Les Sept Péchés capitaux
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Olivier Smolders
Pierre-Paul Renders
Frédéric Fonteyne
Beatriz Flores Silva
Yvan Le Moine
Geneviève Mersch
Pascal Zabus
Casts & Crew
Also Directed by Olivier Smolders
Some footage and shots of expressionless actresses seen in Ravissements are repurposed in La philosophie dans le boudoir / Philosophy in the Boudoir (1991), wherein Smolders takes extracts from the Marquis De Sade’s nutbar text and applies them to scenes of a man in a prison cell, and single or groups of women often standing with the same blank expressions as the man. Perhaps to characterize De Sade’s libertine philosophy and rude text as words and ideas worthy of anyone, Smolders alternates his actors, with several men portraying (presumably) the incarcerated De Sade. - kqek.com
Modest meditation on youth, life and mortality made up almost entirely from professionally made family films. What is more heart-rending than seeing pictures of people who have died? The aim of Mort à Vignole is to transcend the pain of a certain family and to come to terms with sensitive memories and family bonds. - IFFR
The theme of death is heavily interwoven in Smolder’s surreal salute to Belgian painter Antoine Wiertz, a Hieronymus Bosch-type artist whose work centered on humans in various stages in torment, as depicted in expansive canvases with gore galore. Smolders has basically taken a standard documentary and chopped it up, using quotes from the long-dead artist, and periodic statements by a historian (Smolders) filling in a few bits of Wiertz’ life.
Ten films written and directed by Olivier Smolders too freely inspired by the work of Ignace de Loyola
Based on the real life story of Sagawa, a Japanese student who killed, dismembered and ate a young Dutch girl in Paris.
La part de l’ombre recovers the life of the Hungarian photographer Oskar Benedek, who disappeared the day his exhibition opened; what happened to him? - IndieLisboa
In a world overtaken by eternal darkness, the buttoned down entomologist abandons his phantoms to embrace the unknown.
On vacation in the countryside, a filmmaker thinks about the mourning of his parents. As their faces, and most especially their gaze, fades away, he starts meditating on masks as passages to the afterlife.
A small, empty boudoir slowly becomes populated by a series of young women, their still and open expressions gradually engulfing the screen, as a nun narrates an account of religious rapture. Belgian filmmaker Olivier Smolders continues a brilliant exploration of religious ecstasy, figured in and epitomized by the erotic, death-defying gaze of the camera lens, in this sublime black-and-white treatment set to excerpts from the theological writings of Saint Teresa of Avila. - Robert Avila
Also Directed by Pierre-Paul Renders
As they prepare to test products for a multinational corporation, a marketing company targets a typical guy as their guinea pig.
Thomas Thomas is agoraphobic, has a computer-generated girlfriend, and hasn't left his home in years. Can a prostitute convince him to leave cyberspace and his home for the real world?
Also Directed by Frédéric Fonteyne
A prison guard is attracted to a woman at his weekly tango class. They meet again when she visits her husband in the prison where he works and he is drawn into her complicated romantic life. Meanwhile the prisoners are learning the tango.
Short film.
Made for the Venice Film Festival's 70th anniversary, seventy filmmakers made a short film between 60 and 90 seconds long on their interpretation of the future of cinema.
Short film.
During a scorching summer, Axelle, Conso and Dominique cross every day the Franco-Belgian border to prostitute themselves in Belgium to continue living in Roubaix.
Gilles' wife, Elise, who smiles when she thinks of him, cooks and scrubs and cheerfully makes love to him, suspects during her third pregnancy that he is having an affair with her coquettish younger sister, Victorine. Elise suffers, usually in silence. She listens to her husband rave; she asks her priest; she breaks picture frames; she weeps. She decides on a strategy to keep him. Will she succeed?
Max is a Sicilian living in Brussels who makes a living as a hairdresser. His flourishing business goes bankrupt when he gets hairdresser's eczema overnight. He loses his customers and his wife. What is more, he is in trouble with the law. At the police station, he encounters heavyweight Bobo who asks him for all his money. When Max refuses, Bobo gets the impression that he must be tough. In reality, he just wants to be left alone. In his good old days, Max never cared for anyone, so now there is no one he can turn to. Bobo, who spent all his life in foster homes and youth centers, seems to be the only one to care for him. Together they devise a plan to find some quick money. Bobo's idea is to rob a jewelry store.
A man and a woman meet to fulfill her sexual fantasy.
Also Directed by Beatriz Flores Silva
Aurelio Saravia is a powerful politician who holds office in Uruguay in the mid-1960's. When Aurelio's mistress kills herself, he adopts their illegitimate daughter Masangeles despite the stern objections of his wife Aurora. Masangeles finds herself growing up in a home ruled by a corrupt and self-centered tyrant and his manic colleagues while Uruguay teeters on the brink of civil war as bands of revolutionaries battle government militias. When she turns fourteen, Masangeles discovers a secret passageway in their home that leads to sanctuary in a nearby church which also serves as a storehouse for guns and ill-gotten cash. Teenage Masangeles falls in love with Santiago, her stepbrother who has joined the rebels fighting against the state, and she persuades him to take her virginity.
Montevideo, Uruguay. In this comedic drama, Elisa, 27, dreams of opening her own hairdressing salon in one of the rich districts of the Uruguayan capital. A bit of a rebel, one day Elisa moves out of her mother's house with her two children and breaks up with Garcia, her boss and lover who has infuriated her by not wanting to get married. So, in the space of twenty-four hours, Elisa finds herself without a roof over her head, without a man, without a job and without money. Her best friend Loulou finds her a job - in the brothel run by Dona Jacqueline. And without really being aware of it, Elisa slides into prostitution, which leads her to Barcelona. She falls in love, she is exploited, she gets involved in transvestite gang wars, and meanwhile just dreams of earning enough money for her little beauty salon back home.
Uruguay feature film.
Also Directed by Yvan Le Moine
Lucien is a dwarf, who works hard in a large legal office. His only friend is trapeze circus artist Isis. One day he gets the attention of singer Paola Bendoni and falls in love with her.
Also Directed by Geneviève Mersch
It is no fun when your birthday falls on Valentine's day, especially if you are single and your girlfriends are all married. So when Cathy comes across the magic formula for finding her Prince Charming, she doesn't waste a minute.
A documentary about Luxembourg's Grand Duchess Charlotte Bridge —AKA the red bridge, notorious for its suicides— in which a couple of families who lived underneath the bridge were followed and interviewed throughout a period of time, telling about their macabre experiences.
Luxembourg's submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2003
An in-depth look at Europe's biggest service station through the lens of its various customers - underpaid truckers, excited tourists, stressed-out business men, and many more.
A 30 minute documentary about Roger Dahm, who was voted the second most popular Luxembourger of 2010.
Also Directed by Pascal Zabus
This docu-fiction, shot in India and Nepal, recounts the first moments of Buddhism, by rediscovering a time when everything had to be built. Travelers and teachers who visit the places where the Buddha lived today have the same impressions: they are trying to understand the problems he had to face. Why did Siddhartha leave his palace and his family? What was the original way he taught to end suffering? How did he prepare the community to last after his death? This docu-fiction brings history to life by focusing on "the man who became the Buddha".