By Peter-Vincent Schuld

We are located in the rustic town of Zichem, a village with a rich history in Flemish Brabant. Located between the religious bastions of the nearby Abbey of Averbode and the pilgrimage site of Scherpenheuvel.

Sitting across from me is a man whose face is scarred by the death of his supporter Jacqueline. Whose eyes show the sadness and an everlasting mischievous in synergy. Still exuding the grandeur of a film director who knows what he is bringing. His back burdened with the incomprehension and arrogant scorn that the mainstream film world heaped on him.

A man who merged the cult of the silver screen with visionary vision of a world that is not getting any happier.

A man, a libertine all the way, a man whose heart is as big as the universe in which he lives.

A man who doesn’t need a royal decoration to distinguish himself.

A man who made his sancerre dance on the lips under his nose, a nose for controversy. While enjoying his wine, whose productions were in “Cannes and Jars” for him.

A man whose natural authenticity is grander than the most megalomaniacal colossus that was built.

The word that runs through our conversation is “freedom”, the freedom to think and make what you want. In all respects, Rob van Eyck fits the profile of an idiosyncratic and gentle freedom fighter whose intended impact is highlighted on the silver screen. At 78 years on this planet, he doesn’t see himself making a feature film anymore, but we can certainly expect a short film from him.

Your writer met Rob van Eyck during an audition for the character “Dutroux” in a shopping centre in the Kempen hamlet of Olen. On a Sunday somewhere in 1997, a lot of people came there who wanted to compete for the lead role in his film “Blue Belgium”. This film deals with a possible scenario concerning the abduction of young girls and the trafficking in them, based on the countless stories about conspiracies that circulated at the time after the outbreak of the Dutroux case in Belgium.
Here I met the sad reality of the real story, the loss of lives of young girls and the glamorous world of beautiful people that are part and parcel of cinematography. Two worlds in collision or not?
Rob van Eyck had long understood that his views on abuses would not be picked up by the media if, like many disgruntled Belgians, he would just let it all complain and then hold a protest march and obediently return to the sofas of the comfort of light everyday existence.
No, Rob van Eyck chose controversy; from casting, production to whether or not his films will premiere.

Those who have any imagination will quickly understand that the final film may be of secondary importance. After all, the genesis of the idea up to and including the shooting of his cinematic works was always an art form in itself, with Rob van Eyck himself perhaps still being the greatest living work of art.
Rob van Eyck’s films listened to illustrious names such as “Mirliton” (dealing with schizophrenia), “Aardwolf”, “Floere het Fluwijn” (after a book by the not uncontroversial writer Ernest Claes), “Afterman” and ”
Blue Belgium”.

Invariably, one of the leading roles always went to Rob’s good friend and fellow villager Jacques Verbist. Jacques Verbist’s raw appearance is in stark contrast to his vulnerable character who, like Rob, communicates his images with the public, but in the form of paintings, drawings and watercolours with mostly nudes. It is precisely the vulnerable character of actor Jacques Verbist, which cannot be edited into the film and is as natural as everyone’s daily bowel movements, that create the ultimate cult effect of Van Eyck’s films.

The Flemish film establishment didn’t eat away at our director’s creative tricks. The comments and reviews were often harsh to the point of cruelty and envy. But isn’t it the artist’s job to provide the establishment with sharp kicks in the often petty shins? Tastes, storylines and acting performances are always debatable. Perhaps Rob van Eyck’s films do not belong in the ranks of blockbusters for the general public. The general public who prefers to be entertained by the Flemish soaps such as “Thuis” and “Familie”, which are really not about anything.

Rob van Eyck likes to make it colourful and once he has made it colourful, he opts to make it even more colourful.

For example, in 2002 he decided to make a sequel to his first “the world is and goes to hell” called “Afterman”. It makes absolutely no sense to describe Afterman 1 here, you just have to see the chaos theory in full with a touch of necrophilia for yourself. Believe me, it’s not just protagonist Jacques Verbist who feels literally taken into his lair. Afterman 2 is also a chaos theory in its entirety, which is both far from and close to the truth. The schizophrenic that characterizes Rob van Eyck’s first film “Mirliton” is the psychic object of every film Rob Van Eyck ever produced.
Everything has at least two sides and multiple personalities, nothing is what it seems and the world is a big mess.
Having said this, we return to Brussels, where the played character of Osama Bin Laden, who has been eaten by the sea creatures, is said to have taken up residence, as Rob van Eyck’s Afterman 2 usually tells us.
In this film, Van Eyck mentions a close relationship between neo-Nazis and Muslim extremists, the latter, in accordance with the actual Arab hypocrisy, not only making buildings and people fly into the air, but also their genitals when striking female beauty behind closed doors.
The film does touch on a number of thorny points. It translates a truth of the 1930s and 1940s in which the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Al-Husseini, belonging to the same clan as PLO leader and terrorist Yasser Arafat, recruited Bosnian Muslims to become part of the Nazi German Waffen SS, something the Serbs have not forgotten and have not forgiven the Bosnians to this day.
Rob filmed refugees behind barbed wire and the poisoning of mother earth. These are all events that have rapidly become reality in 2017. The story is as muddled and complex as today’s global situation. I ask Rob about his “visionary abilities”.
He says he is not very aware of this and it is the subconscious that plays the main role here. The subconscious mind, also referred to by some as a gut feeling.

Voor iemand die Rob niet kent of niet wil leren kennen is Rob een chaotisch cineast. Voor wie de moeite neemt om iets verder te kijken ziet een mens die vooral waarschuwt voor elementen die onze fel bevochten vrijheden doen ondermijnen. Een man die een verhaal vertelt dat weliswaar niet altijd parallel loopt met de gebeurlijke feiten, maar daarom is het ook fictie. Star Wars staat verder af van de realiteit dan de gebeurtenissen die Rob in beeld brengt.