Moscow, Belgium (2008)

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

At first a seemingly drab film from drab Belgium. About a drab ordinary housewife living a drab everyday life. And then ginger Johnny – the bastard – comes along.He's bonked her in the boot with his big yellow truck. They curse one another. Then he smiles. Soon after he's ringing to offer to fix the boot. She invites him up for some burnt bloodwurst (sausage) (some very poor cuisine is going on in this film. I thought it was only us English who were supposed to cook rubbish food?!) They're off on a date. She drinks one glass of wine then wants to go. Viking Johnny is bonking her up in his big truck. "It was just this once" she says smiling. Then she finds out from twerpy arty flop-haired husband (who's left to go shack up with a student) that Johnnys an alcoholic, been to jail for beating up his ex-wife."I used you. Finito" she's saying. And yet she's being surprising sympathetic. Maybe she needs bad boy Johnny to recover her life (by rescuing him, that sorry schtick) Rom-coms have to come with big wallops of cynicism to be real enough to touch me. I like my love two thirds bitter to one third sweet. And while you're at it lets rub some salty sarcasm into any syrupy sentimentality that might be wallowing around. Matty is good at that. "You have to put mustard on everything. So you don't taste or feel anything" he's said to her. "You're talking drivel" she says. I like her. Like the actress who's playing her (Barbara Sarafian) She's attractive in an ordinary kind of way. Even when she's looking dreary something desirable occasionally flickers across her face from somewhere deep within.This film is getting to feel just about right enough for real life. The screenplay is immediate, the acting actual-to-life plausible; so engaging in fact you don't know you're reading subtitles anymore. I was believing in it.Matty and Johnny continue to throw little barbs of dry irony at one another. Humour is understated, not forced, appropriate to scene and situation. None of the characters play-act for laughs (from us, the audience) It's probably being even funnier in Flemish (if you spoke Flemish that is) Who's she gonna choose to be with? Is it flaky hubbie or fiery Johnny? Or would she be better off with neither of them? There's no "happy ever after" wrap up, but the ending is quite a few beats up from where the downbeat beginning had been. The dowdy old housewife is bouncing back home, her hair let loose and flying, a fresh sparkle returned to her eye.It seems Matty might have got her mojo back.

Think of MOSCOW, BELGIUM as the little movie that could. Modestly produced with mostly TV talent on both sides of the camera, it went on to win about a ton of awards at various film festivals (most notably pocketing top prize at the Directors' Fortnight in Cannes) and wow audiences worldwide. A deceptively simple love story between two unlikely candidates, both recipients of life's harsh blows, it has captured the hearts of many. Case in point, in the town of Ghent, where the movie takes place (not too far from Bruges, where yours truly resides), it has been playing theatrically for well over a year now, still doing solid (often repeat) business and developing something of a cult reputation, even though it has been out on DVD for quite a while. In an effort to support my local film industry, I try to go and see every Belgian movie that makes it to theaters, and some of them only make it in 'n' out like lightning, often undeservedly so, such as with Pieter Van Hees' LINKEROEVER and subsequent DIRTY MIND, both of which will hopefully attract wider audiences on DVD. Quiet, leisurely paced and unassuming, AANRIJDING IN MOSCOU (original title, meaning : Collision in Moscou, an area of the Ghent suburb of Ledegem) won me over in spades, made me come back to the cinema for a second helping and, hey, I just bought that shiny little disc as well ! Director Christophe Van Rompaey cut his teeth on Flemish TV series like the wildly popular TEAM SPIRIT (expanding on Jan Verheyen's box office blast, itself a remake of the Dutch ALL STARS) and the sadly underrated sitcom HALLELUJA! He was known by a happy few frequenting film festivals for award-winning shorts GRIJS ("Grey") and OH MY GOD?! Just about the nicest guy you could ever hope to meet and a proud native of Ghent, he poured heart and soul into his feature debut which serves, among many other things, as a love letter to his home town. The screenplay by Pat Van Beirs and Jean-Claude Van Rijckeghem, who penned such idiosyncratic children's fare as DE BAL ("The Ball") and SCIENCE FICTION for director Danny Deprez, enlivens its straightforward narrative structure spanning a couple of weeks, divided by white on black title cards indicating what day it is, with richly quotable dialog that frequently takes a 180° turn from hilarious to heartbreaking and back again, suppressing sentimentality from rearing its all too convenient cabeza. Taking place among impersonal high rise buildings and dimly lit watering holes, DoP Ruben Impens imbues these unpromising locations with an improbable poetry akin to his cinematic musings on the nocturnal city scapes of Felix Van Groeningen's annoyingly petulant though certainly atmospheric STEVE + SKY. Tuur Florizoone's melancholy score, heavy on the accordion (still one of the most underestimated instruments ever), hits all the right notes.Still reeling from her husband's betrayal, an art teacher (played with self-mocking sincerity by Johan Heldenbergh) taking up with a student half his age, downtrodden mother of three Matty (the incomparable Barbara Sarafian) clearly has her mind elsewhere when she backs the family station wagon into a truck on the supermarket parking lot. Said truck contains blow hard Johnny, a knockout performance by heretofore unknown Jurgen Delnaet (who had a bit part in Guido Henderickx' scalding if sadly overlooked S.), who immediately launches into the expected diatribe against women drivers. Giving every bit as good as she gets, and then some, Matty bounces back. Insults fly but so do sparks and Johnny will become quite an important part of her life from now. More than ten years younger and with a short fuse, he's not an obvious candidate for romance. Besides, there are the kids to consider and Matty's still hoping her spouse will come to his senses now that his affair is nearing the six month mark.A solid supporting actress, locally loved for her TV comedy work, the partly of Armenian descent Sarafian, in her first long overdue leading role, completely owns this film. Her Matty's no nobly suffering heroine but rather a down to earth sex goddess temporarily stalled by life's sad realities. When cornered, the claws come out. Like Jeanne Moreau in her prime, the actress has the ability to go from dowdy to desirable in the blink of an eye, not through any make-up or tricks of the light but something far more intangible like a slight change in facial expression combined with an innate dignity that transcends her tawdry surroundings. Her giggly delight as Matty rediscovers lust, well before love, provides the movie with but one of its myriad magic moments.Of course, Van Rompaey supplied a flawless ensemble to lighten Sarafian's load. Stellar leading men aside, lovely Anemone Valcke (making her debut) steals scenes as Matty's level-headed teen daughter who's about to drop a bombshell of her own and there are cherish-able cameos from local comedians past and present. Chubby Jits Van Belle dispenses women's magazine fueled words of wisdom as Matty's no holds barred colleague at the post office, with frequent visits by the enamored undertaker Mr Jacques (indelibly portrayed by the magnificent Bob De Moor) serving as an understated but tremendously witty running joke. A particular grace note is supplied by the casting of legendary Ghent comedienne Yvonne Delcour as an outspoken pensioner who gets one of the film's biggest laughs, immediately followed in an indicative shift of tone by one of its most insightful lines as she reminds Matty of what's really important in life, unwittingly setting up the story's resolution. As life gets in the way, you too will be rooting for Matty and Johnny to overcome what seem like insurmountable obstacles. Hey, life is but fleeting and love is all that truly matters

