Benoît Poelvoorde
A cinematographic “cadavre exquis”, whose entrails reveal the odd nature of a (un)certain Belgian cinema. Authors, directors, actors who have proved that imposture could be an act of creation. Convinced that any so-called “new” cinematographic production was in fact a rehash of what had already been made, these pirates of images snuck as forgers, liars, tricksters, usurpers, … Outlaws of the cinema who falsified its form. From the filmed imposture of Man Bites Dog to Jan Bucquoy’s fabulist biopic, everything participates in the dynamiting of institutional language through simulacrum and absurdity. This free journey in the “cine-belgitude” has for vocation to approach these marvellous eccentrics followers of a overexcited and stripping situationism.
School is out, and Indian and Cowboy are bored. Watching an old pirate film gets them out of their funk and they decide to build a ship and go off on an adventure. But their first try is a disaster. With the help of some animals, they finally manage to launch their proud vessel and everything is ready for their departure. But of course, nothing goes to plan... And the catastrophes come thick and fast.
Paul is a 12 years old boy. He lives with his mother in the private clinic of doctor Loisel, deeply hidden in the woods. Paul likes to roam the forest and observe nature. One day Gloria, a schizophrenic teenager of around fifteen years old, arrives. Paul falls in love immediately. There is an awkward love between the two children. Because Paul thinks that Gloria is in danger, he helps her escape. This is the beginning of a long journey that will take the two children to the heart of madness.
Paris 2020, superheroes are perfectly assimilated within society and want to be famous at all costs. A drug that gives superpowers to mere mortals is spreading all over town. Lieutenants Moreau and Schaltzmann are investigating the case with the support of two ex-superheroes, Monte Carlo and Callista. They’ll do whatever it takes to dismantle the traffic. But Moreau’s past resurfaces and the investigation becomes more complicated...
In a provincial suburb, three neighbours come to terms with the consequences of the new world of social media. Marie, who lives off her husband’s family allowance, is afraid of losing her son’s respect because of a sex tape. Bertrand can’t say no to advertising calls and is fighting to protect his daughter, who is being bullied online. Christine, after losing everything because of her addiction to TV series, wonders why her rating as an Uber driver is not taking off. These three lone fighters are incapable of finding a solution to their problems on their own — until they join forces to declare war on the tech giants.
Claire is a beautiful young woman who works at her late father’s hotel, that is now managed by her evil stepmother Maud. Claire unwittingly sparks uncontrollable jealousy in Maud, whose young lover has fallen in love with Claire. Maud decides to get rid of Claire who finds shelter in a farm where she’s allowed to break free from her strict upbringing through encounters with seven “princes.”
Emile is fifteen. He lives in Montargis, between a sweet-crazy father and a mother who has always dyed his hair blond, because, it seems, he is more beautiful like that. When the girl who pleases him more than anything invites him to Venice for the holidays, he is overjoyed. Only problem, his parents decide to accompany him - This is the story of a teenager born into an unclassifiable family, the story of a first love, miraculous and fragile. This is the story of an initiatory and incredible journey where life often takes unawares, but where Venice, it will be at the rendezvous.
Joseph and his two sons, Joachim and Ivan, form a close-knit family but fail to see that each one is losing control of his life. Joachim is supposed to be studying psychiatry but spends most of his time daydreaming about his ex-girlfriend, Ivan cannot fit in at school despite being very smart, and Joseph has secretly quit his job as a doctor and is trying to become a writer. While there is plenty of affection at home, all three are also, clumsily, searching for love...
40-year-old Bertrand has been suffering from depression for the last two years and is barely able to keep his head above water. Despite the medication he gulps down all day, every day, and his wife's encouragement, he is unable to find any meaning in his life. Curiously, he will end up finding this sense of purpose at the swimming pool, by joining an all-male synchronised swimming team.
Indian and Cowboy are about to set off on a magnificent cruise on a luxury liner, but they have made a big mistake. They completely forgot that today is the first day of school! Goodbye tropical islands, our friends are back at their desks in school listening as the teacher drones on and on.
