Simple Production

Thirty years ago, the little village of Moulbaix and its 500 residents, in the Ath Region (Western Hainaut) hosted Luc de Heusch and his team, who came to film their work, hobbies and their passion for theatre.

In autumn, the members of the Dramatic Art Society, also called “Les Amis du Plaisir”, rehearsed for a play staged for the spring – and for a numerous audience.

The first movie, called “Les Amis du Plaisir”, has been praised as a classical movie in the field of ethnology and sociology.

Today, thirty years later, Luc de Heusch returns to the place and meets again the “alumni”, Claudine and Joseph, Monique and Roger, Paula and Adrien, Christian… to celebrate in their company and with a new generation of actors, the centenary of the Society founded in 1895, the year that cinema was invented.

This new version broadens the historical background by mixing past and present, calling to mind the melodrama and operetta that predated the comedy era. Social life is still lively in Moulbaix : fanfare, majorettes, choir, just like in the past. Since, then, Alain, Paula’s and Andrien’s son, has become a professional actor. He turned his maternal grandparent’s cottage into an art cabaret.

This is a film on the art of living, on the art of dreaming.

Credits

• 35 mm - B/W en colour
• Director and screenplay : Luc de Heusch
• Image : Stéphane Adam and Jean-Claude Neckelbrouck
• Sound : Thierry Massin
• Editing: Christiane Stéfanski

Production and partners

• Production : Simple Production, RTBF - Carré Noir, WIP, France Supervision, European Union Action Plan 16/9.
• Partners : la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, MAP TV and of The Media Program of CVE Eureka Audiovisuel

Dvd

• Original version : French