Latest news with #Liège
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Young Mothers' Review: The Dardenne Brothers Bring Clear-Sighted Observation and Empathy to a Tender Snapshot of Women at a Crossroads
The stripped-down aesthetic principles, compassionate humanism and naturalistic purity in the films of Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne make their body of work uncommonly cohesive. It's easy to be glib about the influential Belgian brothers and say you know exactly what you're getting with a new Dardenne film — much like their social realist counterpart across the North Sea, Ken Loach, whose films they began helping to produce in 2009. But anticipating the form, the political leanings or broad thematic concerns of a movie is not the same as knowing in advance where it will take you, what kind of marginalized lives it will illuminate. Ever since their international breakthrough in the 1990s with La Promesse and Rosetta, there's always been the capacity to surprise in a Dardenne movie. Their latest, Young Mothers (Jeunes Mères), is the filmmakers' most surprising work in years. It provides unfiltered emotional access to the anxieties and hopes of five vulnerable working-class teenage women and the babies requiring their love and care, often when they can barely care for themselves. More from The Hollywood Reporter Cannes Power Outage Disrupts City, Festival Continues Inside IMG's Huge Sports Production Weekend: From English, U.S., Saudi Soccer to Basketball and F1 'Honey Don't!' Review: Margaret Qualley, Aubrey Plaza and Chris Evans Get Stranded in Ethan Coen's Wayward Whodunit The project was hatched out of a visit by the Dardennes to a maternal support home near Liège, with the initial aim of developing a story about one young mother struggling to connect with her baby. But they were so struck by what they witnessed there — among the mothers as well as the nursing, counseling and administrative staff — that they expanded their plans to build a multicharacter ensemble piece. That alone marks a shift for the writer-directors, whose work tends predominantly to lock in on one or two main characters. It also allows them to draw even more than usual on their background in documentary. Young Mothers is closer to docu-fiction than any of their recent work. It follows the struggles of four women, three of them with newborns and one who's pregnant with a looming due date, plus a fifth whose stay at the shelter is nearing its end. Just two weeks away from giving birth, Jessica (Babette Verbeek) waits in an agitated state at a bus stop where she has organized to meet her biological mother Morgane (India Hair), who gave her up for adoption when she was younger than her daughter is now. Both before and after the arrival of her baby, Jessica longs to understand the reasoning behind her mother's decision, and to know if she ever felt remorse. Perla (Lucie Laruelle) has given birth to a son while the boy's father, Robin (Gunter Duret), was in juvenile detention. She brings him a spliff to celebrate his release, but Robin shows little affection for her and barely even looks at their child. While Perla has signed out of the shelter for several hours, expecting to spend the day with him, Robin can't get away fast enough. Perla faints when she gets back, and another young mother, Julie (Elsa Houben), massages her to knead the numbness out of her body. Fifteen-year-old Ariane (Janaina Halloy Fokan) wants to put her infant daughter in foster care and finish school. Her mother Nathalie (Christelle Cornil), who talked her out of having an abortion, is against that plan, insisting she can help raise the child. But Nathalie is a drunk who has been in an abusive relationship with a violent man. At first, she coaxes Ariane to visit by assuring her that she has quit drinking and dumped the guy, but there are signs that indicate otherwise. Growing impatient with her daughter's rebukes, Nathalie snaps, 'He hit me worse than he hit you.' Julie and her baby's sweet-natured father, Dylan (Jef Jacobs), are both recovering addicts. They leave their young daughter at a childcare facility while they go across town to see a subsidized apartment where they hope to live as a family. Dylan, a baker's apprentice, wants to marry her; their journey on his moped is one of the film's loveliest sequences, an image of freedom and happiness that suggests such a life might be within reach. But there are hiccups. Setbacks are as much a part of these women's realities as their tentative steps forward, yearning to carve out better lives for themselves and their children. One incentive to keep trying is the success of Naïma (Samia Hilmi), who is preparing to move with her child into their own flat and is on track to secure a job as a railway ticket inspector. Her sendoff from the shelter, with cake served outside in the garden, is one of many affecting displays of solidarity. Others have a bumpier path: Julie relapses into drug use and anxiety attacks; Perla refuses to read the obvious signs