De witte

"De witte" is one of the most famous books of Belgium and every kid has read it even if it are just adventures from some kid who like to do everything what is forbid. Well, in 2003 kids have Harry Potter but back then it was "De witte". No surprises though that this book used to be the subject of what would be one of the first Belgian movies ever. The movie might have its historical worth, it's a real pain to watch in 2003 without falling asleep as this was just the lame excuse of Jan Vanderheyden to make a full motion picture which must have been something of a phenomen back then. What you see are touristic filmshoots of what Flanders was back then and a very thin story. You could accuse me of saying that I should respect this kind of historical filmshooting but knowing that back then there were already geniuses like Eisenstein around it just makes me laugh. Plus it's the kind of movie that can't hold the attention simply because it's completely dated (it's ridiculous to see how powerful the Church was back then or it was kind of stupid to see farmers singing songs about how noble it was to work, certainly as you know that it was more a struggle to survive). But no hard feelings against director Vanderheyden as he had the great job to entertain the Flemish people and I'm totally aware that he did a brilliant job back then, but now 80 years later it's just a nice curiosa, but absolutely nothing more.

As an other comment indicates, "De Witte" is a book that every young boy used to read in the days of the 60ties & 70ties, though i doubt it that many teenagers nowadays still know it. I read the book (or some favorite chapters) over and over again and every time it brought some laughter and joy in my day. The first time i saw the film, it was a big disappointment, as it could not match by far the images that were stored in my mind as a child. i later understood that it was of course a personal interpretation of the book and that making a film in Belgium in 1934 was not an easy thing. Seeing the film again is pure nostalgic, but the book was far better !