Les convoyeurs attendent

The director of this film has obviously seen a Shane Meadows film or two. Not only was the film set in a small town and centred around the poorer parts but it was also in black and white and featured an odd lonely man who befriends someone much younger than him.

It has been described as a comedy but it isn't funny in the way that Hollywood tells you when to laugh and builds up to a big punchline (that is usually very disappointing anyway). This film is of a realist nature and so anything that is funny is funny because it could happen to you or i. The plot is simple and the performances are brilliant. Everything is subdued and wonderfully not over the top which gives it a certain charm that is lost in anything that places special effects over a storyline.

The young girl who played Luise could have a bright future ahead of her. Why is that the children i have seen in European cinema are much better at acting than those in Hollywood films? I blame the parents.

The movie is set in rural Belgium, in a place inhabited by poor, gloomy people who do not look like Julia Roberts or Hugh Grant. The "hero", a clueless photographer for a local newspaper, is a father who decides that his family deserves better : the only way out appears to be in the Guinness Books of Records. After a failed attempt at spitting olive stones as far as he can, he forces his son to be the next world champion of door openings so that the family can get a new car... This movie is a unique mix of gritty social comment (though not heavy-handed) and dark humour, something often to be found in recent movies from Belgium, the Netherlands and North of France (Benoit Poelvoorde was also the hero of "Man Bites Dog"). Some of the strangest people we meet (a Belgian Elvis, a school teacher right out of the 50's) are in fact playing themselves, and the scenario itself is based on the true story of a father who trained his 3-year old son to be a professional biker. Certainly not for all tastes, and with its share of very dark humour and a little brush of tragedy, and with a fantastic Poelvoorde, "Les convoyeurs" will please the viewers who enjoy "different" movies.

This movie takes place in the Belgian region of Charleroi, which used to be a wealthy area thanks to the mines and the metallurgy. Right now is the poorest area in Belgium with serious problems of unemployment. To reflect this reality there are two ways in cinema: by doing a crude social movie close to the Ken Loach point of view, or by getting some distance and from there expose a narration that superficially could be funny but undoubtly the bitter taste will remain in the audience. In this way, this movie reflects some characters obsessed in trying to evade themselves from that oppressive environment: a father who wants to beat any of the records included in the Guiness book, a daughter in love with doves, etc. To sum up, in my opinion the spectator will find here a movie to laugh while seeing it and a movie to reflect on after seeing it.

Some critics found this film bleak, but for me there was enough good humour and optimism to overcome this impression. For example, the quietly positive and stoic character of the daughter is the still centre of the film, often counterbalancing the unhappy aspects of the setting and plotline.

The film is full of original ideas and characters, and the final outcome is not predictable: I felt it could've gone either way.

By the way, many reviews I've read mention the effective use of black and white, but the print I saw, shown on the SBS TV network here in Australia, was in full colour.

It does take a certain sense of humour and, perhaps, background experience, to see the funny side of this drama/comedy film. It's an unusual but most welcome genre. It's a parody, a pastiche, a slightly ironic homage to neorealist cinema, but I don't see why it wouldn't work as a heart-warming celebration of humanity when taken at its face value. I'm still searching for a way to watch it online, so far all I can see if DVD's... No, I don't get its title... :-/ Still, I consider it genius