La Cage Dorée (2013)

La Cage Dorée is a movie by the Portuguese director Ruben Alves, that tells the story of a Portuguese family living in France. It is a very humorous movie, mixing the French with some Portuguese expressions and counting with all the clichés from our people and, in particular, from the emigrant community. It counts with the participation of some famous Portuguese actors and I thought it made a very accurate portrait of who we are. Right now in Brussels it is on in Actor's Studio on the weekends and I really recommend that you go there and watch it!

Cinematek

The Cinematek is a cinema in Brussels that plays "old" movies (ranging from movies that are just from last year or cinema classics from the 1920's... and all the others in between). They are located in two places (Bozar and Flagey) and have an extent programme, with several movies being played everyday. Each movie ticket costs 4 euros and you can buy them right before the movie starts. I have only watched one movie there and really liked it... the price is of course appealing considering the general price of cinema in Brussels and there were not so many people watching, so you could calmly buy your ticket when arriving just some minutes before time and watch the movie with no confusion. It was an English movie and they played the original version, with simultaneous subtitles in French and Dutch. I plan on going more times there (the selection they play is impressive!) and would definitely recommend you if you're looking to enjoy some cinema afternoons in Brussels (specially when it's bad weather!).

Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival

BIFFF is a cinema festival that takes place every year in Brussels and gathers all sorts of fans of fantastic films (whether it's horror, zombies, fantasy, supernatural or sci-fi).

People really dress up for it, so we had no trouble in finding our way from the metro exit to the place

We went yesterday to see the movie The Between

This was the room called Cine 1, which is the biggest one, but there are also two more rooms with screenings. The price of the tickets varies according to the rooms and students have discounts in all of them

There was a make up atelier going on where you could have your body painted with fake scars or blood

There was also a whole body painting atelier going on

You can buy related merchandising and goodies (including insects covered in chocolate, eww!)

I really enjoyed going there because I had never been to a festival of this sort and the atmosphere is really singular. I think most of the audience was people who are really into this kind of movies and who took the effort of dressing up and knew stuff about the films that were being screened. In the beginning of ours there was a host who presented the director and his wife and asked them some questions. Then, during the whole movie, the audience was always making jokes about it (like clapping in some parts, shouting comments in some parts, singing along with the songs, putting light effects in their cellphones). It was really funny because then everyone would laugh at it and the whole movie watching experience became a big funny joke (even if we couldn't understand some of the remarks, as they were being shouted in French). So if you plan on attending a movie, bear in mind this is a really particular festival and that the audience doesn't go there so much for the movies themselves, but also for all the things going on in between. But I think it is a fun experience in the end and you can enjoy it until April 13 in Bozar.