that Robin has no interest in settling down with her or becoming a hands-on father; Jessica keeps hitting a wall with her mother and has a hostile encounter with the unsympathetic parents of her baby's father, who run what appears to be a successful gym. They demand to know what she wants from their son, insisting that she's to blame for her situation since she declined to have the abortion they offered to pay for. The filmmakers thread these stories seamlessly into a larger picture that balances despair with moments that point cautiously toward a more stable future. There's never a false note from the young actors, all of whom have deeply moving scenes. But Young Mothers is also captivating when it's simply taking in the quotidian responsibilities of new parenthood — feeding, diaper changing, bathtime — or when it catches an expression of wonder or joy as a mother gazes into the tiny face of the child she has created. DP Benoît Dervaux's camera is always attentive, never intrusive or fussy, and the use of only available light adds to the documentary-like authenticity of the stories. Possibly the single most gorgeous moment in the movie happens when one of the mothers, bracing for the wrenching separation of putting her baby into foster care, straps the infant into a car seat. If you don't melt when you see the blissful smile that spreads across the baby's adorable face and lights up her eyes, I suspect you're a terrible person. As attuned as they are to the harsh experiences of characters living bare-bones existences on the fringes of society, the Dardennes have never been doom-peddling fatalists. That aspect is clear in a number of beautiful forward-facing scenes — Ariane writing a letter for her daughter to read when she turns 18; Jessica breaking through and being able to communicate with Morgane when her dogged determination pays off; Perla having a blowup fight with her older half-sister, Angèle (Joely Mbundu), but then reconciling with genuine warmth and an offer of support; and especially, Julie and Dylan taking their baby to visit a former music teacher who helped them both. The Dardennes are not in the business of offering easy fixes for their characters' difficulties. But when the teacher sits at the piano to begin the child's introduction to music, Mozart's 'Rondo a la Turca' sounds like a hymn of triumphant resilience and elation. Best of The Hollywood Reporter Hollywood Stars Who Are One Award Away From an EGOT 'The Goonies' Cast, Then and Now "A Nutless Monkey Could Do Your Job": From Abusive to Angst-Ridden, 16 Memorable Studio Exec Portrayals in Film and TV
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Young Mothers' Review: Taut and Tender Drama About a Home for Teenage Moms Shows What the Dardennes Do Best
Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardennes have settled into a comfortable niche over the course of 13 feature films. Well-researched social-realist depictions of marginalized people butting up against intransigent institutions is the way the record goes. To be fair to les frères Dardennes, there is a reliable level of unshowy competence as well as an integrity to their insistence on embedding with unglamorous, recognizable people. All the while, they facilitate other filmmakers in bringing related French and Belgian slice-of-life visions to fruition. They helped to produce one of the best debuts of last year, 'Julie Keeps Quiet' by Leonardo Van Dijl. At this edition of Cannes alone there are two films to bear their names as producers: 'Enzo' by Laurent Cantet and Robin Campillo opened Directors Fortnight and, neatly enough, 'Adam's Sake' by Laura Wandel opened Critics' Week. More from IndieWire These Cannes 2025 Prize Winners Will Inspire Oscar Campaigns Cowboys vs. Accountants: The Real World of International Production Financing | Future of Filmmaking Summit at Cannes Earnest force-for-cinema credentials established, how does 'Young Mothers' fit into their body of work? Pivoting around a shelter for teenage mothers in the Belgian city of Liège, this modest offering does not deliver the immense emotional returns of 'Two Days, One Night' (2014) — arguably their last heavy-hitter. Nonetheless, there is a satisfying, compact completeness to their handling of the storylines of four different young mothers and sufficient grace notes are enabled in each case to stave off the cliches that occasionally threaten to engulf events. Jessica and Alba. Perla and Noa. Ariane and Lili. Julie and Mia. Each of the titular young mothers is a frightened child ill-equipped to handle the beloved bundle that now depends on them. The film's most immediate power stems from the casting of age-appropriate, largely unknown actresses, so that we have frequent cause to double-take at the sight of babies with babies. The shelter is depicted as a port in a storm where the girls participate in communal chores like cooking and cleaning and try to help each other out with childcare when they can. The grownup authorities are encouraging yet firm. Although