Page 79 - Alternative Europe Eurotrash and Exploitation Cinema Since 1945

This chapter attempts to show how S. achieves this complex position both on a textual level and
within the cultural discourse of the late 1990s. First, I will frame S. in the context of Belgian (film-)
culture at the end of the twentieth century. As many commentators have pointed out, this is a time
when the legitimacy of Belgian culture, both internally and internationally, was in much doubt. By
offering a brief overview of the cultural discourse of the time, I intend to demonstrate how cultural
representations reacted to this crisis. Next, I will emphasise how the contrast between intention and
reception, and the inability of Belgian film culture (critics, producers) to develop a frame of reference
to discuss S., mark the film as a failure, commercially, aesthetically and culturally. Finally, I will explore
the implications of one particular element of the film, namely its radical portrayal of the human
(female) body in crisis, to show how it sets itself up as both a reflection on cultural abjection, and as
culturally abject itself. The notion of bodily abjection, as embodied by both the female protagonist
and her actions, not only provides an explanation for the film's reputation but, metaphorically, also
allows for a new perspective on the fin-de-siecle crisis of Belgian cultural identity.

THE AFFAIRE DUTROUX AND BELGIAN CULTURAL IDENTITY

The internationally most recognisable key words describing Belgian culture of the twentieth century
are peaceful anarchism, surrealism, heritage and (documentary) realism. Linked to such ideological
and stereotypical notions as hedonism ('the good life'), social solidarity and consociational 'shrugged
consensus'-politics, and a lack of belief in grand narratives (particularism), this set of words has
become emblematic for cultural representations from Belgium. By the mid-1990s this frame of
reference of cultural specificity even became fashionable on an international level. But the Affaire
Dutroux, with its dramatic rescue of two kidnapped girls and the subsequent arrest, in August 1996,
of their kidnapper Marc Dutroux (who had previously served prison terms for rape and deception
and had been released early for good behaviour) brought this new renaissance to an abrupt end.
With the later discovery of the bodies of four more kidnapped girls (aged 6 to 19), and the blatant
incompetence of police and justice departments in preventing and following up the affaire, the events
seemed tailormade exploitation/horror film material.
Philip Mosley describes the Affaire as 'a major political and constitutional crisis', which

shook Belgian morale to the core, forced another painful reassessment of national identity,
and once again endangeted the precarious unity of the state. In October 1996 the White
March, the largest single demonstration in Belgian history, brought three hundred thousand
people into Brussels to protest the official handling of the case.1

Gradually, in the years following 1996, the Affaire Dutroux became paradigmatic for what in
preceding years had already been labelled as the 'Belgian disease'. This term related to an alienation
of the political and judicial establishment (often accused of mismanagement and corruption) from
the people. Mosley lists the Agusta-scandal of the late 1990s (kickbacks over defence contracts made
to the governing Socialist party), which led to the resignation of the Belgian Secretary-General of
N A T O , as an example.

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