Re-imagining Belgium beyond the split: national identity in contemporary Belgian cinema

Subtitle:national identity in contemporary Belgian cinema

This study investigates the articulation of Belgian identity in contemporary Belgian cinema, both on and beyond the screen. Since the advent of sound and, consequently, spoken language at the end of the 1920s, the evolution of Belgian cinema has been shaped by a division between Dutch- and French-speaking cultures. This has led to two largely separate cinemas, a Flemish and a francophone Belgian one, that rarely interact. The resulting “split screen,” as film historian Philip Mosley calls it, determines not only the production, funding, and distribution of Belgian films, but also their content. On either side of the linguistic border, cinematic representations tend to emphasise the cultural identity of the respective linguistic community over a shared Belgian identity. Since the turn of the millennium, there have been several developments that indicate a resurgence of Belgian identity in contemporary Belgian cinema, both in terms of production and content. This study explores to what extent these recent developments defy the prevailing perception of Belgian cinema as a split cinema. Through a multi-methodological approach that combines quantitative and qualitative research methods, involving textual and contextual analyses, it re-evaluates Mosley’s theory within the contemporary context. In addition to offering a deeper understanding of the relationship between Belgian cinema and national identity, this study contributes to ongoing debates on the concept of national cinema, which it rethinks through the specificity of the Belgian case.

Publication year:2024

Keywords:Mass communications

Accessibility:Closed