the futures of Jessica, Perla, Ariane, Julie, are uncertain, this is a rare example of a positive institution showing up in a Dardennes flick. Each mother is dealing with non-existent or complex relationships with their families of origin. Bar Julie, who drew the long straw with her devoted Dylan, each mother is also dealing with an absent or checked-out baby daddy. Addiction, either personal or from their own caregivers, is a motif. Any sense of preparedness for the baby's arrival is notable by its absence as the characters spin out in spurts of productive energy, desperate to lay out the next track in the road in front of them. They want to bag a home or employment or a relationship to stop their new responsibility from feeling so totalizing and lonely. The curtain opens on a heavily pregnant Jessica (Babette Verbeek) as she rolls up to meet the mother who gave her up as a baby. It's a no show so caseworker Yasmine drives Jessica back home. Then we're with Noa (Lucie LaRuelle) as she picks up Perla's dad post release from a juvenile detention center. She's delighted to finally present as a family, whereas he is more animated by his first spliff in two months. The stress of it all causes Noa to collapse and Julie (Elsa Houben) helps to bring her back to her body with a massage. It won't be until later that we discover the demons that Julie is fighting. The most fully inhabited inter-generational microcosm comes courtesy of Ariane (Janaina Halloy Foken). Her pressures are packaged in a brilliant, ragged performance by Christelle Cornill as the mother that forced her not to have an abortion. Their scenes reveal that Ariane is sturdier than the precarious adult who has only recently shed a violent ex and is so obsessed with baby Lili that we fear for the vacuum she is contending with alone. Cornill is a volatile presence capable of delivering a backhander before falling to her knees in remorse. Halloy Foken (whose credits include 'Inexorable' by Fabrice Du Welz) holds her own as a focused teenager determined not to let her life be derailed by emotional blackmail close to home. The brothers do rigorous work in cutting between these four stories while letting them intersect as the girls warmly co-exist in the shelter. Essential character details emerge amidst the pace that drives their daily goals, and the fears bubbling underneath occasionally erupt, without anyone having to pay the price for this natural human upset. If there is an archetypal quality to each girl and if this is amplified by the stereotypical nature of their problems, there is enough tenderness in the atmosphere of the shelter to allow each actor to take their foot of the gas and relax into the small and soothing tasks that make up domesticity. A great deal of mastery is present in the balancing of disparate storylines and the blending of contrasting emotional landscapes. Individual insecurity is offset by release-valve relationships in a film that – like its young protagonist – is stronger than it looks. 'Young Mothers' premiered in Competition at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. It is currently seeking U.S. distribution. 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The Guardian
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The Young Mother's Home review – outstanding return to form for the Dardenne brothers
Gentleness, compassion and love are the keynotes of this quietly outstanding new movie from the Dardenne brothers, Jean-Pierre and Luc, for whom I think it is a return to form after some strained melodrama in their recent work. There is such simplicity and clarity here, an honest apportioning of dignity and intelligence to everyone on screen: every scene and every character portrait is unforced and unembellished. The straightforward assertion of hope through giving help and asking for help is very powerful. The Dardennes have again established their gold standard for social realist cinema at Cannes, and for regular attenders there is another poignant dimension – the memory of their Palme-winning film Rosetta presented at Cannes a quarter of a century ago, starring the then 17-year-old Émilie Dequenne in a very similar role to the characters here; her recent death from cancer was a great sadness. The location here is Liège in Belgium, at a state home for teen mothers or mothers-to-be, who are being helped and counselled in how to have their babies, how to bathe and feed them, how to make contact with prospective adoptive parents (if that is what they want), how to deal with existing issues of addiction and depression and how to find housing. The young mothers live together as a community, with a cooking rota. Perla (Lucie Laruelle) is a young woman of colour who has had her baby, Noé, but finds that the baby's father, who has just been released from a young offenders' institution and got a job in a garage, is testy and distant with Perla and his baby son. Jessica (Babette Verbeek) is pregnant, and – after her baby Alba is born – desperately seeking something like