Vulgarity, Drinking, and Dirty Men Stuff

“The unique combination of vulgarity and drinking, fun, dirty men stuff, and poetry.”

That’s what drew Belgian filmmaker Felix Van Groeningen to the Dimitri Verhulst novel The Misfortunates, which tells the story of a family of lowlife brothers from the perspective of Gunther Strobbe, son of Marcel and nephew to Koen, Lowie, and Pieter. They drink too much, treat their mother badly, and don’t seem to have a care in the world. The Strobbes are “real men” and they have to keep their rowdy reputation intact so the community will respect them. Gunther dreams of being a writer while he watches his father and uncles drink themselves silly and act like fools.

“[Gunther] is part of this chaos but is also just watching…a lot of people can relate to that. Later in life he’s struggling very hard with his past and is still trying to achieve what he wanted to become when he was a child,” Van Groeningen says of the character. “It takes a long time and a lot of energy and courage to keep on going. I had to do the same thing as a filmmaker, while my friends were partying I was working on my movies,” he adds.

One of the greatest things about The Misfortunates is how believable the cast comes across as a family. Van Groeningen attributes this to the actors influencing him while he was writing the script, especially the relationship between Marcel and Gunther.

“The character [of Marcel] became better when I knew it was going to be [Koen De Graeve] in the part. The most important thing about that character is you like him, because he’s very likeable and very funny, but then suddenly he can become very aggressive and freak out. It wasn’t in the script at first…it came when I thought of the actor. We developed it from there and that made the relationship with his son a lot more complex,” he explains.

Between its popularity in Belgium (it was the official Belgian submission to the Academy Awards Best Foreign Film category) and its high praise from viewers and critics at film festivals such as Cannes, The Misfortunates is a prime target for a Hollywood remake.

“If it would pay good I wouldn’t care,” he jokes about the idea. “I wouldn’t want to see it and I can’t imagine it would be a better film. But if people wanted to do it, and people wanted to pay money for it, then why not? I wouldn’t do it myself,” he adds.

As for him making a Hollywood movie anytime soon he says he never thought about it until recently and that it would need to be the right project.

“It’s not my dream to make an American film. I have some offers but I want to take it very, very slow,” he says.

This is Van Groeningen’s third feature film but it’s his first to hit theatres outside of his home country. He hopes he can “move people” with it, wherever they see it.

“The biggest compliment I get is when people come out of the theatre and can’t talk because they’ve been so moved by the story,” he shares.

The Misfortunates is in theatres April 9.

brian.mckechnie@citynews.rogers.com

Top image: A scene from The Misfortunates. Courtesy Evokative Films.

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