director through the projector
Boris lehman xXx: Return of Xander Cage
Monsieur Bout-de-Bois (Stick Man) UK, 2016, dir.: Daniel Snaddon, Jeroen Jaspaert, 27 min.
Aventure, Vendôme NL | Een hond rukt Meneer Tak los van zijn fami-
lie. Een korte, tedere animatiefilm voor kleine kinderen. FR | Un chien arrache Monsieur Bout-de-Bois à sa famille. Un film d’animation court et tendre pour les jeunes enfants. EN | A dog tears Stick Man away from his family. A short, tender animated film for small children.
Raid dingue
FR, 2017, dir.: Dany Boon, act.: Dany Boon, Alice Pol, 105 min.
Kinepolis, Le Stockel, UGC De Brouckère, UGC Gulden Vlies/Toison d’Or, White Cinema NL | Een onhandige, dromerige agente wil toe-
treden tot een vrouwonvriendelijk elitekorps. De nieuwe komedie van de onvermijdelijke Ch’ti Dany Boon. FR | Un agent de police maladroit et rêveur veut rejoindre un corps d’élite misogyne. La nouvelle comédie de l’incontournable Ch’ti Dany Boon. EN | A clumsy, dreamy-eyed police officer wants to join a misogynistic elite corps. The new comedy by the unavoidable Ch’ti Dany Boon.
xXx: Return of Xander Cage
US, 2016, dir.: D.J. Caruso, act.: Vin Diesel, Samuel J. Jackson, 107 min.
Kinepolis, UGC De Brouckère NL | De derde xXx-film is op maat van actiefana-
ten die Vin Diesel graag badass aan extreme sporten zien doen terwijl hij de wereld redt. FR | Le troisième xXx fera le bonheur des fanas d’action qui adorent voir Vin Diesel en dur à cuir se livrant à des sports extrêmes alors qu’il sauve le monde. EN | The third xXx film is perfect for action fanatics who love watching Vin Diesel be badass at extreme sports while he saves the world.
EN | There are few Belgian directors who have made as many films as the Brussels-based Boris Lehman. According to the man himself, he has made more than five hundred. Following his decision to retire, Cinéma Nova is paying tribute to one of the most distinctive figures in the Belgian film landscape. And that is not because of his long grey hair, about which he once even made a film. Lehman is more of a maverick and unconventional director than a big crowd-pleaser. An artist-philosopher with a camera. He is also a city poet, though of the uncompromising type. In case things aren’t completely clear: directors don’t get any more personal than Lehman. It’s no coincidence that people say of him that “if he could, he would spool himself through the projector.” Auto-fiction on film reel, videotape, and recently also available in digital format. The programme Cinéma Nova is dedicating to Lehman features eleven films that could not be less eclectic, but which do provide an excellent overview of the kind of cinema he stands for. Among others, they’re screening Before the Beginning, an encounter between Lehman and his American kindred spirit Stephen Dwoskin. And his three-part Mes entretiens filmés, cinephile interviews with major figures in the film industry like Henri Storck, Robert Kramer, Jonas Mekas, Jean Rouch, and Dominique Païni. You could call these poetic lessons in film centred around Lehman, who was always on a journey, searching, and questioning – and it is this process that also forms part of his (diary) films. And of course, the final film in his unique oeuvre is also included: Funérailles (de l’art de mourir) (photo). This “last will and testament” is part of his uninhibited and monumental autobiographical portrait Babel, in which Lehman stages his own death. But the film is never morbid. Cinéma Nova’s description: “It is a fantasy in the form of a therapeutic exorcism with Boris’s typical sense of humour but which eschews nostalgia, pathos, and narcissism.” (LJ)
Boris Lehman
4 > 26/2, Cinéma Nova, www.nova-cinema.org
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