closure by trying to make contact with her own mother, Morgane (India Hair) who gave her up for fostering when she was Jessica's age. Julia (Elsa Houben) has been a homeless drug addict but with baby Mia is turning her life around in the home, with a traineeship at a hairdresser, and a caring boyfriend with whom she has some classic Dardenne scenes on a motor scooter, zooming down the street, that time-honoured movie realist trope for the freedom and vulnerability of the young. But perhaps the most complex figure is Ariane (Janaïna Halloy Fokan), a 15-year-old who wishes to give up baby Lili, to the rage of her own mum Nathalie (Christelle Cornil); in her anguish Nathalie wishes to be a grandma or even replacement mum, if Ariane doesn't want the baby – supposedly determined to quit her drinking and the abusive situations which made Ariane so determined not to go the same route. The babies-having-babies imagery is of course what makes this film so poignant – and also the realisation that the careworn older generation, still conflicted about the question of their own responsibility for all this and encumbered by their mistakes and the consequences of their choices, were in their teen daughters' situation so recently. Then there is the heart-wrenching sweetness of the babies themselves: baby Lili smiles tenderly at Ariane at a terribly ironic moment. What lies ahead for these children? The same thing, or something different? The film boils down to a fundamental question: having decided against abortion, is it more responsible, more loving, more heroically sacrificial in fact, to give up your baby for adoption? Or is it an existential failure of will, of courage, perpetuating a middle-class buyers' market in adoptive parenthood? There is of course no answer to be had, but there is faith in a better future here, and the final scene, involving the poem The Farewell by Apollinaire, is very moving. The Young Mother's Home screened at the Cannes film festival.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
EVS Invites Its Shareholders to a Postponed Extraordinary General Meeting on June 10, 2025
EVS INVITES ITS SHAREHOLDERS TO A POSTPONED EXTRAORDINARY GENERAL MEETING ON JUNE 10, 2025 As already communicated on May 20, 2025, due to the lack of attendance quorum, the Extraordinary General Meeting of EVS Broadcast Equipment SA convened on May 20, 2025 is postponed to June 10, 2025, at 12:00 pm, at its registered office in Liège, to deliberate on the agenda available on the website of the company (see link below). The Board of Directors will propose to this effect to the Shareholders to approve the issuance of warrants. The convocation and all documents relating to the General Meeting of June 10, 2025 are available on the website of EVS Broadcast Equipment at About EVS We create return on emotion EVS is globally recognized as a leading provider in live video technology for broadcast and new media productions. Spanning the entire production process, EVS solutions are trusted by production teams worldwide to deliver the most gripping live sports images, buzzing entertainment shows and breaking news to billions of viewers every day – and in real time. As we continue to expand our footprint, our dedication to sustainable growth for both our business and the industry is clearly demonstrated through our ESG strategy. This commitment is not only reflected in our results, but also in our high ratings from different agencies. Headquartered in Liège, Belgium, the company has a global presence with offices in Australia, Asia, the Middle East, Europe, North and Latin America, employing over 700 team members and ensuring sales, training, and technical support to more than 100 countries. EVS is a public company traded on Euronext Brussels: EVS, ISIN: BE0003820371. EVS is, amongst others, part of the Euronext Tech Leaders and Euronext BEL Mid indices. Media Contacts For more info about this press release, or to set up an interview with EVS, please contact: Veerle De Wit – Chief Financial Officer Tel: +32 4 361 7004 – Email: Sébastien Verlaine – Senior Brand & Corporate Communications Manager Tel: +32 4 361 5809 – Email: Forward Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements with respect to the business, financial condition, and results of operations of EVS and its affiliates. These statements are based on the current expectations or beliefs of EVS's management and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or performance of the Company to differ materially from those contemplated in such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties relate to changes in technology and market requirements, the company's concentration on one industry, decline in demand for the company's products and those of its affiliates, inability to timely develop and introduce new technologies, products and applications, and loss of market share and pressure on pricing resulting from competition which could cause the actual results or performance of the company to differ materially from those contemplated in such forward-looking statements. EVS undertakes no obligation to publicly release any revisions to these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. Attachment Press release in PDF formatError in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Medscape
