and his droogs are drinking, Rock 'n roll dancing, watching girls and ran into trouble with other gangs and of course the Police. Robin has to pass the Exam, otherwise his dad will enlist him in the Belgian Navy (the "congo crisis" is about to break out), and also his classmate's have nothing to lose. Then someone catches the idea of stealing Exam-questions, but that's when things gone nasty.

A good and nostalgic vision of the late 1950s, through the eyes of a young lad, filled with dreams and love. Surely worth watching it. Robbe De Hert is also one of Belgium's best directors.

Well, i am a big fan of the Belgian films, but i noticed that Brave Little Belgium has not many war films. Indeed, we have a very rich war history (WWI, Korea, Waterloo, Battle of the Golden Spurs, Congo Crisis, etc...). Like you see, plenty of material for at least ONE Belgian war film. But after a long (and holy) quest, i found "Gaston's War", a war/drama film made by Robbe De Hert (one of my favorite director's).

The story is set in the year 1942-'43. The war is still going on, and Belgium has fallen to the Germans. Gaston Vandermeerssche, a 21 year old resistance fighter, has a mission to bring 2 British pilots, to the Spannish border. After the job is done, he gets another assigement, to build a new resistance in Holland. But he gets betrayed, and it doesn't take long for he is being arrested by the Gestapo and he falls into the hand of the SS.

I really enjoyed this movie. OK it isn't a big production, and the only kind of Battle scenes you will see, are real archive footage and some battle ambiance on the background (gunshots, bombs and all that stuff), but i really liked the story, and i just hope that in there will be more Belgian war films in the future.

You know, this is a great Flemish war film! The story is set in the middle-ages, the 14th century (in the year 1302). Because all the gold reserves of the great French empire are gone, King "Filips De Schone" wants to have the complete power of a golden empire: "Flanders", which have ten times more gold, than there is in the whole French kingdom. The french army threatens the Flemmish people with slavery and death! City's get attacked, Woman's and Children are getting killed by soldiers and the whole Flanders is in the power of France. But the Flemish people don't want this, and a revolution breaks out. It all ends in a gigantic and bloody battle which is known as "The Battle of the Golden Spurs" (De Guldenporenslag!) This is a great and realistic film about: Love, Power, Death, Knights, Medieval and War. It shows one of the greatest victories of the Flemmish army in the whole History. Director Hugo Claus has done it well! The fight scenes are amazing and good. Even for a Flemmish film with a very LOW budget! I actually don't understand why everybody hates this movie.

Anyway, thanks for reading my comment!