Review

Here are some commercially less appealing, but more honest titles for the fifth instalment in the franchise that made Bruce Willis one of the most loved action heroes: “Goodbye Die Hard”, “The Day Die Hard Died”, “A Good Day to Bury Die Hard”. Is it that bad? Yes, it is that bad.

(© Ivan Put)

Brussels’s coffee culture is still developing fast. There was a time that it was very hard to find a good cup, but now you can drink strong coffee on both sides of rue Dansaertstraat. OR, on the side of the Beursschouwburg, (actually rue Ortsstraat), opened a while ago, and is already running like clockwork, and now number 161, near the canal, houses an establishment where sleepy citizens can get a high-quality brew in a pleasant setting.

Ireland – as you may have noticed – holds the presidency of the Council of the European Union until the end of June. One of the key events associated with the Irish presidency will be a Bozar exhibition devoted to the Francis Bacon Studio, combined with an overview of contemporary Irish art. In the meantime, as a teaser, you can admire an installation called Skylum, which Andrew Kearney devised for the atrium of the Justus Lipsius building. Installations there, linked to a particular presidency, have now become a tradition. Most of them go unnoticed. One exception was the Czech contribution, by David Cerný, whose satire on the theme of Europe made front pages worldwide in 2009. That is not likely to happen with Kearney’s installation. The Irish artist has made a gigantic zeppelin that floats overhead and is equipped with a hundred lamps and sensors that react to the movements of passers-by. “The composition changes according to the interaction with the visitor,” Kearney told us when we tracked him down in Dublin. “If there are no passers-by, it stays silent.” As we found out for ourselves when we dropped by on a Wednesday afternoon at 4.30 pm. There were hardly any passers-by in the atrium, so while lights flickered from time to time in the zeppelin, it remained silent, apart from a gentle buzzing. Either all the officials had already gone home – as in the clichéd image – or they were still beavering away, which would contradict that stereotypical picture.

Wij ontberen de kennis om kieskeurig te zijn: als het vier wielen heeft en bolt, dan zijn we tevreden. En dan blijkt verhip die zeer minimale minimumvereiste het probleem te zijn: “Auto’s tekenen is moeilijk, dat komt door die vier wielen,” geeft Ever Meulen te kennen nog voor je zijn magistrale Automotiv hebt opengeslagen. 

(© Saskia Vanderstichele)

Are you a homesick expat? Or a local who enjoys a sense of getting away from it all now and then? Well, then we have an excellent tip for you this week: Britxos, which opened up last summer in the heart of Sint-Gillis/Saint-Gilles.

  

L’orchestre baroque basé à Bruxelles Les Muffatti a été baptisé en l’honneur d’un compositeur allemand du XVII^e siècle, le très cosmopolite Georg Muffat. Ce musicien fut notamment le premier à décrire de manière claire et convaincante les grandes différences de style entre la musique baroque française et la musique baroque italienne.

Que faire quand la grisaille envahit le quotidien ? Parfois, malgré leur caractère délébile, quelques morceaux de craie peuvent faire des miracles. C’est en tout cas ce qui se produit ici. 

The common thread running through the various projects undertaken by the Belgian-Italian guitarist-composer-producer Marco Locurcio is jazz, but on a fairly broad definition, as in his lounge project Screen or the pop-flavoured group Giusi. It all indicates a flexible attitude.

CD | Marco Locurcio ●●●
La Boucle jazz (Jati Music)

Jazz-lovers appreciate him above all for his CDs Giulia Is Asleep (2000) and Jama (2003) – and, of course, for his work with the jazz quartet Qu4tre. For La Boucle he opted for a new group and a different approach. No pop, rock, fusion, or drum ‘n’ bass influences this time. Instead, what we hear here is a very lyrical guitarist and composer for whom melody this time takes precedence over dynamism. On many of the tracks the warm tones of Erwin Vann’s sax are crucial to the sound. The rhythm section – the drummer Lander Gyselinck and the bass-player Nicolas Thys – is known for its work with Kris Defoort. The cellist Anja Naucler once again adds an eclectic touch. Another nice album by Locurcio, somewhere between Philip Catherine and Peter Hertmans.

Why do I know ten times more about Iran than I do about Saudi Arabia? Because Asghar Farhadi, Abbas Kiarostami, Bahman Ghobadi, Jafar Panahi, and Mohsen and Samira Makhmalbaf have shown me Iran in subtle, powerful films. In Saudi Arabia they don’t make films. At least they didn’t. Wadjda is the first feature film I’ve seen from there. And, as if that isn’t sensational enough, it was made by a woman.

Those darned journalists. At the première of North by Northwest, Alfred Hitchcock is revelling in his great success when one of them asks: “You’re the most famous director in the history of the medium, but you’re 60 years old, shouldn’t you just quit while you’re ahead?” The question hits hard. The master of suspense realises full well that if he stops working, it’ll all be over.