Jan Decleir

Jan Decleir

Acting

February 14, 1946
Niel, Flanders, Belgium
91 movies

Biography

Jan Decleir (born February 14, 1946, in Niel, Belgium) is a Belgian film, television and stage actor, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in Flemish cinema. He made his film debut in Mira (1971) and gained international recognition for his performances in Character (1997), which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and the Oscar nominated drama Daens (1992). Alongside his extensive screen career, he is also a highly respected theatre actor and a central figure i...

🎬 Jan Decleir's Filmography

91 movies sorted by popularity

The Conscript
5.3

In 1833, when the fledgling Belgian kingdom still fears a Dutch invasion, recruits were selected annually from an age cohort by a draw of lots in each locality. In this grim, then contemporary drama by the 'father of Flemish literature', Hendrik Conscience, Jan Braems, a poor and naive farmers-boy, accepts the not uncommon offer by a rich family to sell his lucky ticket (out) to their son for a hefty sum compared to the miserable labor wages at the time. Army life is even harsher then a farmhand's, especially for a Dutch-speaking an-alphabet who simply can't understand his francophone superiors, and Jan's nature is not complacent enough for military discipline even by todays standards, so he soon gets into all kinds of trouble, including gambling his capital away and a venereal disease. When his girlfriend back home goes looking for him, her life is doomed as well.

The Conscript

1974
Marieke, Marieke
2.2

Marieke wants to live her life. But how can she succeed if love has been taken away from her? She seeks warmth in the arms of much older men to find the strength to face the past and finally be herself. Marieke is 20 years old. She lives with her mother, Jeanne, a woman left cold and distant ever since her husband died. During the day, Marieke works in a Brussels chocolate factory. At night, she escapes into the arms of much older men. With them she feels strong, cherished and free. The arrival of Jacoby, a book editor living abroad, searching for her father's last manuscript, upsets Marieke's precarious balance. Her mother does everything in her power to keep them apart. She fears that he will reveal the secret that has remained hidden for so many years. Marieke falls in love with Jacoby but devastated by the truth of her father's death, she sinks despair. Will she find the strength to accept the truth and live anew?

Marieke, Marieke

2010
Little Crumb
6.3

The film is based on the popular Dutch childrens book by Chris van Abkoude. In a Dutch port in 1921 lives a 10-year-old orphan boy known to everyone simply as Little Crumb. His poverty-stricken mother Lize van Dien filled with shame was forced to turn him over to Mrs. Koster soon after he was born. Foster mother Mrs. Koster, who has cared for him since he was a baby, is very poor too, unable to support him by herself and proves to be a cruel taskmaster who insists Crumb bring her money before shell feed him. Somehow he must earn his keep out on the streets and can only go home after he has earned enough money. Crumb becomes an urchin stealing from the streets barrows and the shops to stay alive, sleeping in churches or huddled in doorways. Sometimes he has to run off from the police and he has earned the enmity of the most grownups around him.

Little Crumb

1999
Ob ihr wollt oder nicht
4.3

The film starts with the main character Laura, a young woman with advanced cancer, entering quite upset the home of her parents and claiming to have stopped chemo therapy and having left her husband. The worried parents call the other three adult daughters into the house and they arrive one by one. For the first time in 6 years the entire family is united again. The characters are drawn as tensions rise from old conflicts and as the situation sinks in that Laura might be terminally ill. The movie eventually shifts from a lively sometimes comical beginning into the serious theme of dying and does handle this quite tactfully and moving. While the film touches on many areas surrounding death (including religion, graveyard, care, eutanasia) the main focus is on the transformation of the characters that are thrown out of their busy lifes into this situation, eventually accepting it and dealing with it.

Ob ihr wollt oder nicht

2009
The van Paemel Family
5.7

The family patriarch Van Paemel is a farmer on baron de Wilde's estate. His mild-mannered son Désire is accidentally shot during a hunting party on the estate and remains an invalid. Eduard, the eldest son, is a member of the socialist workers' movement and involved in strike actions in the city. Against her father's wishes, his daughter Cordule starts an affair with the poacher Masco. His youngest daughter, Romanie, is forced to work as a domestic servant at the castle, where she is seduced by Maurice, the baron's son and heir, and becomes pregnant. When the youngest son Kamiel also has to leave the farm because he is drafted into the army, the lack of workers on Van Paemel's farm becomes critical. As a result, the family is evicted from their home because they cannot pay the rent. Three of the children emigrate to the USA, one becomes a nun and one dies, until only the farmer and his wife remain.

The van Paemel Family

1986
Jan Decleir | MovieMind AI