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Flanders

Play trailer Poster for Flanders 2007 1h 31m Drama War Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
67% Tomatometer 58 Reviews 57% Popcornmeter 1,000+ Ratings
Promiscuous farm girl Barbe (Adélaïde Leroux) entertains numerous lovers, but mostly prefers the company of Demester (Samuel Boidin). Demester seems incapable of commitment, and so Barbe sleeps with Blondel (Henri Cretel) out of revenge. Soon after, she sees both lovers off to war. While Barbe discovers she is pregnant, Demester and Blondel experience atrocities on and off the battlefield.
Flanders

What to Know

Critics Consensus

Though Bruno Dumont recycles his typical themes and motifs, Flanders is also just as beautifully shot and convincingly acted as the director's previous movies.

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Critics Reviews

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Nick Schager Lessons of Darkness 10/07/2009
C-
[A] stilted, affected term-paper treatise on the human condition. Go to Full Review
Jonathan Rosenbaum Chicago Reader 01/03/2008
Dumont is much more confident when he sticks to the title town and the young woman the men left behind; his habit of alternating close shots with extreme long shots and his singularly unsentimental way of showing sex are as distinctive as ever. Go to Full Review
Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times 08/17/2007
3/4
This film has few tangible pleasures, such as some somber shots of Demester walking far away in a field. Its achievement is theoretical. Go to Full Review
David Lamble Bay Area Reporter 05/21/2020
This one is definitely not for everybody. Go to Full Review
Fernando F. Croce CinePassion 08/27/2009
A congealed shrug Go to Full Review
Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews 02/03/2008
C
Self-important film that presumes it has something pertinent to say about the human condition but doesn't. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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Aender S 04/11/2024 The plot might be interesting and although I don't mind taciturn characters, the acting is generally bad in this film here. See more 04/30/2012 ??? ??? ??? ??????? ????? ???? ????? ??? ?????? ??? ??????? ??? ?????????? ??? ????? ??? ??? ?? ??? ??????? ???? ?? ????? ????? ??? ??????????? ??????? ??? ????????, ??? ????? ??????? ???. See more 08/02/2011 With its ahistoric settings it could be a period piece of a time just a bit behind our own, or it could be science-fiction of a time a wee bit ahead of our own. Generic clothing, minimal dialogue, no music, out-of-date automobiles, and horses that run alongside tanks. War in an unnamed place being fought over unknown grievances. Don't believe the moronic blurb that describes the movie. Andre isn't the only one with an inability to show affection. Whatever else Flanders is about it is certainly also about the way that circumstances blunt love, compassion, communication, empathy. Whether it's bucolic farmland in France or a desert theatre of war. It's a dry, hard film, one that I think owes a lot to Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket (and Kubrick's objectivity in general) and to a lesser degree, but I think unmistakably, to Brian DePalma's Casualties of War. See more 05/10/2011 The war scenes were very powerful, but the rest of the movie is typically French, i.e. pretentious and boring. Watch the war scenes, fast forward through the rest. See more 03/23/2010 Des cris , des gemissement quelques paroles grognees et inintelligibles, c est tout ce que vous donneront les personnages de FLANDRES. Ce film singulier , rebuttant au prime abord, necessite que le spectateur lache prise sur sa propre attente de l histoire et de l image. Considere par certains comme un film sur les horreurs de la guerre, Flandres semble avoir une espece de dimension plus organique qu un festival de violence. La barabarie guerriere et l abandon eprouvee par Barbe sont utilises comme des situatiosn extremes qui contraingnent l homme a reveler ces emotions animales : la peur , le desir sexuel, la survie etc.... Une fois videe de leurs pulsions les corps s oublient, l esprit s eleve. See more 01/10/2010 Bruno Dumont did sth really great, very cold, nihilistic, quiet, slow and emotionally powerfull. So many questions appears while watching, existential questions. Techincal side of the film is not important, Dumont is not a director, he is a philosoprer and the film is just the way of eexpress his thought. Well done, well done... See more Read all reviews
Flanders

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Movie Info

Synopsis Promiscuous farm girl Barbe (Adélaïde Leroux) entertains numerous lovers, but mostly prefers the company of Demester (Samuel Boidin). Demester seems incapable of commitment, and so Barbe sleeps with Blondel (Henri Cretel) out of revenge. Soon after, she sees both lovers off to war. While Barbe discovers she is pregnant, Demester and Blondel experience atrocities on and off the battlefield.
Director
Bruno Dumont
Screenwriter
Bruno Dumont
Distributor
International Film Circuit [us]
Production Co
Le Fresnoy - Studio national des arts contemporains, 3B Productions, Pictanovo, arte France Cinéma
Genre
Drama, War
Original Language
Canadian French
Release Date (Theaters)
May 18, 2007, Limited
Release Date (DVD)
Nov 6, 2007
Box Office (Gross USA)
$22.2K
Runtime
1h 31m
Sound Mix
Dolby SRD
Aspect Ratio
Scope (2.35:1)