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Brussels by Night (1983) Online

Brussels by Night (1983) Online
Original Title :
Brussels by Night
Genre :
Movie / Drama
Year :
1983
Directror :
Marc Didden
Cast :
François Beukelaers,Johan Joos,Mariette Mathieu
Writer :
Dominique Deruddere,Marc Didden
Type :
Movie
Time :
1h 30min
Rating :
6.4/10
Brussels by Night (1983) Online

This is the story of a man who travels to Brussels, and meets some people with whom he spends a few days. When they all go on a day trip to the "slanting plane" of Ronquieres, all sorts of bottled up frustrations flare up.
Cast overview, first billed only:
François Beukelaers François Beukelaers - Max
Johan Joos Johan Joos - Stationsbediende
Mariette Mathieu Mariette Mathieu - Dame in trein
Daniël Van Avermaet Daniël Van Avermaet - Taxi-chauffeur
Michiel Mentens Michiel Mentens - Louis
Nellie Rosiers Nellie Rosiers - Josephine-Charlotte
Marleen Merckx Marleen Merckx - Dienster
Ingrid De Vos Ingrid De Vos - Alice
Amid Chakir Amid Chakir - Abdel
Bernard Van Eeghem Bernard Van Eeghem - Buitenwipper
Jan Reussens Jan Reussens - Receptionist (as Jan Reusens)
Fred Van Kuyk Fred Van Kuyk - Jules (as Alfred Van Kuyk)
Machteld Ramoudt Machteld Ramoudt - Zuster Alice
Liliane De Waegeneer Liliane De Waegeneer - Ecologiste op party
Paul Pauwels Paul Pauwels - Blonde jongen op party


User reviews

Tujar

Tujar

Brussels by Night is a dark powerfull human condition movie which focuses on the travellings of the main male character thru the grey streets of Brussels. A frustrated men in his thirties, early fourties seams to want to escape, especially himself.

In his searchings he encounters with a couple of underclass characters, full of never to be reached dreams.

This movie grabbed me by the throath from the very beginning on, due to the enormous actingperformance of De Beuckelaere and the straight in your face confrontation with the solitude of anonymous citylife.
Frdi

Frdi

Brussels by Night, starts with a man, sitting upright in his bed, putting a gun in his mouth. He pulls the trigger but nothing happens. This must be one of the most impressive beginnings of a Belgian movie I've ever seen if you ask me. Immediately you know this will be a dark, dramatic movie.

The movie isn't bad, but it's not as convincing and powerful as I hoped it would be at the beginning. From time to time much interesting isn't happening, making me lose almost all interest in the movie. In fact, all the movie shows is a man wandering around in Brussels, meeting some people, talking, drinking and trying to phone someone... Only at the end you'll fully understand why he acts so strange during the entire story, who he is actually calling and why no-one picks up the phone. What I liked best about the movie is the way it shows Brussels in the eighties. It's a concrete desert, full of desperation and loneliness, where not much is happening...

The images in combination with the melancholic sound track (The only problem for the people who are not from here is that it is sung in French and Dutch, so impossible to understand for the most of you), make sure this movie is rather depressing, which as you'll see fits the subject perfectly. Even though the movie had its moments it wasn't a complete success. I give it a 6/10.
FRAY

FRAY

First of all, i am a fan of what people call "depressing movies" (i think they are just realistic), because it can help us to see how our society looks like behind the screens. Didden made "Brussels by night" i think to show some problems ran in our "land of milk and honey" since the late sixties. In the early eighties, a working man "nine to five" called "Max", married with children is so sick of the shallowness of his life that he loses his senses and does something horrible. He's just so depressed he kills his family can you believe it ? Apartment in the big city, loneliness even though he is married, everyday the same way of living... After his desperate act our main character walks into the night life of Brussels,what seems to be a depressing world. He walks into people like Alice and Abdel, without a future, but these characters seem to be happy in their own way, and they hang out, get drunk. Throughout the film, little annoyances come up and Max gets really frustrated about the behavior of Abdel. This is not his world and another killing takes place. Great scenery of our capital. Anyway impressive movie it makes you think about our society. I give it an eight, the film is well made with low-budget.
cyrexoff

