Philippe Graff
Art
Known For

A lonely young widow lives with her son following an immutable order: while the boy is in school, she cares for their apartment, does chores, and receives clients in the afternoon.
Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles

Hugo Claus rewrote and directed Friday as the cinematic version of his original 1969 play of the same name. Just as in the play, the story begins with the theme of incest, as the father Georges (Frank Aendenboom) returns from serving his jail sentence for that crime. Unlike the earlier play, however, the film does not emphasize that aspect of the story. When Georges gets home he finds out that his wife Jeanne (Kitty Courbois) has had an illegitimate child by a younger man, Erik (Herbert Flack), and now both of them must somehow try to return to a normal life, given their only too obvious lapses in moral judgment. As the husband and wife try hard to accommodate each other's failings and start to get to know each other again, Erik comes back into the picture. Now the three of them must resolve the deep-seated conflicts that brought them to this emotionally-wrought juncture of love and betrayal.
Vrijdag

Cécile teaches English at the Collegium in Bruges. She has a boyfriend, Thomas, a student at the Beaux-Arts. Cécile lives with Mrs. Hanka, who reads horoscopes and surrounds herself with natal charts. She says she's known a lot about people for 30 years.
The Witness

Detached filmmaker Anna Silver arrives in Germany to show her latest film; over the course of some days, she encounters a variety of new and old faces, some of whom make personal revelations to her to little affect.
The Meetings of Anna

A young sailor finds himself trapped in the labyrinthine mansion of his occultist uncle, along with a number of eccentric and mysterious relatives who all seem to be harboring a dark secret.
Malpertuis

Wildschut starts with a violent casino robbery in Knokke. Criminals Jim and the badly wounded Charlie flee with the loot, but their car breaks down in the foggy Flemish countryside. They seek shelter and break into 'Wildschut', a remote, run-down farmhouse.The gangsters immediately take the resident Deleye family hostage. After Charlie dies from his injuries, the psychopathic Jim is left alone with the captives. A tense psychological mind game unfolds, filled with threat and humiliation as Jim plays the family members against each other.While a local police chief starts a clumsy search, tension builds to a boiling point. The father tries to fight back, leading to a bloody, explosive finale where the survivors must do anything to escape Jim's madness.If you want, I can also translate the film review into English, or provide the English cast list and international titles.AI-reacties kunnen fouten bevatten. Meer informatie
Stronghold

The men of Chemics International lead a quiet life. However, this is cruelly disrupted by an industrial accident in which a toxic substance is released. Some workers are killed; many others are irrevocably contaminated and may suffer permanent injuries. The management, government, press and unions do not react, seeing this as an unfortunate incident. When one of Herman and Jef's best friends also dies, they have had enough. Together they made an ultimate attempt to reveal the truth to the outside world.
De Proefkonijnen

In this erotic drama, Marcel fantasizes about being with his daughter-in-law Simone after the death of his wife. The woman pretends to be surprised over his attention but does nothing to discourage his advances. He promises to build her a swimming pool in order to further his fantasies. The story is taken from the novel by Junichiro Tamizaki.
Diary of a Mad Old Man

A Portuguese imigrant in Holland dies in an accident and is buried in Amsterdam. But his soul will not rest in peace until his body is carried back to Portugal.
Dying to Go Home

A factory worker is employed in the desolate, cold-storage cellars of a brewery. His spare time he devotes to collecting romantic images of wild flowers and sticking newspaper cuttings in an album, demonstrating a preference for more gruesome stories. Murders, rapes and acts of violence are the events which accompany his everyday existence and invest it with a tinge of color.
Minuet

Based on a notorious Belgian court case, My Friend, or The Hidden Life of Jules Depraeter follows Jules Depraeter, a charming but manipulative businessman from Ghent who becomes entangled in robbery, fraud and conspiracy. When police discover stolen jewels and securities in the trunk of a garage owner linked to him, a complex investigation unfolds. During the trial, Depraeter attempts to save himself by accusing a respected investigating judge of masterminding the crimes and plotting the murder of his own wife. Told through courtroom scenes and flashbacks, the film gradually reveals a web of lies, corruption and psychological manipulation.
My Friend, or The Hidden Life of Jules Depraeter

