Next to Erik Van Looy, Dominique Deruddere may well be our, at least internationally, best known director. With his "Iedereen beroemd" or "Everybody Famous" as it is called in English, he was even nominated for an Oscar in the category 'Best Foreign Language Film'. Personally I haven't seen that movie yet, but I liked "Hombres complicados", the movie that he made before "Everybody Famous", a lot. Since then I've decided that I'll try to see all his other movies as well and this "Crazy Love" is the first step into the right direction.
The story of this movie has been divided into three time periods. The first period is situated in the 1950's, when Harry Vos is still a young kid. He's already very interested in everything that has got something to do with love and sexual relationships, but doesn't really know anything about it. An older friend learns him everything there is to know about how to approach a girl and what to do when his method doesn't work. But in all his naivety, Harry finds it very hard to understand that the romantic world which he knows from the movies, doesn't exist in real life. To him the real world is an awful place. In the second part of the movie, we are in the 1960's. Harry has grown up into an intelligent adolescent, but he has one mayor problem. He suffers from an incredibly extreme form of acne, which makes that all people stare at him, that the boys laugh at him, that the girls don't want him and that he is afraid to appear in public. That's also the reason why he still hasn't experienced physical love. Even though he still has one close friend who supports him as much as he can, Harry slowly becomes a bitter, introvert and pessimistic person. In the third part, situated in the 1970's we see him again. This time he is a drunk who is unable to express his feelings towards anybody. When he meets an old friend and they leave a bar, they do something incredible. As as joke, they steal a corpse out of a motor hearse that is parked in front of a hospital and take it home with them. When they open the body bag, they see that this dead body isn't an old man or woman, but a young and very beautiful girl. Harry is so overcome by her beauty that he does the worst thing he could do with the body...
In my opinion this movie was a bit of a slow starter and the first part (the 1950's) didn't always do it for me. Somehow I had the feeling that the story in that part could be developed better. But that 'problem' was easily overcome by the second and the third part. When you see in the second part how he suffers from his acne, you can only feel very sorry for him. And then he comes up with that excellent idea which allows him to dance with the girl of his dreams. That part was absolutely brilliant, funny and sad at the same time and I don't think that it will leave anybody untouched. The same about the third part, although this story is something completely different from the second. When I saw them steal that corpse, I had to laugh with it, but was disgusted by their behavior at the same time. And when you know that he has committed necrophilia, those feelings of disgust only increase. But than the director counters those feelings perfectly by letting him step into the sea, to disappear forever with the dead girl in his arms. Somehow that is a slap in your face and so touching at the same time. Really very strange.
If you are interested in 'foreign' cinema (I mean non-Hollywood movies, because for us Belgians this isn't foreign of course), than you should definitely give this one a try. This isn't the kind of movie that will offer you some big explosions or car chases, but the emotional roller-coaster that it puts you on, the intriguing story and the good acting, will definitely do the trick. Belgium may not be known for its many quality movies, but this one certainly can stand a comparison with other European movies. I give it a 7.5/10.
The story of this movie has been divided into three time periods. The first period is situated in the 1950's, when Harry Vos is still a young kid. He's already very interested in everything that has got something to do with love and sexual relationships, but doesn't really know anything about it. An older friend learns him everything there is to know about how to approach a girl and what to do when his method doesn't work. But in all his naivety, Harry finds it very hard to understand that the romantic world which he knows from the movies, doesn't exist in real life. To him the real world is an awful place. In the second part of the movie, we are in the 1960's. Harry has grown up into an intelligent adolescent, but he has one mayor problem. He suffers from an incredibly extreme form of acne, which makes that all people stare at him, that the boys laugh at him, that the girls don't want him and that he is afraid to appear in public. That's also the reason why he still hasn't experienced physical love. Even though he still has one close friend who supports him as much as he can, Harry slowly becomes a bitter, introvert and pessimistic person. In the third part, situated in the 1970's we see him again. This time he is a drunk who is unable to express his feelings towards anybody. When he meets an old friend and they leave a bar, they do something incredible. As as joke, they steal a corpse out of a motor hearse that is parked in front of a hospital and take it home with them. When they open the body bag, they see that this dead body isn't an old man or woman, but a young and very beautiful girl. Harry is so overcome by her beauty that he does the worst thing he could do with the body...
In my opinion this movie was a bit of a slow starter and the first part (the 1950's) didn't always do it for me. Somehow I had the feeling that the story in that part could be developed better. But that 'problem' was easily overcome by the second and the third part. When you see in the second part how he suffers from his acne, you can only feel very sorry for him. And then he comes up with that excellent idea which allows him to dance with the girl of his dreams. That part was absolutely brilliant, funny and sad at the same time and I don't think that it will leave anybody untouched. The same about the third part, although this story is something completely different from the second. When I saw them steal that corpse, I had to laugh with it, but was disgusted by their behavior at the same time. And when you know that he has committed necrophilia, those feelings of disgust only increase. But than the director counters those feelings perfectly by letting him step into the sea, to disappear forever with the dead girl in his arms. Somehow that is a slap in your face and so touching at the same time. Really very strange.
If you are interested in 'foreign' cinema (I mean non-Hollywood movies, because for us Belgians this isn't foreign of course), than you should definitely give this one a try. This isn't the kind of movie that will offer you some big explosions or car chases, but the emotional roller-coaster that it puts you on, the intriguing story and the good acting, will definitely do the trick. Belgium may not be known for its many quality movies, but this one certainly can stand a comparison with other European movies. I give it a 7.5/10.