Skip to content

Pieter van Hees

Dirty Mind * Pieter van Hees (2009)

Van Hees made this film a year after the wonderfull horror/thriller “Linkeroever“. Apparently he wanted to have a try with action comedy, but that did not work out too well.

“Dirty Mind” is spoken in Flemish and contains some amusing ‘Flemish humour’ (expressions, etc.) and the story could have been just fine, but the acting and overall film are pretty unconvincing. We have two brothers Cisse and Diego who do stunts for films, not always very professional, but well enough to make a living. Cisse is the hip stuntman, Diego the nerdy assistent. When Diego has to perform a stunt that goes wrong, he wakes up in the hospital as a brand new man, well-spoken and charismatic. A neurologist and an intern are working on an experiment to fix this type of affection, Diego (then Tony) has second thoughts, since he actually improved.

This story forms the hanger for better and lesser jokes and some thoughts on how far doctors can go to ‘help’ people.

Like I said, the result is not very convincing.

Waste Land * Pieter van Hees (2014)

“Waste Land” is a very nice thriller drama from Belgium. The story may not be overly original, but it is worked out well and with a very good atmosphere.

We follow homocide investigator Leo, a troubled man with a pretty wife and a child from an earlier relation of hers. Leo gets a shady case when a negro boy is found dead in a plastic bag. He runs into a dark world that inhabitents of the former Belgian colonies brought to Brussels. When his wife gets pregnant, Leo thinks of moving forward in life and to change jobs. Too bad that the case that he planned to be his last, brings up the worst in Leo.

The film begins as a descent, somewhat grim, police-thriller, but it grows darker with Leo’s state of mind. This is well done and the film certainly is a lot better than the 5.4 on IMdB suggests.

Linkeroever * Pieter van Hees (2008)

Another good Belgian film! We follow the sportive girl Marie (played by the beautifull Eline Kuppens in one of her first parts) who in a peak in her running carreer is confronted with a strange illness that prevents her from running. The pain of that eases somewhat when she meets Bob (played by ‘veteran’ Matthias Schoenaerts) and a passionate relationship soon develops. Bob lives at “Linkeroever” (‘left bank’), the modern part of the city of Antwerpen at the other side of the river Schelde. Things go downward for Marie though and not only her physical, but also mental health takes a dive. Following this, the film itself slowly grows darker and darker and stranger and stranger. The story is nice, but has a few weak spots. The film as a whole is very convincing with good acting, nice camera work and a descent atmosphere. The story and the way the film evolves reminds quite a bit of “Riget“, by the way. Highly recommended!