Eigen schoon, rijke kroon

‘A patchwork sewn together by a lunatic, God knows what sort of junk thrown together.’ This is how the irritated Renaat Braem characterised the Belgian landscape as seen from the air in his pamphlet ‘The ugliest country in the world’ (1968). Over the last half century, this sort of complaint about the lack of planning has alternated with resentment at the surfeit of spatial regulation on the part of the authorities. Film-makers have provided pictures to go with these divergent opinions. From Charles Dekeukeleire’s propaganda film disguised as a documentary, through Luc De Heusch’s documentary insert packaged as fiction, to the critical opinion pieces by Jef Cornelis.