Every year, Bruno makes a tour of all the wine stands, without setting foot outside the Show’s premises and without ever finishing his wine trail. This year, his father suggests they finish it together, but a real wine trail, across the French countryside. Accompanied by Mike, a young, quirky taxi driver, they set off in the direction of France’s major wine regions. Together, they are going to discover not only the wine trails, but also the road that leads back to Love.
Four separate episodes deal with stereotypical ideas about Jews: their alleged influence on politics, the stereotype of Jewish business-mindedness, the Mossad, the Jewish world conspiracy and the memory of the Holocaust.
For the Shadoks, panic strikes. A mysterious disease infects these curious creatures. Everyone talks about it, giving their various opinions, but all discussions lead to fighting. They used to spend their time enjoying, now it’s just a constant brawl. Professor Shadoko prepares a vaccination against this terrible disease.
A criminal duo learns of Charlie Chaplin's death and decides to steal his coffin to hold for a ransom.
Forty-year-old Paul-André is a timid, rather introverted man. Rich but alone, he is deeply bored and ends up concluding that what he needs is a family. Violette, a forty-year-old full of energy, is threatened with eviction and is afraid she'll lose custody of her two children. Paul-André then proposes a totally above the board contract to rent the family in exchange for him paying off Violette's debts. For better and for worse..
God lives in Brussels. On earth though, God is a coward, with pathetical morals and being odious with his family. His daughter, Ea, is bored at home and can't stand being locked up in a small apartment in ordinary Brussels, until the day she decides to revolt against her dad...
José is a football agent who goes to Ivory Coast to spot young talents in football. He is a braggart , who willingly sleeps with Gigi , a beautiful African woman who loves the luxury he offers her... One day, José spots Yaya, a street boy with the potential of a champion, and brings him to Belgium. Will Yaya be José's reward? Between the poor neighborhoods of Abidjan and Sporting Club of Charleroi, the cultural "gap" is brutal... and reserves surprises.
The year's end celebrations are coming. Christmas: the tree, the dinner, the presents. Indian and Cowboy are expecting their presents eagerly. Overexcited by the organization of the celebration, they fight and destroy the Yule log on which Horse was putting the last touch. Horse is livid and cancels the gifts from Santa Claus. How will they win back the favors of Horse and the Old Bearded Man ? How will they retrieve their gifts ? For Indian an Cowboy begins a long very long Christmas Eve...
Once upon a time in 2012, three brothers lived happily. One day their mom fell into a coma. So Henri, Philippe, and Louis suddenly started wondering about the meaning of their lives and were swamped by a wave of existential doubts. An entirely new situation for this bourgeois trio in their forties, one which opened a door to the novel and indeed the forbidden... and to the big bad wolf!
Antoine is a joyful but disenchanted photographer. His only true friend, Mateo, is 7 years old and the son of his neighbor, who is often absent. One day, he hears a piano sonata coming from the building across the courtyard. Mesmerized by the music, he becomes obsessed by Elena, the beautiful but mysterious pianist, and starts to photograph her at every opportunity. An intense relationship develops between fragile and idealistic Elena and Antoine, who is transformed by this encounter.
An ageing punk-with-a-dog and his brother the conformist decide to get their revenge on a shopping mall. Directing duo Benoit Delepine and Gustave Kervern, longstanding comic crusaders against capitalism, again set out to surprise and shock the bourgeois audience.
Mathias, aboard a ship with his wife, sees a boy with a striking resemblance to himself and is called - Mathias. He then tracks him to a town north of France to discover that the boys parents are exactly like his parents, only to know that his life is payed over again just 30 years post. He then chooses to be the guest in his own life, while he has a life to live at hand.
Agathe runs an art gallery. Her husband François is a publisher. Together they have one son, and in every way seem to be the picture of normality — but emotions are stewing under the surface. All it takes is the arrival of a complete stranger for things to start unravelling. Patrick is brash, uncouth and totally unselfconscious...
Doctor Kruger dreams to insert “the suicide in modernity”. He offers to his patients the service of a private clinic where one can die in all peace, champagne glass to the hand. But in the private clinic of “ideal death”, nothing occurs as envisaged.
During the elimination of the Belgian/French border in the 90s, a Belgian customs officer is forced to team up with one of his French counterparts.
