My short trip to Belgium became quite film related, after I saw so many beautiful old cinemas on random corners of the city center of Brussels. Unfortunately I missed my chance to go to a special one for old silent European films. On some days, American silent films are played there as well. What I liked most about these small cinemas is the loyal viewers who come back again and again, despite the many empty seats around them. In a way the country itself promotes local films and European films far more than any
others. I saw very few commercial cinemas (with a lovely design though!) , but they were all promoting a Romanian film I forgot the name of. The poster made it look like the most important film of the year and the actual blockbusters had smaller size posters. It's interesting how the cinema owners direct the attention and control the audience preferences.Here is a picture of one of the commercial cinemas, which I still find quite sophisticated from the outside.
I met someone who works in a small cinema and they told me most of the times people go there by themselves, as if to clear their heads or to find peace and intelle
ctual food in the philosophical stories the films offer. I used to love going to the cinema alone and now I have no time even to feel nostalgic. Besides, it reminds me of Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver and his lonely habits. (There are porn theaters in the area as well! I shamelessly took a photo)
Brussels has some lovely streets and old squares that attract film crews. I was playing a cache game (which I renamed Da Vinci Code) with a GPS, that apparently is the latest fashion for frequent travelers. You go on a special website and find the coordinates of the starting point and then you wind up at places in the city that the locals love, but are not so popular among the tourists. So our first task was to count the attic windows of this building:
YES! You are asking yourself the same question, which ones from the 1000 are exactly supposed to be considered as attic windows? Besides, first we had to consider the plenty of other old building to decide which one is the right one. While straining our brains with the Da Vinci Code game, a French film crew started setting up a track in front of us!
How lucky is that?
It turned out they were filming a scene from a film called "Avec tout ma force" with Vincent Lindon. A very simple scene, where he's pretty much showing around a young boy the old square. It is directed by a lady who I took for production assistant. It was because the actor was so involved in watching the monitor I assumed he directed himself! But that film crew was very organized and the poor AD stood out from miles, hustling the extras.
Unfortunately I don't remember watching any films with this actor but Benoit told me he and the director are quite famous.
Apart from the cinemas, I couldn't miss the local specialty! From all the beautiful old squares and film crews, one suddenly gets tired and that's when it's a time for a waffle at 1 am! (when every other tourist remembers to have one)
P.S - A random prop I found on the street. I would have actually taken it if It was smaller!
