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annmoncarey
Reviews
Vidange perdue (2006)
Old is not dead
Jacques Boon is the writer of the sugary filmscripts about old people that were filmed by Lieven Debrauwer. Both 'Pauline and Paulette' and 'Sweet Jam' ('Confituur') he wrote together with Lieven Debrauwer. This time he wrote the script with the director of 'Vidange Perdue', Geoffrey Enthoven. And this proves to be the right combination. No sugar is left, realism is added, and the result is a much better film than the films of Debrauwer which were full of kitsch and cheap sentiment. Here we get sarcasm and irony instead, without leaving the viewer with a negative feeling. The film deals with an old man, named Lucien (Nand Buyl), whose wife died recently. He and his wife were married for 55 years. Lucien doesn't seem to be sad. He lives with his daughter, who is also married and who has a daughter herself. But though he's only been living there for a couple weeks, his daughter can't stand his lifestyle. Lucien goes out for a drink once in a while, and comes home drunk and wasted. It doesn't take long before he goes back to his own house, to live on his own. But Lucien is an old man and accidents will happen. Lucky for him one of his neighbors is a woman who also lives on her own. She's much younger and want to help Lucien to build a new life. Much to the dismay of his daughter, who thinks Lucien belongs in a home for the elderly. She wants him to sit still and die so she can have his money and buy. Of course there's much more to the story. Geoffrey Enthoven tells it all with a sense of humor, with a heart, the same way he did that with 'Les Enfants de L'Amour', a film about dysfunctional families and children whose parents were divorced. Enthoven succeeds in being emotional without being sentimental. He makes us think and delivers films that doesn't stink. The opposite is true. To get the right mood for his film he gets a lot of help from Tom Kestens, who as Lalalover, composed the excellent and fitting music. Nand Buyl, an 83-year old theater-actor who was a television-star in Belgium 50 years ago, will never have dreamed to get such a beautiful present at the end of his acting-career. Also the ladies who star opposite him are wonderful. This is a film about old age, but people of all ages will enjoy it and will be moved by it.