Quizz: Jean-Claude did say it / did not say it.

Here’s a little test in order to see if you have increased your knowledge about Van Damme’s philosophy.
For each sentence, try to guess if Jean-Claude said it or not.
To see the answer, you have to select the line below the question (the answers are of the same colour as the background).
Count your good answers and post your score in a comment.

“Sometimes, the fear of the death is more terrible than the death itself”
Didn’t say it

“If you remove the air from the sky, all birds would fall down”
Did say it

“If you remove his brain from Steven Seagall, the guy would still act”
Didn’t say it

“It’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice”
Didn’t say it

“As far as I’m concerned, Adam and Eve, I don’t believe in it anymore, you know. ‘Cause, I’m not a dumbass: the apple, it can’t be a bad stuff, it’s full of pectin”
Did say it

“As for me, the dream – and as for everyone in fact, even if people don’t know (and even if they don’t know it, they know it) – the dream, it’s a feeling, it’s a true feeling that happen if you want”
Did say it

“Did I play in some movies for commercial reasons? Yes, I did. Sometimes, you just do things only to survive, to pay the bills. Even Shakespeare did it. Have you read “Richard III”? The hero is a guy who has a soul as ugly as his physical appearance. Judging someone by the appearances… It’s just the complete opposite of his works! They probably hold a gun to his head to make him write that stuff.”
Didn’t say it

“France has to wake up! Me, the ‘35 hours’, I do them in one day!”
Didn’t say it

“There’re people who didn’t succeed because they’re not aware, they don’t ‘keep up the date’. They don’t pay attention to know that they are. Poor ones, they don’t know”
Did say it

“Because we have created a reality in our reality, we created time: 24 hours, 365 days in a year. That’s good! So, we know that when I cross the living-room and walk from the fireplace to the window, it takes 10 seconds, but for a bird, it takes one second and for the oxygen 0 second!”
Did say it

My last post

Watching this interview, I realized that I have common point with the film director of JCVD Mabrouk El Mechri when he says he grew up with Jean-Claude’s films. I have to confess that I did too and, like Mabrouk, I even had a poster of his first and maybe most famous film “Bloodsport” on the wall of my room when I was a little boy. I don’t watch Karate films anymore but at that time, he was important and symbolized a lot of things for me, as for a lot of people I suppose.

I want to thank Mabrouk for making JCVD, because in our societies “burn your idol” seems to be the motto of a lot of people. Of course, to have idols is very infantile, but if you are a child, what’s the problem? It is not incoherent. I also think it’s important to remember where you are from, what you did, what you experienced and to not deny the tasteless part of you. If not, it‘s just like saying that your personality came in one block one day, although it is a process.

This also reminds me the way that the mass medias always present art, or entertainment (call it how you want) as a pyramidal stuff. I mean, something with a top, and if we, as an audience, don’t appreciate who is on this top (who mass media usually put on there), we are considered as has-beens. A decade ago, 2be3 were everywhere. Personally, I do respect the fact that people I don’t like, artistically speaking, has an audience and I consider they are useful to it but I think it is incredible that 2be3 won the “best band of the year award” in 97!

I think there is no hierarchy between artists objectively, everything is linear (Objectively, you cannot say that Mozart is better than Lorie who is better than Adamo who is better than The Beatles, etc. They all are on the same line, because for the most easy-listening music, as for the most hardly-listening music, there is an audience). It is just a question of audience and context. Patrick Sebastien’s “on fait tourner les serviettes” is more appropriate for a wedding ceremony than a Bartok piece, isn’t it?

But I regret that every artist doesn’t have the same visibility in the Medias and that audience doesn’t really have the possibility to extend their artistic tastes.

So I don’t agree with Jean-Claude when he says, during interviews and in the film JCVD too, that he received everything from life (glory, etc) although he didn’t give anything to the world. In fact, he gave a lot to his fans, acting in Karate films. He did a lot for this audience and we should respect that.

You don’t like Jean-Claude? It is choice that has to be respected, but even if you don’t like him, or his films, even if you don’t even see one of them, you know him. He is one of the cultural references that almost everybody shares, some part of the collective conscience. I guess you can go almost anywhere on this planet and just say “Jean-Claude Van Damme” to an unknown person and I am sure you will become friend instantly. Thank you Jean-Claude ;) We all are contemporary of you and I am happy to live in the same world that you are living in.

Tribute to Jean-Claude

JCVD 2

This is a sample of what you can expect from the out of step humour (humour décalé?) and from Jean-Claude performance in the film "JCVD".

There was an error in the translation. They replaced "You don't need to use a flash when ou take a picture of a rabbit who has already red-eyes" by "If there was no more oxigen, planes and birds would crash".

Enjoy it!

JCVD

Let’s talk about the film « JCVD » which would change your point of view on Jean-Claude.

It is a very atypical film because it mixes biographical parts of Jean-Claude’s life and fictional elements. And sometimes, the frontier between them disappears and this put the members of the audience in a strange state of mind, especially because the biographical elements are related to very private and painful things like his divorce, the fact that he became has been, the fact than French audience always make fun of him, his relation with his parents, his age, etc.

You will see a Jean-Claude almost weak (in the opposite of the image that vehiculates his filmography), who got older and whose humanity makes him brighter than ever.

This film which is not just a comedy, but also a tribute to American hold-up scene with very dark scenes sometimes, and which contains a real Belgium spirit is really a great surprise. I recommend you to watch it as soon as possible.

PS: Contrary to the trailer, there is almost no big action scene in JCVD, but this film is also nothing but Karate ;)

Having fun

news about JCVD in Cannes

If you question yourself about "life" maybe you see eye to eye with this JCVD's philosophy give comment and leave someone holding the baby !!
"La vie c'est quelque chose de tres fort et de tres beau.... La vie appartient a tous les vivants. It's both a dream and a feeling. C'est etre ce que nous ne sommes pas sans le rester. La vie c'est mourir aussi....Et mourir c'est vraiment strong...c'est rester en vie au dela de la mort...Tous ceux qui sont morts n'ignorent pas de le savoir " J.C. VanDamme

this picture is from a Japan newspaper i need help from cédric or aurelien to know if Japanese have more informations than us to "the muscles from Brussels"

Magritte of Karate

I think it is very important now to remind that Jean-Claude have belgium roots, because if you really think about it, it is the key to fully understand who (what) he is.

Jean-Claude is not doing karate only when he is acting or when he is practicing at gym, no, Jean-Claude is also doing karate when he is speaking, and it is very beautiful to see him fighting with words, and with himself.

All Jean-Claude said until nowadays proves he is in the belgium tradition of surrealist art. Yes, Jean-Claude is the first surrealist karateka ever been. You just have to replace the title of every Jean-Claude's films by "This is not Karate" and subtitle his interviews by "This is karate".

If you still have any doubt on jean-Claude's surrealist performance, just read the following quote about "moment"

"Je crois au moment. S'il n'y a pas le moment, à ce moment-là, il faut arriver à ce moment-là, au moment qu'on veut." JCVD

irrefutable...