"JCVD" by Mabrouk El Mechri

April 30, 2009
 

Mabrouk El Mechri's JCVD was one of the most improbable discoveries of 2008. The initials stand for Jean-Claude Van Damme, but JCVD is not one of those action flicks which made the Belgian actor a household name in late 1980s and 90s Hollywood. Instead, it amounts to a complete reinvention of the actor in the shape of a self-reflective thriller with “mockumentary” aspects: Van Damme plays Van Damme, a has-been action-movie star who goes back to his Belgian hometown and manages to get mixed up in a bank heist where hostages are taken. For the police and the media, it is clear that he is the prime suspect. If Mickey Rourke recently celebrated an ultra-American form of "autobiographical comeback" in The Wrestler (playing a different character than himself, but with an unmistakable look over his shoulder at the trajectory of his own career), then JCVD represents an ultra-European variation of this resurrection technique.

The Vienna première of "JCVD" is presented in cooperation with the Crossing Europe Film Festival, which takes place in Linz from April 20 to 26.