19-05-2025
- Health
- Medscape
Poor Eating Habits: ‘Informing Is No Longer Enough'
The 9th edition of the 'Nourrir Liège' festival was held in mid-April, with this year's theme centred on the concept of One Health — the interconnection between human, animal, and environmental health. Among the many conferences, one session focused on the hidden costs of food, offering a platform for Axelle Hoge, PhD, associate professor and public health researcher at the University of Liège, Belgium, to examine why many Belgians struggle with poor dietary habits and to propose actionable solutions. The following interview was conducted by MediQuality , a Medscape Network platform, after her presentation at the event. In your view, why is it now more difficult to clearly link nutrition and health? Today, it has become increasingly difficult for the general public, health professionals, and researchers to draw a direct connection between diet and health. This is largely due to the complexity of so-called societal diseases, which are typically multifactorial in nature. While diet clearly plays a recognized role in the development of conditions such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, certain cancers, and osteoporosis, it is only one of many contributing factors. Genetic predisposition, physical activity, exposure to environmental pollutants, and stress also influence the onset of these diseases. This interplay of multiple causes makes the relationship between diet and health more difficult to understand and quantify — even though we know that nutrition remains a major tool for disease prevention. Was the association between diet and health more obvious in the past? Yes, the connection used to be more apparent. In cases of nutritional deficiency, specific clinical symptoms would develop that directly pointed to the problem. I'm thinking, for example, of kwashiorkor or scurvy. It was immediately clear that the diet was lacking in either quantity or quality. Today, the situation is much more complex. Do you think Belgian consumers are poorly informed about nutrition? I believe they are generally aware of the main dietary recommendations. However, putting them into practice is another matter. For instance, does the average person really know what concrete steps to take to reduce their intake of unhealthy fats? I'm not so sure. We need to move away from the idea that everything depends on information alone. For a long time, public health campaigns operated on the assumption that people simply didn't know what was good or bad for their health. That perspective is outdated. Knowledge alone is not enough to change behaviour. Conditions like obesity and other diet-related diseases cannot be fully explained by individual choices. Our eating habits are heavily influenced by the environment in which we live. On one hand, there's the social environment — family, friends, and coworkers influence our eating behaviour through imitation and social norms. On the other hand, the physical environment — supermarkets, restaurants, schools, and workplaces — determines what foods are available, in what quantities, and at what prices. Finally, the macro-environment plays a role: food production, processing, and distribution systems, agricultural policies, and marketing all shape our dietary choices. Have these three influencing factors — the social, physical, and macro-level environments — evolved in recent years? Yes, all three have changed significantly over the past few decades, and these changes clearly contribute to the current rise in multifactorial diseases. Foods high in sugar, unhealthy fats, and salt have become much more widespread. Portion sizes have increased, and ready-made meals are more accessible than ever. At the same time, we now spend less time on meals, and the availability of fast food and the intensity of food marketing have exploded. Altogether, these shifts have altered our eating habits — often not for the better. What do we know about the measurable links between diet and mortality? One of the most comprehensive sources is the 2017 Global Burden of Disease Study, which evaluated the health effects of diet in 195 countries. The study found that approximately one in five deaths worldwide is attributable to dietary risks. In terms of morbidity, it estimated that around 255 million years of healthy life are lost annually due to chronic diseases worsened by poor diets. Three specific dietary factors were identified as particularly harmful: excessive salt intake, low consumption of whole grains (such as wholemeal bread and brown rice), and insufficient fruit consumption. However, it's worth noting that the study focused solely on nutritional quality — factors like chemical contamination