Oscar nomination for Broken Circle Breakdown

In recent years, many a good film was made in Belgium. In the beginning, the directors only made slow films about country life as described in many a book of the 20th century or earlier. Beautiful made films, but way too slow for my taste.

Not so in recent years. We have some good directors like Jan Verheyen (Loft) and Felix Van Groeninge, who directed the movie which has now been nominated for an Oscar (foreign language film): The Broken Circle Breakdown.

The film tells the story of a couple. She, Elise, is a tatto artist. A free woman, who has a mind of her own and is very down to earth. He, Didier, is a romantic at heart. He plays banjo in a blue grass band. Despite these differences, they fall in love and they get a daughter, Maybelle. And little Maybelle is diagnosed with cancer...

A beautiful film (you should see it if you have the chance, it's playing in the States) but also very sad. You'll laugh and you'll cry while watching. It gets even better if you see it for a second or a third time.

There is also some very good blue grass music in the film and the actors who perform the leading roles, also tour in a band with the music from the film.

The female lead role is for Veerle Baetens. A very good actress, and some say if this film was made by an American producer, she would have been nominated for the Oscar for best actress. Veerle did win this prize in Europe already.

The film gets awards worldwide, by the way.  Here in Belgium we all will be sitting before the telly at night to watch the Oscars in L.A. - and hope Broken Circle Breakdown wins!