Jan Bucquoy (;

Harelbeke Harelbeke (; vls, Oarlbeke) is a city and municipality located in the Belgian province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the city of Harelbeke proper and the towns of Bavikhove and Hulste. On January 1, 2019, Harelbeke had a total popul ...

, 16 November 1945) is a Belgian

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...

who has worked in various media (film, comics writing, painting, sculptures, museums). He gained fame for his controversial anti-establishment works and media stunts, which caused many court cases, including for lèse-majesté,https://www.lambiek.net/artists/b/bucquoy_jan.htm copyright infringement and

defamation Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

. Between 2005 and 2010 he staged five attempts to attack the Belgian Royal Palace in Brussels and conquer it. Internationally he is best known as a film director, with '' La Vie sexuelle des Belges 1950–1978'' (1994) and the

cult film A cult film or cult movie, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a cult following. Cult films are known for their dedicated, passionate fanbase which forms an elaborate subculture, members of which engage ...

'' Camping Cosmos'' (1996) being his most famous movies. A recurring theme in his work is

Belgitude ''Belgitude'' (French; ) is a term used loosely to express the typical Belgian soul and identity, often with a so-called keen sense of self-mockery that characterises its population. Originating from a perceived lack of common identity among th ...

Career

After his studies in Strassburg (theatre) and Brussels (Insas) he started his career as an author of about 50 comics: ((Daniel) ''Jaunes'', ''Le Bal du Rat Mort'' (1986), ''Retour au pays noir'', ''Alain Moreau'', etc...). With his producer

Francis De Smet Francis De Smet (born 3 December 1963) is a Belgian film producer. He was born in Bruges. Films ''La Vie sexuelle des Belges 1950-1978'' (1994) with Noël Godin; ''Camping Cosmos'' (1996) with Lolo Ferrari; ''The Closing Down of the Renault Fac ...

he made his much acclaimed series of ''The Sexual Life of the Belgians'' (with the famous trilogy) which includes 10 movies and documentaries about the whereabouts of Belgian people from the period after the war until now: the surrealist '' Camping Cosmos'' (1996) with

Lolo Ferrari Lolo Ferrari (born Ève Valois; 9 February 1963 – 5 March 2000), was a French dancer, actress, and singer billed as "the woman with the largest breast implants in the world". She entered the international limelight in 1995, appearing in the ...

and Jan Decleir, and with a parody (

détournement A détournement (), meaning "rerouting, hijacking" in French, is a technique developed in the 1950s by the Letterist International, and later adapted by the Situationist International (SI),''Report on the Construction of Situations'' (1957) that ...

) of Tintin and Snowy and of the play '' Mother Courage and Her Children'' by

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a pl ...

; ''The Closing down of the Renault Factory at Vilvoorde Belgium'' (1998) as a Belgian version of '' Roger & Me'' (1989) by

Michael Moore Michael Francis Moore (born April 23, 1954) is an American filmmaker, author and left-wing activist. His works frequently address the topics of globalization and capitalism. Moore won the 2002 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for ' ...

; ''Les Vacances de Noël'' with Noël Godin and Yolande Moreau (2005) etc... He opened the

Underwear Museum The Underwear Museum (french: Musée du slip, nl, Slipmuseum) is a museum in Lessines, Hainaut, Wallonia, Belgium which displays the underclothing of famous persons; each article was worn at least one time by the person in question and is combine ...

in Brussels in 2009; in 2016 it moved to its current location in Lessines, Hainaut.

Influences

His movies are a mixture of French avant-garde cinema in the manner of

Jean-Luc Godard Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as Fran� ...

('' La Chinoise'' (1967), '' Tout va bien'' (1972),

Italian neo-realism Italian neorealism (art), neorealism ( it, Neorealismo), also known as the Golden Age, is a national film movement characterized by stories set amongst the poor and the working class. They are filmed Location shooting, on location, frequently wit ...

( Roberto Rossellini) and the humanism of Rainer Werner Fassbinder (''Satansbraten'' (1976), '' The Marriage of Maria Braun'' (1979); Bucquoy directed some theatrical plays by Fassbinder during his university studies at Strassburg ('' The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant''). He is influenced by the Situationist book '' Society of the Spectacle'' (1967) by

Guy Debord Guy-Ernest Debord (; ; 28 December 1931 – 30 November 1994) was a French Marxist theorist, philosopher, filmmaker, critic of work, member of the Letterist International, founder of a Letterist faction, and founding member of the Situationis ...

Films

*'' La Vie sexuelle des Belges 1950–1978'' (1994) *'' Camping Cosmos'' (La vie sexuelle des Belges II) (1996) *''Crème et châtiment'' aka ''Entartement de Toscan du Plantier'' au festival de Cannes 1996 / ''Cream and Punishment'' (short film) (1997) * '' Fermeture de l'usine Renault à Vilvoorde'' (1998) * ''La Jouissance des hystériques'' (''La vie sexuelle des Belges IV'') (2000) * ''Vrijdag Visdag'' / ''Friday Fishday'' (''La vie sexuelle des Belges V'') (2000) * '' La vie politique des Belges: Tarte ou Vivant'' (2002) * ''La société du spectacle et ses commentaires'' (''La vie sexuelle des Belges VI'') (2003) * '' Les Vacances de Noël'' (2005)

References

External links

Lambiek Comiclopedia article.
*
Transatlantic Films Belgium

September 1998 Reuters article

* * ttp://www.bedetheque.com/auteur-759-BD-Bucquoy-Jan.html Bibliography* Le Bal du rat mort * Les chemins de la gloire {{DEFAULTSORT:Bucquoy, Jan 1945 births Living people Belgian activists Belgian humorists Belgian anarchists Belgian satirists Belgian parodists Belgian film directors Belgian cartoonists Belgian comics writers Belgian erotic artists 20th-century Belgian painters 20th-century Belgian sculptors People from Harelbeke Controversies in Belgium Belgian political satire Lèse-majesté