A relationship broken and corrupted by the prospect of outside romance, i've seen this before and it appears many times on this list, but this is a new avenue to how it is structured and made, this takes entirely in a 24 hour span after a carnival that is held by charel and monique, a married couple, after the carnival monique has meets back with louis again in an abadoned car and the resulting aftermath for lack of a better word is destructive, it is brought forth by a series of excellent performances, jan decleir and doris arden who find a pitch perfect wavelength to showcase two tired, broken individuals who are not stuck in a marriage, but simply going through the motions that plague them, decleir portrays a sort of sadsack, a good father but a man who can't keep a job and is consistently plagued by arrogance and frustration, arden shows a great mother, but a woman who seems to long for the past, when she was younger and is not faced with the prospect of working two jobs to keep the family afloat for the both of them, separated, the two performers are consistently wonderful, arden with great sensuality, and decleir with great pointed arrogance and exhaustion, together they have an utmost chemistry that is right on the money for a married couple of their stature, they aren't exactly broken apart, but they aren't exactly happy either, this is also brought together by guido henderickx's fantastic direction, which is centered perfectly in the art of the slow-moving tone, there are multiple scenes where he locks down the camera and allows the actors to act, especially in the beginning and ending, but in the middle part of the film is where the characters are moving and he is moving with them, the large scene in both the carnival and the big palace, is where henderickx's blocking is consistently glorious and his camera movements manages to switch through so many points of views in the span of such a single location, this is a great example of when emotions are high henderickx's blocking is more performative and moving, the scene where charel beats up louis, and the aftermath of the violence in the bar, where he literally brings charel and monique together through the camera, having no focus on charel, and then having focus on the both of them at the breakfast table in the end, obviously because i am me, i tend to love the direction where he locks down the camera and lets slow-moving dialogue scenes take over, showcasing the monotony of their daily lives, and when something adventorous happens, it is shown with brutality in the openness in his camera movements, but the best scene of the entire film that is shown in almost one long take, is where henderickx puts the camera on arden and where monique breaks down outside of a bathroom stall in which louis is in, pleading for love and to be loved again by louis, louis never opens the door, and through arden's piece of performance we get a destroyed human being, it is not over-the-top, it is all of the emotions boiling to the surface in wonderful ways, destructive and longing all at once, the acting in this is consistently genuine, believable, and beautifully put together by everyone, everytime i watch an unknown film like this i always arrive at the idea that most films with unknown actors to me are easier to watch and observe, this is helped by henderickx writing the screenplay as well, which has a wonderful loose structure, but the dialogue is consistently rich and beautiful, these are fully formed and wonderfully realized characters from a filmmaker who witnesses them through his writing and through his camera, directed and written with understated affections that i seem to love every single time.