You can hardly get more unpretentious than what you have here.It's elementary clear how this is made, the devices that were used, and the effective it is and this is a good thing, in this case.Check how the story and the mood is built right from the first scene. A minor traffic accident in a parking lot, that begins an argument. The scene starts as a piece of ordinary life, goes on as a light word-based argument, and finishes in a funny mood. Notice how every word and sentence in this argument is designed to cause an immediate impression without becoming dark or even heavy. That's the mood of the film. It lives on daily lives, it introduces deviating elements, that usually work out funny (the introduction of the lesbian theme was a great moment, among others)and with this mood evokes a sense of tenderness, what audiences may call "romance". The fact that the people who conceived this were able to synthesize this so economically and efficiently in one single scene is really impressive. This is one of the most meaningful first scenes i've seen.I place this with 3 recent comedies that among many differences share a common sense of unpretentiousness, something that admits cinema is a piece of entertainment, that things have to be successful and effective in the eye, and through the dialogues, IN the world of the film, without meaning that the film should moralize or search for superior answers to common themes. These films i saw recently are "Juno", "Little miss Sunshine" and this one. Of the 3, this was the best, to me. It deviates from Hollywood canons even more than the other two, and that may be the reason.It works for the performances, acting, which were surprisingly direct and grasping. I know very few or nothing about Belgian (or equivalent) acting traditions, but i am guessing (may be wrong) that this is inserted in a longer tradition of acting with fluidity, what some may consider "natural" acting. I wouldn't dare to mistake this for "real" life, as i suppose many spectators will, but this is a really well shaped cartoon world. Representation, that's what this is... the guy goes often to Italy, and speaks Italian many times, a language that in some of its golden moments in art is meant to "sound" instead of really "mean".Some cityscapes of the small town of Moscow, Belgium, is great. There was a competent eye for the city here as well.My opinion: 4/5 (FantasPorto 2009)http://www.7eyes.wordpress.com

Screenwriters, Jean-Claude Van Rijckeghem and Pat van Beirs have written a script that gives us close scrutiny at a woman's character and how it slowly changes or bends as circumstances arise. They have done it well.It is more often than not that one wold find character development like this in a "foreign" film. Maybe that is changing, and that would be a good thing. If we can trust that our audiences will watch characters interacting with one another, without the need for some cinematic shock, i.e. action, suspense, sex, etc, then we may have more movies like this in the U.S. I have nothing against action, suspense, sex, etc, it's just that we could use more movies that depict character studies.Director, Christophe Van Rompaey takes the reins and nicely dramatizes this story about a domestic life, while holding back any temptation to rush.Very nice performances are given by Barbara Sarafian, Jurgen Delnaet and Johan Hildenbergh.Barbara Sarafian, Jurgen Delnaet, Johan Heldenbergh, Anemone Valcke, Sofia Ferri , Julian Borsani, Bob De Moor, Jits Van Belle and Griet van Damme