The Sexual Life of the Belgians (1994) Characters, Setting & Themes Explained

Release, runtime and language

1994 · 85 mins · French

Loading streaming availability…

Directed by

Jan Bucquoy

Starring

Jean-Henri Compère, Michel Angely, Isabelle Legros, Sophie Schneider, Agathe Cornez, Stefan Lernous

Jan Bucquoy recounts his sexual development up to age 28, beginning with an imagined conception during his parents’ drunken encounter and his first orgasm in a beach‑side caravan while watching Laurel and Hardy. He moves from Harelbeck to Brussels, meets Greta, a bohemian bartender who teaches him the Kama Sutra, the naked storyteller Esther, and later his wife Thérèse. After two children they separate; he lives in a tiny flat, writes erotic material to pay the bills, dabbles in a novel, embraces anarchism, and gains confidence through further affairs.