European Films

Flemish writer-director Fien Troch's debut feature film, Een ander zijn geluk (Someone Else's Happiness) begins promisingly enough with a minutes-long steady shot of drenched woodland until the camera slowly starts to swerve after we hear the noise of an accident that takes place off screen. A car passes and the camera reveals a small child with a bloody forehead crawling on the wayside in pain before she falls into a brook and drowns. As if it were Twins Peaks in the Ardennes, the inhabitants of the nearby village all suspect one another to be the culprit and the local police (who have the father of the victim amongst their ranks) feel they must find the culprit at whatever cost. Village life continues; groceries need to be bought, there is work to be done and even a parade to be organised, but the inhabitants start to look at each other with a suspicious glance in their eyes. Unfortunately, Troch is no Lynch, though her film is not completely without merit.  

 

No Flemish film is complete without the presence of veteran actor Jan Decleir and a marching band and of course Een ander zijn geluk has both. Besides these two fundamental elements, however, this feature debut has all the markings of an independent American production, though the sheer quantity of  red harrings and narrative illogicalities would make it a rather bland -- if not exactly bad -- one. Undeniably atmospheric with its suggestion of a constantly dark and damp atmosphere, it seems inexplicable as to why none of the characters ever carry an umbrella when they go out except for looking their film noir best in the rain in front of Frank Van den Eeden’s gifted lens. The work of the cinematographer is the most interesting aspect of the film and combined with the film’s ominous score (courtesy of Peter Van Laerhoven), they are able to create a continuous sense of dread despite a hackneyed script and choppy editing.

 

The main problem with Troch’s sceenplay is that it does both too much and not enough; it is too focused on outside appearance and acts (shopping, watching TV, more shopping) too really delve into the psychology of the characters. What is there in terms of character development mainly derives from more famous examples of the genre (the earlier mentioned Twin Peaks comes to mind), creating the impression that the intersecting stories of the village inhabitants are in fact composed of puzzle pieces from better films that have been thinly disguised and do not perfectly fit together. Films such as De zaak Alzheimer (The Alzheimer Case/Memory of a Killer) and De indringer (The Intruder) offered plots whose general stories were universal but whose details were very specific for Belgium. In Een ander zijn geluk, despite an excellent technical package that creates a very particular atmosphere, the details feel less lifted from life in a small Belgian town than from superior American films.

 

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