Bridge on a canal in Bruges
In Bruges, a horrible, nihilistic movie, was on T.V. the other night. I watched it solely because of the title. Belgium, and the Flemish region which contains Bruges, is often neglected and ignored (the Dutch get more attention than the Belgians). But it has beautiful Flemish art, the lovely Flemish lace, and extraordinary, lace-like architecture as seen here in Burg Square.
The film is about hit-men killing innocent by-standers (a child in a church!), who continue with their hit-jobs. One of them summons up some guilt for having shot an innocent child, and his expiation is to shoot and kill those he thinks have killed innocent children.
Yes, convoluted, but it all really was a permit for gun shots, blood spurting out of bodies, and creepy atmosphere (a dwarf who keeps re-appearing).
I watched it twice.
The first time, I missed the beautiful shots of Bruges because of the disgusting violence. I stopped watching about two-thirds of the way.
The second time, I wanted to see if the beautiful Bruges architecture in any way redeemed the film, which the clever and devious director and cinematographer as a backdrop for the film.
It doesn't. It desecrates the city.
We cannot reclaim beauty by putting it along-side horror, expecting it to be the winner. We cannot redeem horror by placing beauty along-side it.
We have to remove ourselves completely from the horror, the ugliness and the desecration, and let it devour itself, because otherwise, it will devour beauty along with itself.
We have reached a vicious (and new) impasse. Horror and ugliness are winning, unless we arm ourselves against their its assaults. We have to fight to the core to reclaim beauty. It is no longer enough to separate ourselves from horror, since it has also reached our own door-steps.
Bruges is an exceptionally beautiful, northern European city. It is in the northern part of Belgium where Dutch (or Flemish ) is spoken. Some call it the Venice of the North, because of the intricate canals and bridges, and the lovely architecture which surround these canals.
Belgian Lace from Bruges
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat