RUMBA
Belgium, 2008, 77 minutes, Colour.
Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon, Bruno Romy.
Directed by Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon, Bruno Romy.
At 77 minutes, Rumba is a brief but funny excursion into the foibles of human nature – and with quite a number of laugh aloud humour.
Dominique Abel and partner Fiona Gordon have been working together for over ten years. They made some short films and then a feature in 2005, Iceberg. Influenced by burlesque and the theatre of movement and mime as well as the screen comic tradition from Chaplin through Tati, they take ordinary situations and play with them, devising visual and movement pieces that are a blend of good-natured spoof, parody and satire. They themselves , while not prepossessing screen presences or glamorous, are able to hold audience attention with their abilities in lithe movement and comic timing.
The plot outline is the simplest. A husband and wife teach in school. After school they rehearse Latin American dancing and enter competitions. They have a terrible car accident and the consequences, though serious on paper, lead to a number of very funny routines. The other central character is a largish would-be-suicide who has a devastating effect on the couple's life and dancing – and whose sobbing sessions as he contemplates what he has done have audiences in fits of laughter. It is that kind of contradictory humour that makes the proceedings both hilarious and poignant.
Dominique and Fiona are joined in the direction of the film by Bruno Romy who plays the villain who makes all kinds of desperate attempts to steal a chocolate bun from Dominique and whose demise causes a guffaw as well.
There are three rumba scenes which give musical and dance verve to the film. The attempts at suicide are ironically funny and a scene where the house burns down because a wooden limb is inadvertently set alight by an outdoor grill during a romantic love song might indicate that Rumba is a different kind of comedy that is highly entertaining. Just as Tati brought mime and timing to the ordinary situations of French life, so Dominique and Fiona continue this tradition in Belgium.
1.A comedy, blend of the serious and the funny, life and death?
2.The title: the dance, its verve, the dance sequences, the loss of Fiona’s leg, memories of dance? Calling the dog Rumba?
3.Belgian humour, the town, the house and the street, the school? The road and the cattle, the bridge for the train, the cliffs, the sea? The beach? Realistic and surreal?
4.The score, Latin American style? The dance sequences in the gym, the shadows on the wall, dancing on the sea?
5.The comic tradition of mime and movement, minimal verbal humour? The tradition of silent films, Jacques Tati and Playtime? Parody, spoof and satire? Dominique and Fiona as partners in life, acting, directing?
6.The introduction in the school, Fiona teaching English, the blackboard and the dog? The children visiting the hospital? Her return to school, the slapstick with her crutches and with the folder?
7.Dominique and the phys-ed, seeing the children outside the window, in the gym? The return to school – and the boxing and Dominique punching each child?
8.The children leaving school with enthusiasm, the teachers then doing the same? Dominique and Fiona going to the gym, changing, the arm and the leg, the dance sequence, going to the competition, having the picnic, Fiona remembering her dress, the driving and the rear-vision projection, going home, passing the cars and trucks, returning, changing in the car, the comedy with the driving and the awkwardness? The return home, Gerard in the middle of the road, the crash?
9.Dominique and Fiona at home, brushing their teeth, going to bed, each getting up and down continually to move the clocks etc? The later return home and the repetition of the cleaning of the teeth? The bedroom?
10.Gerard and his wanting to commit suicide, standing on the train line, reading his note, wiping his brow, waiting for the train, going down for the car, hearing the train, rushing up the siding and missing it, returning to the road, the crash and his leaving the site of the crash?
11.The hospital sequences? Dominique and his loss of memory? Fiona in the cast? The visits from the schoolchildren? Fiona visiting Dominique, the introduction, his offering coffee, his forgetting? Going home, the wheelchair, the parcels, opening the door, the arrival of the leg? The wheelchair and the parking?
12.Dominique and his cooking, the eggs, repeating the recipe, going to the supermarket, the automatic door and it not working, the wheelchair stolen, continuing to cook, too much salt?
13.Sitting by the fire, the song, the leg catching fire, the curtains, trying to put out the fire, the burning down of the house, the door remaining, Elliot and his bringing the food, going through the door? The rain, Fiona asleep, Dominique trying to ward off the rain? Dominique waking up and going to buy some breakfast?
14.Dominique, buying the buns, lost, walking along the road, past the cattle, the dog and his shoe, getting the bus? The villain wanting the bun, the attack, taking his clothes? Throwing Dominique’s clothes over the cliff? Finding the bun – and the cliff collapsing?
15.Gerard, his helping Dominique, realising who he was, the continued weeping?
16.Fiona’s search, seeing the clothes at the bottom of the cliff, with the dog, calling him Rumba?
17.The year passing, Fiona bringing the flower, its blowing back in her face on the cliff? Borrowing the racquet from the people on the beach? The girl and the doughnut? The imagining of dancing on the sea? The rain, Dominique and Gerard and their doughnuts, people sheltering? Gerard seeing Fiona and weeping again? The shelter, Fiona and Dominique seeing each other – and the new introduction? Gerard and his going into the sea to drown?
18.The effect of this kind of comedy, laughter, human foibles, spoofs? Yet the pathos and the poignancy underlying the comedy?