cyrexoff

People change, cities too. This Belgian movie gives a good picture of Brussels during the (dark) 80'. It was cold, dark and strange. I've been living in Brussels all my life, but have to be honest I do not recognize Brussels pictured in the movie anymore. Brussels changed a lot the last 10-15 years. But if anyone is interested in experiencing the atmosphere of Brussels in that time, watch the movie and be glad that things do change. The story is quite simple, it's about a few people who spent some days together, with rising tensions and feelings, which finally ends in a rather nasty situation. A psychological drama of a time I was glad I could forget it.
Beazekelv

Beazekelv

Marc Didden used to be one of the most famous Belgian directors. Mind you, he is still alive but Belgian movies are rather rare and knowing that Didden only made a second movie ("Istanbul") says enough about the quantity of Belgian movies. But good I saw by coincidence tons of Belgian movies this month and "Brussels by night" happened to be the most dated. The subject is paranoia and racism.... The uncontrollable outbursts from Max (François Beukelaers) are finely acted but the second subject (racism) is based on too many clichés. They all might have been true in 1983 but they're not current (sadly enough racism is still current though) as they're too much based on cynical jokes we heard too much and that's exactly the platform of this whole movie. Being a Belgian myself, I can only tell that the title suits the film : Brussels by night, and we all know there is nothing to do.... Watching this film isn't a waste of time but it absolutely does not deserve its cultstatus.
Androrim

Androrim

Borderline brilliant, with witty genius, a cult-worthy near-masterpiece in first 60% of film ... 'Brussels by Night' is then sadly ruined by a devastatingly flawed screenplay ending, introducing some totally un-needed themes of gross violence in a cheap, foolish attempt to be a 'profound and important film'.

But the film in its early parts - about 4 troubled characters in Belgium in the early 1980s - is really extraordinary in many ways, with a very light sophisticated touch. Great film-work and use of music, shows how a smart European on a low-budget can totally outclass Hollywood - for at least part of a film.

Not just a great insight into modern secular European life in 'borderland' regions - really not all that different in Europe today - 'Brussels by Night' initially has a story of marginal and seedy urban characters, who despite some petty failings and 'crime', are not that different from common people in general. The film's brilliance is in a Marcel-Proust-like ability to fascinate us with the meaning of small incidents, in life and in sexual relationships. It is totally compelling viewing, up to a point beyond the first half of the film.

If the film had stayed in that sphere, it might have become one of the great cult classics of European cinema verité, life 'as it really is' on the European streets.

The switch back and forth from Dutch to French, the two main characters being bi-lingual (with a little use of English too), are a nice window into European life, where even uneducated, edgy people speak several languages. This is authentic Brussels (officially bi-lingual) and Belgium (60% Dutch-speaking, the rest mostly French-speaking, including most of Brussels).

But the violent themes that get introduced toward the end, are so utterly soiling, that they make you forget how good the movie was in the early parts. Not that it needed a 'happy' ending, but just some more thought as to what to do with the various troubled people in Brussels who so fascinate the viewer ... characters who deserved better than pointlessly shocking, disconnected conclusion scenes.

The film just needed to stay on its early level, a brilliant movie about the small, hugely intriguing things that can compose real life, versus being transformed un-necessarily into a gratuitous video presentation of psychopathic behaviour and horror. Though the violence is in part suggested rather than shown, it is a betrayal of the viewer's initial eager enjoyment of a genius film about the small but vivid components of petty lives.

Hesitate to recommend it, because of the way 'Brussels by Night' disturbs at the end ... I am left with a sense of tragedy, both to see a semi-genius film collapse so disgustingly before its conclusion ... and to realise that a possibly great young European director, had likely damaged his future prospects, by the cheap, awful ending to his brilliantly-begun 'Brussels by Night'.