Jaco Van Dormael

Jaco Van Dormael (born 1957, Ixelles, Brussels) is a Belgian film director, screenwriter. and playwright. His complex and critically acclaimed films are especially noted for their respectful and sympathetic portrayal of people with mental and physical disabilities.

Biography

Jaco Van Dormael's birth was traumatic, as his umbilical cord wound about his neck, nearly choking him. For a while, it was feared that this birth trauma would leave him mentally retarded, and knowing this may be partly responsible for his sympathetic portrayal of the mentally handicapped. He spent the first seven years of his childhood in Germany but eventually returned to Belgium.

He delighted in working with children and for a while pursued a career as a circus clown. As a children's entertainer, childhood and innocence would become strong themes throughout his work. In the 1980s, he became interested in filmmaking and produced a number of short films that aroused considerable critical interest.

Van Dormael made his feature-length debut in 1991 with "Toto le Héros" ("Toto the hero"), an endearing tale about a man who believes his life was "stolen" from him when he was switched at birth, told in a complex mosaic of flashbacks and dream sequences, sometimes with almost a stream of consciousness effect. "Toto le Héros" gained wide critical acclaim, winning both the César Award for best foreign film and the Camera d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, making Van Dormael something of an overnight celebrity.

Jaco Van Dormael's subsequent output as a screenwriter and as a director has been modest by film industry standards, averaging about two films per decade. This is thought to reflect both his meticulous, almost perfectionist mode of operation and the difficulty in obtaining funding for the kinds of ambitious, challenging projects he seems to favor.

Van Dormael uses a unique method to draft his screenplays, writing hundreds of ideas on index cards and then arranging them on several long tables placed end-to-end. This gives him the flexibility to rearrange concepts and see how they "fit."

His brother Pierre Van Dormael is a jazz guitarist and composer, and has scored his feature films.

Themes

Van Dormael's films, while few, have strong common themes between them. They make distinctive use of naive voiceover and examine the world from an innocent perspective (the young Thomas in "Toto", the mentally handicapped protagonist of "Huitieme Jour", and the unborn child of "Sur la Terre comme au Ciel"). These characters views are often colorful, imaginative, and somewhat removed from reality, with slight elements of surreal imagery used to illustrate their active imaginations.

His movies also typically end with a death, which is portrayed not as a tragedy, but as a moving on where the deceased looks down happily at the world below. Van Dormael makes prominent use of nostalgic music, as well, featuring Charles Trenet in "Toto" and Luis Mariano in "Huitieme Jour". "Sur la Terre" ends with a birth, but it is similarly handled the passing of a character into a new world.

Both "Toto" and "Huitieme Jour" prominently featured characters with Down Syndrome, and portrayed these characters lovingly, emphasizing their child-like characteristics.

Filmography

Early shorts

* "Maedli la Brèche" (1980)
* "Stade 81" (1981)
* "L'Imitateur" (1982)
* "Sortie de Secours" (1983)
* "È Pericoloso Sporgersi" (1984)
* "De Boot" (1985)

Feature films

* "Toto le Héros" (1991; "Toto the Hero")
* "Sur la Terre comme au Ciel" (1992; "Between Heaven and Earth" [lit. "In Heaven as on Earth"] ; screenwriter only; directed by Marion Hänsel)
* "Le Huitième Jour" (1996; "The Eighth Day")
* "Mr. Nobody" (2008)