Pierre lives with his mother in an old-fashioned house in a run-down working-class neighbourhood. Every morning Pierre commutes by tram to work at the town hall, where he listens to his colleagues' jokes during the lunch break. The only hope of getting rid of his boredom and frustrations is with a girl from the gymnastics club. One evening, when his mother is out of the house, he invites her to his house.
“Decorte’s film is made with incredible haughtiness, diametrically opposed to the habits and expectations of young Flemish cinema. The approach Decorte takes with his actors is startlingly unusual. This is a unique Flemish film in which Flemish actors have been manoeuvred in such a way that their onscreen presence is neither Dutchly dynamic nor plumply Flemish. The title of his television play is a sort of declaration of intent by the filmmaker: Nature morte. Still life: that is how he makes his actors say a line, play a scene, and that is how he films them. Unlike that clumsy dynamism that makes Flemish actors so very irritating.”
Dirk Lauwaert
“Een mens is voor een ander mens een onontwarbaar geheim. De uiteindelijke betekenis en de motieven van de meeste handelingen die hij stelt blijven voor hem verborgen. Hoe staat het dan met de kennis, met de mogelijkheid tot kennis van andermans motieven? Dient men het bestaan zelf van motieven niet te betwijfelen?”
Jan Decorte