What happens when a man and a woman share a common passion? They fall in love. And this is what happens to Jean-René, the boss of a small chocolate factory, and Angélique, a gifted chocolate maker he has just hired. What occurs when a highly emotional man meets a highly emotional woman? They fall in love, and this is what occurs to Jean-René and Angélique who share the same handicap. But being pathologically timid does not make things easy for them. So whether they will manage to get together, join their solitudes and live happily ever after is a guessing matter.
Serge Pilardosse vient d'avoir 60 ans. Il travaille depuis l'âge de 16 ans, jamais au chômage, jamais malade. Mais l'heure de la retraite a sonné, et c'est la désillusion : il lui manque des points, certains employeurs ayant oublié de le déclarer ! Poussé par Catherine, sa femme, il enfourche sa vieille moto des années 70, une " Mammut " qui lui vaut son surnom, et part à la recherche de ses bulletins de salaires. Durant son périple, il retrouve son passé et sa quête de documents administratifs devient bientôt accessoire...
Alexandre Dumas, at the height of his career, takes Auguste Maquet, his chief literary collaborator or 'ghost writer' ten years his junior, to meet a young unknown admirer, Charlotte Desrives. The two men are at the summit of their artistic collaboration for they have just published "The Count of Monte Christo", "Queen Margot" and "The Three Musketeers". If it's Maquet who writes the majority of the texts, both the honours and fame go to Dumas.
Animated plastic toys like Cowboy, Indian and Horse have problems, too. Cowboy and Indian's plan to surprise Horse with a homemade birthday gift backfires when they destroy his house instead. Surreal adventures take over as the trio travel to the center of the earth, trek across frozen tundra and discover a parallel underwater universe where pointy-headed (and dishonest!) creatures live. With panic a permanent feature of life in this papier mâché town, will Horse and his girlfriend ever be alone?
As she does every morning, Lucie takes advantage of her journey to work to lose herself for a while in the pages of a good book. And as she does every morning, she joins her colleagues at the office with a smile. It's a working day just like any other. Then suddenly all activity in the office stops. All attention is turned towards the window of the opposite building opposite and abanner reading: Man Alone. Is it a hoax? A cry for help? Everyone has his own interpretation, and will try, by any means possible, to discover what lies behind this mysterious message.
2009 biopic about the early life of Coco Chanel. Several years after leaving the orphanage, to which her father never returned for her, Gabrielle Chanel finds herself working in a provincial bar both. She's both a seamstress for the performers and a singer, earning the nickname Coco from the song she sings nightly with her sister. A liaison with Baron Balsan gives her an entree into French society and a chance to develop her gift for designing.
Ten years after their disastrous walking holiday in Corsica, four friends – Cora, Nadine, Mathieu and Louis – decide to spend the summer together on the Côte d’Azur. To their surprise, who should they meet in St-Tropez but Eric, the guide-from-Hell who transformed their last holiday into a nightmare and whom they swore never to see again...
In this radical and endearing black comedy, a group of retrenched female factory workers decide to pool their compensation money… and hire a hit man to liquidate their boss.
Astérix and Obélix have to win the Olympic Games in order to help their friend Alafolix marry Princess Irina. Brutus uses every trick in the book to have his own team win the game, and get rid of his father Julius Caesar in the process.
A French tradesman travels in time and liberates an oppressed tribe in another world.
A bourgeois office drone whose raison d’état is the music of French rocker Johnny Hallyday awakens one day in an alternate universe where the famed musician never recorded a single song. When he’s not at the office dutifully plugging-away, Fabrice lives a deadly dull life.
The seemingly separate lives of a group of men intersect entwining the fates of each of them over the course of a week.
