Page 81 - Alternative Europe Eurotrash and Exploitation Cinema Since 1945

Other films, like La vie sexuelle des Beiges [The Sexual Life of the Belgians, Jan Bucquoy, 1994),
Hombres complicados (Dominique Deruddere, 1997) and the documentary on terrorism, D.I.A.L.
History (XXX John Grimonprez, 1997), with their appeal to a kind of 'guerrilla cinema, helped
to create an awareness of physical violence and sexual identity in Belgian film culture with which
post-Affaire films easily connected. In doing so, the Dutroux-theme became almost paradigmatic
for Belgian film culture, putting many of the already established characteristics in a new perspective.
Depictions of physical sex and violence, which had never caused too much controversy, now became
pressing issues, loaded with political and cultural significance.

S. AND THE AFFAIRE DUTROUX: INTENTION AND RECEPTION

Of all films dealing with the Affaire, S. is probably the most radical and alternative. The film tells the
story of a young Belgian woman, S., whose dreams of having a normal life are destroyed through a
history of criminality, corruption, sexual and physical abuse (she is raped and beaten). After finding
out that her boyfriend cheats on her (she films him having sex) she kills him. S. attempts to escape
from her past by returning from New York to Belgium. In Belgium, she tries to come to terms with
her actions by mapping her past in a different way, but the people who are supposed to help her do
this (her mother, grandmother, friend) all want to distance themselves from S.'s inquiries.
When her relationship with her girlfriend, Marie, breaks down, S. becomes an angel of vengeance,
acting out her frustrations towards everyone who exploits her. She kills a guy who tries to seduce her,
physically humiliates, and then kills, a priest who makes a pass at her, and shoots her pimp after he
beats her. But as her video diaries become more intimate and therapeutic, she sinks into an angst-
ridden spiral of madness, meaningless sex and violence. She finally returns to New York to another
former girlfriend, Angie, only to find that she is no longer welcome. Back in Belgium she finally hears
the truth about how she was abused as a child, and she visits Marie in a peepshow performance, losing
herself in a dream of perfect love, but unable to reach a catharsis.
S.'s style is as radical as the narrative. It is filmed in true 'guerrilla style', referencing a rough and
ready punk attitude. Here, the excessively self-referential is indicated via the use of jump cuts, wipes
(resembling peepshow shutters), video-cam inserts, and the suggestion of snuff movies (a video one
of her boyfriends makes her watch shows the baseball bat killing of an innocent woman). The film
contains not one single outdoor shot, creating a claustrophobic atmosphere of cheap apartments and
cafes, peepshows, confession boots and car interiors. New York is portrayed as hot and sweaty and
Brussels as rainy, and throughout the film fluids of all kinds (snow, tears, slime, blood, urine, melting
butter, water and sperm) abound. With this gruesome, cut-up, radical look, S. places itself in the
tradition of alternative films like Ms. 45 (Abel Ferrara, 1981), Liquid Dreams (Mark Manos, 1992),
Bad Lieutenant (Abel Ferrara, 1993), Crash (David Cronenberg, 1996), and exploitation films of the
1970s and 1980s. It is also reminiscent of American Gen-X literature (most notably that of Brett
Easton Ellis and Douglas Coupland).
It is not difficult to see how the story and style of S. connect to the Affaire Dutroux and its
contexts. Sexual abuse, violence, murder, corruption, distrust in official institutions and moral decay
are central to the narrative, and the aggressive and radical look of the film seem to suggest a certain

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