A female vampire must bathe in the blood of virgins in order to stay alive. The trouble is that virgins are in short supply nowadays, and she is running into major problems in finding one.
Mama Dracula

Felix lives with Monique, an authoritarian woman. He decides his wife to exchange their Blois pavilion for what seems to be paradise: a villa in the south of the Drome. Unfortunately the house stands in the middle of a campsite.
Deuxième quinzaine de juillet

No description available.
Bonobo

The family patriarch Van Paemel is a farmer on baron de Wilde's estate. His mild-mannered son Désire is accidentally shot during a hunting party on the estate and remains an invalid. Eduard, the eldest son, is a member of the socialist workers' movement and involved in strike actions in the city. Against her father's wishes, his daughter Cordule starts an affair with the poacher Masco. His youngest daughter, Romanie, is forced to work as a domestic servant at the castle, where she is seduced by Maurice, the baron's son and heir, and becomes pregnant. When the youngest son Kamiel also has to leave the farm because he is drafted into the army, the lack of workers on Van Paemel's farm becomes critical. As a result, the family is evicted from their home because they cannot pay the rent. Three of the children emigrate to the USA, one becomes a nun and one dies, until only the farmer and his wife remain.
The van Paemel Family
In the Belgian hamlet of Verbrande Brug, former lovers Monique and Louis reconnect at a carnival, stirring up drama with their current partners.
Burned Bridges

In a part of Flanders where flax is the main crop, farmer Vermeulen rules his estate like an 'old school' patriarch, stern and authoritarian, nobody else's word is ever taken seriously, just scolded fools, he rather risks being wrong then considering any advice. His marriage is based on a grim understanding: the wife Barbele accepts his heartless manner with everyone, even their studious, smart, healthy, studly son and heir Louis, but his two silly sisters are spoiled with a pointless fancy nunnery boarding school education fit for the upper classes. Farm-life is hard enough, laboring without machines or reliable weather, but this year the stubborn master made it even worse by picking the riskier, badly drained field and sowing later then his neighbors, even when luck turns he'll fetch a lower price for it. Poor practically perfect Louis is granted neither praise, respect nor any pleasure, however hard and well he slaves, obedient like the hired farmhands although well-read. Even ...
De Vlaschaard

1955, un internat en Belgique. Laurent Matagne, 17 ans, croit discerner sous l'identité de son professeur de français surnommé "Vapeur", son père disparu lors d'un raid aérien pendant la guerre 40. Vapeur est excentrique, mystérieux, inquiétant, brillant, et il communique vite à Laurent sa passion pour la littérature, au point de susciter chez lui une vocation d'écrivain. Matagne et son ami Boulette décident de mener l'enquête. Alors qu'ils échafaudent un plan pour confondre Vapeur, Matagne s'attèle à son premier roman.
Sans rancune !

When he finds out that his company has expropriated his own mother, a successful young manager gets deeply upset. Money and power now have a different meaning. He needs to struggle against his own self and stake everything in order to reorganize true values in his life. His career is at stake. When his mother dies in the pension she's been put, his point of limit is reached. He feels responsible and takes revenge through terrorist actions. The beast explodes.
Het Beest

Max, a teenager, is having a difficult time coming of age. At 16, he is constantly in conflict with his parents. His father, Yvon, a lock and alarm manufacturer, does not understand this rebellious son. Worried about his future, he drowns Max's ambitions in a clumsy speech. Himself a bit clumsy, he doesn't know how to show him his affection. A gap is growing. One day, Max goes out without his parents' permission to attend a party organized by a friend. There, he meets his first true love, Audrey. But the young man is also insolent and is soon expelled from his school. His father reacts violently, and the teenager decides to run away.