I want to thank Dave Z. for the three recent neo-noir titles,
and reviews. I'm always looking for good recent films with a
noir feeling or style, and I'll have to check theses out. I
also fell compelled to answer your question about Belgium,
and respond to the following comments that came up later in
that strand:
"Belgians are almost as silly as the Serb, Croats,
Slovenians...etc...and reproducing alienated patterns of
behaviour through their punny nasty internal wars, bitchin¹,
separations, mass murders, brings outward animosity for
them....is that your question???" For the record, I'm a huge
fan of Belgium, have spent many years of my life there, so
I'm not unbiased. But I think think this description is
pretty rough. Belgium was created as a buffer zone between
French and Holland, which just couldn't get along. A bunch of
diplomats, sitting over in England, decided to lop off a
piece from each of these enemy nations, and stick the enemies
together inside a new country. I would argue that what
Belgians have achieved is amazing: no, the Flemish and the
Walloons don't like one another, but they've managed to
function. In fact, they've managed to thrive, and become not
only a viable modern economy, but the political fulcrum of
Europe. Which is precisely why so many other countries
dislike them. Once you realize you've been beaten on all
fronts by a smaller, more culturally-divided country that had
no right succeeding, your only option is to attack that
country on false grounds, or just display unfounded bigotry
towards it. As the films you mention demonstrate, most of
Europe has arrived at that point of bigotry (which is
thinly-veiled jealousy).
Is this fit for Rara-Avis? Maybe, maybe not. I can say I want
to see the movies that inspired this diatribe. I can also say
that there is a lot about the history of Belgium that would
make for good noir, and that comments like this about Belgium
(or for that matter, many other countries) make me
contemplate dark crimes! I might also add that, despite
appearances from this email, I would like to keep the list
more focused on noir film and literature. That would help us
all avoid the sort of flag-waving I've just felt compelled to
undertake.
Shannon Clute www.noircast.net
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