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<blockquote data-quote="Willie Oleson" data-source="post: 436594" data-attributes="member: 8">Brussels By Night (1983)[ATTACH=full]58462[/ATTACH]A Belgian arty-farty road trip <s>movie</s> film in which nothing significants happens. There are characters in it and they do stuff but it all looks very random.Let&#039;s take the bus, let&#039;s drink, let&#039;s ask questions answered with &quot;why do you ask so many questions&quot;, let&#039;s take snapshots, let&#039;s go to a discotheque but we&#039;re not allowed to enter so then let&#039;s not do it.The depressing and sometimes violent nature of the main character makes you wonder why there is a social connection between him and the other characters.But that&#039;s the beauty of film because the simple answer is: they filmed it.There&#039;s a lot of sightseeing to do, and thankfully it&#039;s all that boring random stuff that says so much more about the zeitgeist than the touristic spots (although, except for Manneke Pis, I&#039;d be hard-pressed to name a touristic spot in Brussels).Sometimes it reminded me of The Wiz&nbsp; but without songs, which is actually not true because main character Max performs Erma Franklin&#039;s Piece Of My Heart&nbsp; albeit in a drunken and aggressive way.Come to think of it, it&#039;s more like Elizabeth Taylor&#039;s best and most haunting film The Driver&#039;s Seat (1974) which I&#039;m going to rewatch in glorious 4K once I got myself a blu ray player. The difference is that we know the motivation of Taylor&#039;s character.Max in Brussels makes telephone calls throughout the entire film but those calls are never answered. It implies that it&#039;s always the same number and that it has something to do with his reckless and irrational behaviour. He&#039;s married but his wife is not in the film and he doesn&#039;t want to talk about her.Then something unexpectedly shocking happens and I thought that&nbsp;&nbsp; was the film&#039;s Jeanne Dielman moment. It gave me a false sense of relaxation because I expected those last 5 minutes to peter out until the end credits started to roll.Talk about pulling the rug from under this viewer&#039;s feet. It may be the darkest ending in film I&#039;ve ever seen in my entire life, even darker than The Vanishing or Mr. Goodbar. It made me rewatch the whole story in a flash.It&#039;s a wonderful film if you&#039;re in the mood for something less Hollywood. I watched it on netflix but there&#039;s also a subtitled version on YT.[MEDIA=youtube]Ph7XatYgWzI, list: RDPh7XatYgWzI[/MEDIA]I haven&#039;t seen the other W&amp;G films but I know what you mean. It looks like it should happen in the 101 Dalmatians era.The claymation looks good, but there&#039;s a slight interference with my visual perception. I also can&#039;t sit in a chair that leans back without getting dizzy.You know, the car-sick kid. Not that it ever impressed my dad who always&nbsp;&nbsp; smoked inside the car even if it was to get to the other side of the street.When I checked the cast list I didn&#039;t see anyone as the voice of Feathers McGraw. Then the penny dropped.&quot;Select all images with cheese in it&quot;.There are no other W&amp;G films on netflix, unfortunately, but they&#039;ve got some Shaun the Sheep stuff. Is it funny?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Willie Oleson, post: 436594, member: 8"] Brussels By Night (1983) [ATTACH type="full"]58462[/ATTACH] A Belgian arty-farty road trip [S]movie[/S] film in which nothing significants happens. There are characters in it and they do stuff but it all looks very random. Let's take the bus, let's drink, let's ask questions answered with "why do you ask so many questions", let's take snapshots, let's go to a discotheque but we're not allowed to enter so then let's not do it. The depressing and sometimes violent nature of the main character makes you wonder why there is a social connection between him and the other characters. But that's the beauty of film because the simple answer is: they filmed it. There's a lot of sightseeing to do, and thankfully it's all that boring random stuff that says so much more about the zeitgeist than the touristic spots (although, except for [I]Manneke Pis[/I], I'd be hard-pressed to name a touristic spot in Brussels). Sometimes it reminded me of [I]The Wiz[/I] but without songs, which is actually not true because main character Max performs Erma Franklin's [I]Piece Of My Heart[/I] albeit in a drunken and aggressive way. Come to think of it, it's more like Elizabeth Taylor's best and most haunting film [I]The Driver's Seat[/I] (1974) which I'm going to rewatch in glorious 4K once I got myself a blu ray player. The difference is that we know the motivation of Taylor's character. Max in Brussels makes telephone calls throughout the entire film but those calls are never answered. It implies that it's always the same number and that it has something to do with his reckless and irrational behaviour. He's married but his wife is not in the film and he doesn't want to talk about her. Then something unexpectedly shocking happens and I thought [I]that[/I] was the film's Jeanne Dielman moment. It gave me a false sense of relaxation because I expected those last 5 minutes to peter out until the end credits started to roll. Talk about pulling the rug from under this viewer's feet. It may be the darkest ending in film I've ever seen in my entire life, even darker than [I]The Vanishing[/I] or [I]Mr. Goodbar[/I]. It made me rewatch the whole story in a flash. It's a wonderful film if you're in the mood for something less Hollywood. I watched it on netflix but there's also a subtitled version on YT. [MEDIA=youtube]Ph7XatYgWzI, list: RDPh7XatYgWzI[/MEDIA] I haven't seen the other W&G films but I know what you mean. It looks like it should happen in the 101 Dalmatians era. The claymation looks good, but there's a slight interference with my visual perception. I also can't sit in a chair that leans back without getting dizzy. You know, the car-sick kid. Not that it ever impressed my dad who [I]always[/I] smoked inside the car even if it was to get to the other side of the street. When I checked the cast list I didn't see anyone as the voice of Feathers McGraw. Then the penny dropped. "Select all images with cheese in it". There are no other W&G films on netflix, unfortunately, but they've got some Shaun the Sheep stuff. Is it funny? [/QUOTE]

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