Contrasting visions in le jeune cinma: poetics, politics and the rural.

BREL, Jacques; DUMONT, Bruno, 1958-

Northern France and Flanders form what Jacques Brel named le plat pays (the flat country). This region, which has not traditionally been the focus of popular cinema, has in the 1990s seen the emergence of a cinma nordiste (Northern cinema). Bruno Dumont is perhaps the most acclaimed director of this cinema, but other examples include both well-known directors such as Bertrand Tavernier ( 6a commence aujourd'hui (1999)) and first-timers like Thomas Vincent ( Karnaval (1999)). The characteristics of Dumont's work have been widely discussed (see Bruno Dumont, edited by Sbastien Ors). The cinema of Benot Mariage, though not as well known, is placed in a similar cultural context, just across the border in Belgium. Both directors film in a rural environment, using non-professional actors. Despite the similar background to the work of Dumont and Mariage, there are sharp differences between the representations of these two directors. Dumont is a crude realist with a quasi-ethnographic perspective; Mariage is also a realist, but has a more poetic approach. This distinction flavours their treatment of unemployment, immigration, sexuality, and parenthood. This article offers a detailed comparison of the poetics and politics of the rural between two of their films, Bruno Dumont's La Vie de Jsus and Benot Mariage's Les Convoyeurs attendent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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