Word: flemish
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...idea for the film - part buddy flick, part thriller, part existential drama - came to McDonagh on a weekend away in the quaint Flemish city. On day one, he was taken with the place: "the canals, the cobbled streets, the fairy tale-like quality of it." By day two, he was bored out of his mind. And from his conflicting desires - get some culture vs. get drunk - his two characters, Ray and Ken, were born. After botching a job, newbie hit man Ray (played by Colin Farrell) and his mentor Ken (Brendan Gleeson) are sent to Bruges to cool their heels...
...Christian culture, Babylon was quite deliberately developed as a broad symbol of the city of sin," says Michael Seymour, a curator of the British Museum's Middle Eastern collection. Indeed, over the centuries, Judeo-Christian texts would consistently imbue Babylon with a sense of evil. A 14th century Flemish manuscript of Saint Augustine's "City of God" contrasts Babylon with God-fearing Jerusalem; the former is invaded by diabolical creatures that embody the city's vices...
...Verhofstadt also needs to lay the groundwork for a more permanent administration, led by the biggest winner of the June elections, Flemish Christian Democrat Yves Leterme. Leterme, whose party has been out of office for eight years, has been unable to stitch together his own government coalition. At various times over the past six months, both he and his prospective coalition partners from the French-speaking parties have appeared baffled at one another's demands. An emergency coalition is thought to be one way of helping them understand each other better...
...Interior Minister Patrick Dewael, Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht, and Finance Minister Didier Reynders. Francophone liberal Reynders, one of two deputy Prime Ministers, claimed that the formation of a government meant "the crisis is over for Belgium." However, questions still surround the managerial ability of Leterme: after all, the Flemish firebrand failed to form a government despite six months of trying. By contrast, Verhofstadt took less than two weeks to secure his unity coalition...
...Leterme, one of four Flemish Christian Democrats in the coalition, is the other deputy Prime Minister. Although nominally in charge of the budget portfolio, he will lead talks with the other parties on constitutional changes. These talks will be amongst a group of 12 established political names that Verhofstadt will choose - although the departing prime minister will not himself be part of the process. If these talks fail, there is the chance that the interim government could stay on until the regional elections in 2009, which might then double up with another federal poll. But such chatter underlines the fragile...