Category: Belgium

Travel with Rick Steves: Best Chocolates in Europe & Holiday Travels

Rick Steves’ 12/17/2016 radio show left me in desperate need of a chocolate fix. Our upcoming summer trip to Brussels cannot come soon enough!

“Writers Jane and Michael Stern discuss wintertime comfort food served in America’s roadside restaurants, then food and culture expert Fred Plotkin explores the various kinds of chocolate available across Europe. And listeners share the experiences that made their Christmas vacations in Europe really special — plus we’ll hear how locals get into the Christmas spirit in Prague.”

 

Dardenne brothers: “We felt the rhythm of the film was wrong”

“There is an American photographer who, every year, took portraits of his wife and her sisters,” Luc Dardenne tells me. “As they get older in the photographs they huddle together more. They become physically closer. They hold on to each other more.”So Luc and his brother Jean-Pierre have come together in this fashion? They are closer now than they ever were?“Ah, it’s like…” Jean-Pierre says and, as his English runs out, makes ambiguous gesture with both thumbs and both forefingers.

They need money from each other?“ No. No. Ha ha ha!” I mean they are scared.”If mortality is nipping at the film-makers’ heels they are putting a brave face upon it. Almost everybody who has interviewed Jean-Pierre and Luc – directors of such realist masterpieces as L’Enfant and The Son – has noted the pleasing contrast between the sobriety of the films and the gaiety of their creators. The Belgians could hardly be friendlier.“ Continue reading “Dardenne brothers: “We felt the rhythm of the film was wrong”” →

Review: God Is Alive and Crabby, According to ‘The Brand New Testament’ – The New York Times

In the Belgian filmmaker Jaco Van Dormael’s wickedly amusing religious satire, “The Brand New Testament,” God (Benoît Poelvoorde) is a snarling, meanspirited bully who rules the universe from an apartment in Brussels. Inside his locked office, surrounded by walls of card files, the tyrannical, perpetually bored deity sits behind a computer and plays nasty practical jokes on humans.

A favorite pastime is contriving Laws of Annoyance, like making sure that when a piece of toast falls, it always lands with the jelly side down.God’s wife (Yolande Moreau) is a silent, slavishly dutiful housekeeper; his son, JC, has been reduced to a statue. It remains for his rebellious young daughter, Ea (Pili Groyne), to flout his authority.

Sneaking into his office, she hacks into his computer and, in what the news media later names “DeathLeaks,” sends text messages to everyone in the world, informing all of the dates of their deaths. Suddenly, millions are free to use the time they have left as they see fit. One daredevil, assured of a long life, keeps jumping from heights and landing safely [ . . .  ] Read Full New York Times Review

The Dardenne brothers: ‘Attacks on Obama to democratise healthcare are pathetic’ 

The Belgian siblings speak about their new film, why they are drawn to stories of female empowerment and how they think The Unknown Girl might be received in the US

Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, the Belgian siblings who have twice won the Palme d’Or, speak in Cannes about their new film. The Unknown Girl is the story of a young female doctor trying to discover the identity – and the killer – of a woman found dead outside her medical practice. They discuss why they are drawn to stories of female empowerment and gender equality and how they think the film might be received in countries such as the US, where the fight for universal healthcare continues.

Watch the Interview: The Dardenne brothers: ‘Attacks on Obama to democratise healthcare are pathetic’ – video interview | Film | The Guardian

Hot Stuff: Cheers! Culture You Can Drink! Belgian Beer Gets UN Approval – ABS-CBN Lifestyle

BRUSSELS (AP) — Next time you raise a glass of Belgian beer, rest assured: It’s a cultural experience.UNESCO added Belgian beer to the list of the “Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity” on Wednesday.Belgium is known throughout the world for its wide array of tastes, from extreme sour to bitter, produced in just about every city and village across the west European nation of 11 million people. The history of Belgian suds stretches back centuries to medieval monks and has been celebrated in paintings by Pieter Brueghel and in countless songs since [ . . . ]

Source: Hot Stuff: Cheers! Culture You Can Drink! Belgian Beer Gets UN Approval – ABS-CBN Lifestyle