Francophone Belgian Cinema

Abstract

Considers transnational, national and regional concepts within contemporary francophone Belgian cinema Francophone Belgian Cinema offers an original critical analysis of filmmaking in an oft-neglected ‘national’ and regional cinema. The book draws key distinctions between the local, national, small national, regional and transnational frameworks in both representational and industrial terms. Alongside the Dardenne brothers, this book considers four promising Francophone Belgian filmmakers who have received limited critical attention in academic publications on contemporary European cinema: Joachim Lafosse, Olivier Masset-Depasse, Lucas Belvaux and Bouli Lanners. Exploring these filmmakers’ themes of post-industrialism, paternalism, the fractured nuclear family and spatial dynamics, as well as their work in the more commercial road movie and polar genres, Jamie Steele analyses their stylistic continuities and filiation. This is complemented by an analysis of how the industrial aspects of film production, distribution and exhibition contribute to the creation of both a regional and transnational cinema. Key features An industrial and representational analysis of films produced in Wallonia since the early 2000s Includes detailed case studies of five key filmmakers to emerge from Belgium and Wallonia: the Dardenne brothers; Joachim Lafosse; Olivier Masset-Depasse; Lucas Belvaux; and Bouli Lanners Provides a new outlook on European film cultures and cinemas from small nations that share linguistic partners