The Misfortunates on DVD

Montreal, Monday October 18th, 2010 – THE MISFORTUNATES (Original title DE HELAASHEID DER DINGEN, French title LA MERDITUDE DES CHOSES), a Flemish tragic comedy, will be released on the Evokative Collection of DVDs this October 26th.

Directed by Felix van Groeningen, THE MISFORTUNATES is an adaptation of the best-selling novel “De helaasheid der dingen” (literal translation “The ***censored*** of Things”) by Dimitri Verhulst, which was inspired by the author’s childhood experiences.

Gunther Strobbe is a 13-year-old boy who lives in his grandmother’s house in a small Belgian town with his alcoholic father and three uncles. Life in the household is clearly dysfunctional, yet it’s hard to condemn the Strobbes. Their hearts are in the right place – it’s just that they can’t seem to help turning everything around them into an unmitigated disaster. The Strobbes enter drinking contests, ride bicycles naked, teach vulgar songs to little girls and end up in hospital, then head right back to the bar the next day. Gunther is an observer in this broken home that reeks of cigarette smoke, spilled beer and sweat-stained clothes. He participates in his drunken uncles’ shenanigans only to fit in, hiding his true passion for writing. The Strobbes will make you laugh your eyes out and cry out loud.

THE MISFORTUNATES was chosen to represent Belgium in the race for the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 2010 Oscars. It was also 2009’s biggest box-office hit of Belgium. The film had its World Premiere in the Director’s Fortnight of the Cannes Film Festival in 2009, where it got a special mention from the Art Cinema Jury. It then went on to play at the Toronto International Film Festival, the Hamptons Film Festival, where it got the Awards for Best Film, Best Script and Best Cinematography and the Festival du Nouveau Cinema in Montréal, amongst many others around the world. It was released theatrically in Canada in Montréal, Toronto, Ottawa, Québec, Calgary, Vancouver and Saskatoon.

The film is available exclusively on Videotron’s VOD system since October 10th, as part of the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma’s special selection on Illico. The DVD will be available in stores from October 26th.

The DVD features Flemish dialogue with optional English and French subtitles in yellow, as well as a French dub track. The original Making-of, an exclusive interview with the director and the Trailer are available as extra features. The packaging includes a booklet with an exclusive Director’s note and a foreword by Colin Geddes (Programmer at the Toronto International Film Festival) and Katarina Gligorijevic. The DVD packaging is an environmentally-friendly and elegant digipack made of 100% recycled materials and wrapped in a 100% biodegradable cellophane.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Run time : 108 minutes

Format : 2.35 : 1

Production year / country : 2009 / Belgium

Language / subtitles : Flemish / English and French yellow subtitles / French dub

Extra Features : Making-of (French subs only), Interview with the Director (French only), Trailer.

Packaging : Booklet with a Director’s note and foreword / 100% recycled material digipack and 100% biodegradable cellophane.

Review of film:

THE MISFORTUNATES (Belgium 2009) *** (Definitely worth a peek!)
Directed by Felix van Groeningen

The poor misfortunate of the film is Gunther Strobbe (Kenneth Vanbaeden), a thirteen-year-old boy growing up in the eighties, living in a household of drunks, led by his father postman.  Gunther is regularly abused by his father to the point that the grandmother reports him.  But the Strobbes keep it together no matter what. 

Director Groeningen spends a good first half of the film on the family’s drunken antics which may be amusing to some.  But these are largely politically incorrect actions like girl beating, drunken driving, bird shooting and singing filthy female degrading songs.  But the film takes a turn for the better when Groeningen makes some sense amidst all the chaos.  THE MISFORTUNATES has been selected as the Belgian entry for next year’s Best Foreign Film.  It may be too harsh a film for the Academy voters to like but the film does occasionally contain a certain charm.