Belgian Filmmaker Bouli Lanners Steps Aside for Young Talent and New Ventures

2023-07-16 09:56:00

“I love young people and that’s why I quit directing.” The announcement is that of Bouli Lanners. He did it during an interview with Télé Loisirs, talking regarding his new projects. It confirms comments already made to the DH in March, during the Magritte ceremony. “I made five films, it was great, but I stop directing. I say to myself ‘place for young people’, I find that the money is for them”, he adds, still in Télé Loisirs, specifying that he feels too old to make one more film. He doesn’t hide a touch of bitterness either: “I’m a little tired of carrying all that and having in the end, not a film, but a commercial product which must be sold”.

After Benoît Poelvoorde in June – even if this remains to be confirmed for the Namurois – he is the second great personality of Belgian cinema to let it be known that she is stepping aside. Remember that Bouli Lanners was awarded a César and a Magritte for Best Actor this year for his role in La Nuit du 12. In 2013, he had already received the Magritte for Best Supporting Role for De rouille et d’os.

His five feature films, to which are added six short films, have all distinguished themselves at major festivals. In 2005, Ultranova was selected by the Panorama of the Berlin festival, as was also Les Premiers, les Derniers in 2016. Eldorado, was selected by the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008 where it received the FIPRESCI prize and Regards. It was also nominated for the César for Best Foreign Film the following year.

His third feature, Les Géants, also received two Directors’ Fortnight awards at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. He also won the Magritte for Best Film and Best Director in 2012, while L’Ombre d’un Lie, his latest feature film, received the Magritte for Best Director this year.

Is it over for Bouli Lanners in the cinema? Not quite. The actor and now ex-director explains that putting his filmmaker cap away will give him more time to indulge in other desires, other projects. He mentions in particular the writing of scenarios and his job as an actor who would take over. It will also leave him time for painting and this idea of puppet theater which he must finalize because the meeting with the public is in a few months, he underlines.

Bouli Lanners (actor, screenwriter, director and director) and Elisabeth Ancion (screenwriter, costume designer and director), have taken over the Al Botroûle theater in Liège to transform it into a theater (transmitter) of the heated blanket dedicated to puppets. ©JC Guillaume

The time for retirement has therefore not yet come, far from it, for the native of Moresnet-Chapelle near La Calamine, in the east of the country.

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