Pallieter (1976)

Directed by: Roland Verhavert | 90 minutes | drama, romance | Actors: Eddie Brugman, Jacqueline Rommerts, Sylvia de Leur, Joris Diels, Idwig Stephane, Rudi van Vlaenderen, Hugo Van Den Berghe, Cary Fontyn, Herbert Flack, Jan Decleir, Manu Verreth, Erna Palsterman, Alice Toen, Gaston Berghmans, Ray Verhaeghe Martha Molnar, Max Schnur, Maurits Goossens, Moy Vinckier

In the nocturnal Ghent of the nineteenth century, two rescue workers retrieve the corpse of a woman in a white robe from the black water of the canal. After her death is confirmed, a bearded young man (Eddy Brugman) collapses on the quay, exhausted. He is also dripping wet. When later a friend, the silent painter Fransoo (Idwig Stephane), visits him at his sickbed, the doctor present asks sarcastically: “Are you also one of those illuminated?” Moments later, the doctor diagnoses the patient: “Some people don’t want to live.” Another gives some more information: “That’s because of reading books all day long”. Fransoo takes the well-read young man away from ‘Mr. Doctor’ and takes him to his sister Charlot (Sylvia de Leur). She lives in an idyllic countryside, where beguines pray to virtually every known saint for her brother’s recovery. Their meditative voice is interwoven with flashback images of a woman in her white robes floating down a chic spiral staircase, on her way to a self-chosen death in a canal in Ghent. Charlo, meanwhile, picks out ‘the cleanest cuts of pork’ for her weakened brother. But brother, the heathen with his “city manners” (and John Lennon glasses), don’t eat meat. When Charlot strips him of his wild hair with a pair of scissors, he suddenly rediscovers his joie de vivre…and a new name: “Pallieter!”

The film (directed by Roland Verhavert) is based on the successful 1916 novel by Felix Timmermans by Felix Timmermans. Looking at the film’s sequel, you could safely see a pallieter as an old-fashioned junkie. As someone who is in the luxurious position of being able to put himself above life with impunity to observe with a dreamy look how beautiful the world really is – nature, the rain, the women. “A new head, a new guy, a pallieter!” Pallieter himself cheers. Another sees in him “The specimen of a free man. That doesn’t work, that doesn’t study.” Pallieter’s lesson is that life is not about money or work, that it is better to let yourself be nourished by sun, wind and a good glass of wine. He also teaches us how wonderful it is to chase your naked lover on horseback through lush greenery, while letting her full round behind turn you on. However, the film also shows that a pallieter like him can only exist if supported by abundance. That of innate pennies, in this case. When we see our Pallieter at work, scrubbing the deck of a boat, it turns out that it is for his own honeymoon. A first kink in Pallieter’s carefree enjoyment of life presents itself when he visits Fransoo. It immortalizes the untouched nature on canvas from a rented mill. It turns out that a French landlord, a baron, intends to thoroughly shake up Pallieter’s immaculate dream world. He wants to straighten the local meandering river for the benefit of shipping and the economy. To show his displeasure, Pallieter opens something other than his mouth. In the further course of the story, the new-fangled hedonist hardly shows any more willingness to take action.

Between the close-ups of waving blades of grass and golden-yellow flowers, the film has an infectious zest for life. When life shows its bright side, it should (and can) be celebrated here. With wine and food in abundance, and for dessert a thick cigar. The good pastor (Joris Diels) thinks so too, who always likes one. Verhavert’s book adaptation is mainly due to the loving, teasing play between brother and sister. Bold, faithful Charlot (De Leur is on a roll) stands out nicely against her brother, the hippie-avant-la-lettre, who at one point sighs melancholy: “Oh, brother boom!”, while he clings affectionately to the bark of his interlocutor. Towards the end, however, the story falls prey to well-intentioned preaching. Jan Decleir still turns up as the wise curly-haired Bohimil, a gypsy with the appearance of Marlon Brando’s Colonel Kurtz. When Bohimil displays his life knowledge, he introduces himself in the third person: “What Bohimil has seen…much…sad… Here…still quiet, still good, still beautiful…”. ‘Pallieter’ is certainly beautiful: the film provides an unemphatic, convincing picture of nineteenth-century Flanders, a pre-industrial world of carriages, cobblestones and Catholic processions.

‘Pallieter’ cannot be separated from the year in which it was made (1976). “Back to nature” was (they say) not an empty slogan and the concept of idealism had not (perhaps) been so overtly polluted by the hidden agendas of some idealists. The apocalyptic ending in particular – a romantic vision of fear of Pallieter himself – refers emphatically to the ‘now’ of the 1970s. You could call Pallieter’s reaction to this personal insight into the future typical, for a man who mainly thinks about his own well-being.