and the level of food processing were not included, even though they clearly play a role in health outcomes. We often hear that ultra-processed products are harmful. Why is that? In Belgium, about 35% of the adult population's daily caloric intake comes from ultra-processed foods, according to the NOVA classification. These are foods that have undergone extensive industrial processing, including chemical, biological, or physical transformations. Such processes alter the food matrix, which is the structural and functional architecture of a food item. Two foods may have the same nutritional composition on paper but differ in matrix, leading to different effects on health. For example, in dairy products, changes to the matrix caused by processing can affect satiety and nutrient absorption. Additionally, ultra-processed foods often contain ingredients not typically found in traditional cooking, such as additives, colourings, artificial flavours, emulsifiers, hydrogenated oils, and modified proteins. A growing body of research links these ingredients to obesity, type 2 diabetes, and other chronic health conditions. Could including the NOVA score on product labels positively influence consumer purchasing behaviour? While information alone doesn't solve everything, it would likely raise public awareness about the degree of food processing and its impact on health. Currently, I believe most people are poorly informed on this issue — especially since the level of processing is not among the five core public dietary recommendations. If both the NOVA score and the Nutri-Score were made mandatory on food labels, products receiving unfavourable ratings from both systems could face reputational and commercial consequences. That level of transparency could also motivate manufacturers to reformulate their products to improve health profiles. There is scientific literature exploring how the two labelling systems could be combined. Unfortunately, given the European Commission's decision not to mandate the Nutri-Score, we do not appear to be heading in the right direction. What solutions do you see for helping consumers make better dietary choices? We need to implement changes at multiple levels of the food environment. A number of evidence-based interventions are already recognized by local, national, and international authorities. These include restricting marketing of unhealthy foods, tightening regulation of additives, taxing sugar-sweetened beverages, implementing policies that make fresh, minimally processed foods more accessible. Equally important is providing comprehensive nutritional education from an early age. While these interventions can directly influence eating behaviours, they are not sufficient on their own. On a broader scale, we need to rethink how food is produced, processed, and distributed. This calls for systemic change and agricultural policies that prioritize quality over quantity. What role can health professionals play in encouraging this change? A strong alliance between researchers, health professionals, activists, citizens, and environmental groups can form a meaningful counterbalance to dominant forces in the food system. This coalition has the potential to produce and share independent knowledge, mobilize public opinion, and influence policy change. However, for such a movement to be truly impactful, it must be supported by a systemic understanding of food issues. That means institutional backing, sustained public funding, and a political will that prioritizes public health and the common good. Sadly, when we look at current debates — such as those around university funding — the direction does not appear promising. Do you think health professionals' voices carry more weight with public authorities than others? Yes, I believe health professionals can play a more central role. Their voices carry a high degree of public trust and credibility, which can shape public debate and influence decision-making. That said, to make a lasting impact, health professionals need to be well-informed about the broader dimensions of food systems, including not only nutrition and patient care but also social, economic, and environmental factors. Creating the conditions and support systems that enable their active participation in public discourse and advocacy is also crucial. There is still significant progress to be made in this area. Despite the challenges, are you optimistic about the future of our diets? I try to remain optimistic — especially as someone at the beginning of my career. Through my research, I'm increasingly aiming to contribute to policy discussions and engage with communities on the ground. There are promising local initiatives, particularly in Liège, that show how things can move forward. While these efforts currently tend to reach more affluent populations, we're starting to see some projects extend to disadvantaged groups as well. That's an encouraging sign, especially since much remains to be done to reduce social inequalities in nutrition and health.