La vie est bien ingrate pour François Berthier : un chien hurle toute la nuit et l'empêche de dormir, la machine a café lui explose au visage, il pleut, le chef de bureau à la banque l'humilie et le menace de renvoi. Et puis, du jour au lendemain, tout ce qui était violent ou pénible pour François se transforme comme par miracle. Que se passe-t-il ? Pourquoi le monde devient-il si brusquement doux
In Lille, Claire Gauthier is an ordinary married woman with a young daughter that works in an insurance company analyzing losses of insured properties. When the single veterinary Laurent Kessler claims damage in his basement caused by a flooding due to water leakage, Claire resolves the situation favorably for him. The weird Laurent visits Claire in her office successively, inviting her for drinks and lunch, and they get close to each other. Meanwhile, a serial killer is terrorizing Lille, killing women with a scalpel. Claire feels a great attraction for Laurent, who has an unusual behavior in her apartment. When Claire sees a scalpel in the pocket of Laurent's jacket, she fears him, but still loves him.
James Bataille is in love. He attempts to stage an elaborate motorcycle stunt to impress the girl, but when it goes sour, he ends up in prison with a 133-year sentence. Bataille escapes from behind bars to make an appointment to fix the car of music biz tycoon, as well as watch the love of his life take part in the town's annual talent show.
In this pitch black comedy the rivalry between two neighbors escalates into an all out war. Through a maintenance error on a tractor they both end up, paralyzed, in a wheelchair. It seems they are doomed to stay together. They no longer focus their rage on each other but on the manufacturer of the tractor, in Helsinki. So get ready for a hilarious wheelchair road movie.
French director Isabelle Doval directs her husband, popular comedic actor José Garcia, in the comedy Rire et Chatiment (Laughter and Punishment). Vincent (Garcia) is a popular physician whose aggressive need to be funny and get people's attention annoys his girlfriend, Camille (Doval), to the point that she leaves him. He begins to suspect she might have been onto something when his behavior begins causing people to die.
Prison guard Reggio lets Moltes have a weekly lottery ticket in exchange for his suave relationship advice. When Moltes learns that he has a winning lottery ticket, he breaks out of jail to claim his money. However, Reggio's girlfriend, Pauline , has the ticket with her in Africa. The action involves the odd couple teaming up to find the ticket while being chased by Det. Youssouf , along with the vengeful Turk and the Giant.
We follow the build-up and training of two opposite Belgian political parties. We see their leaders during meetings, during voting and after when the results of the elections are published.
In the 70s, there was Merckx and there were the others. Ghislain Lambert was one of the others. This is his story, a quite simple one. The story of a modest Belgian bike racer. His greatest ambition in life? To become a champion. His greatest tragedy? Not having the legs his heart deserves.
Roger Closset is a man who obviously loves his family, though that doesn't always make them feel better. Dad is an obsessive type with a short fuse and a long list of curious ideas, and his wife and children must often bear the brunt of his eccentricities. Roger works as a reporter, a job he doesn't like which doesn't pay especially well, either. One day, Roger learns an area business association is sponsoring a contest for a family that can break a world record, with the grand prize being a new car. Suddenly, Roger gets a brainstorm -- if his son can open and shut a door 40,000 times in 24 hours, the car will be theirs. 15-year-old Michel, however, is not at all happy to have been drafted into this new responsibility, especially when dad builds a practice door in the backyard and finds a trainer to teach Michel how to open and close it with greatest efficiency.
A quartet of Parisians embark upon a guided hike in Corsica and end up working through the sometimes comical chaos of their individual lives while becoming lost and contending with such obstacles as bad weather and aching bodies. Both of the female hikers are seeking love, though one of them is involved with their married guide and tries to push him into getting a divorce. The other, a former actress, simply wants the perfect mate. Neither of the two male hikers, one who is involved with an Australian and the other is in love with making money, qualify for her affections.
Poetry lovers, defenders of good taste, dear hunters... you are here at home! Find Benoit Poelvorde at the top of his madness in the complete "Carnets de Mr Manatane". More than 7 hours of knowing how to live (or die) by Mr Manatane!
The activities of rampaging, indiscriminate serial killer Ben are recorded by a willingly complicit documentary team, who eventually become his accomplices and active participants. Ben provides casual commentary on the nature of his work and arbitrary musings on topics of interest to him, such as music or the conditions of low-income housing, and even goes so far as to introduce the documentary crew to his family. But their reckless indulgences soon get the better of them.
A man discovers his new love interest has a child. When they fist meet it's unclear who is embarrased more, he or the young daughter.
A mock trailer for a spy film about a secret agent called Daniel Daniel.
