Vrijdag, Vrijdagavond
Tom's movie

Synopsis (taken from www.isufferrock.com)

Tom Barman (1972, Antwerp) studied cinematography at the Sint-Lukas school in Brussels from 1991 to 1993 and philosophy at UFSIA in Antwerp. In 1989 he founded the band dEUS, with which he released several albums including the very successful album "Worst Case Scenario" for which he received international acclaim. With dEUS he toured around the world from 1993 to 1999. In this period he did approximately 600 shows. Barman is responsible for directing the videos for several dEUS songs and also bands like The Sands, Axelle Red and Arno. "Friday, Friday Evening" will be his fist feature film.

SYNOPSIS
8 People. 1 City. Friday morning, Friday evening. There's Chouki, the hypochondriac artist and Lara, the laconic stylist. We see Natalie, the computer expert, and her friend Walter, a socially committed video maker-cum-DJ. We follow Windman, a hypersensitive West Fleming with a special gift and a serious problem. And Paul Garcin, a French teacher, who wants to blow up all the bridges behind him. There's Firmin Daans, a gallery owner with a penchant for capoeira, cocaine and innumerable lady friends. And finally, Frederique (with a "q"), a nihilist from Ghent with only one ambition: to commit a perfectly pointless crime.

What have these people got in common? Nothing. Or maybe they do. They live and work in the same city. Maybe one of them has a friend that the other can't stand the sight of. In any case, their lives are as exceptional and mundane as the sunny Friday morning when we meet them.

"How did this van end up on its side like that?" wonders Chouki. "How odd."

Lara is having breakfast with a girlfriend. And ten strangers. A first meal that looks like the Last Supper.

"If you can't laugh at yourself, what can you laugh at?" Garcin drags himself through the day (as he has done for years?).

Frederique has a '80s fixation. But do cops have a sense of humour?

Firmin weaves in and out of love affairs and gets into a row over an egg.

Walter has worked till dawn but still has a few things to sort out. His little girl lends a hand.

"It's a crisis, Mrs Lesage, I'm falling apart." Windman breaks down and comes up against a wall of incomprehension...

What do these people have in common? What does it matter? Oh yes, there's the party they've all been invited to. Along with thirty others or so.

Tales are told, plans postponed, rumours refuted. There is dancing, and drinking too. And occasionally a sentence gets finished.

And, finally: Saturday.
Firmin's got a hangover. Chouki tries his luck. Natalie cleans up the mess. Are we finally going to see Windman in action?

Eight people. Eight weekends starting.

DIRECTOR STATEMENT

CITY OF WIND AND MUSIC
A while ago I asked an Iranian friend of mine why she liked living in Antwerp. She replied: "Because Antwerp is the city of wind and music...". Little did she know that I was in the process of writing a scenario set in this city, with a DJ and a certain Windman as two of the eight main characters. I am very sensitive to little synchronicities of this kind, just as I pick up on snippets I hear in passing; they've been the main source of inspiration for this story.

EXTRAORDINARILY ORDINARY
"Film what you know" Martin Scorsese once said. Well, the situations - and especially the personalities I am depicting - I know all too well. These are people who don't necessarily know where they are (and that's putting it mildly). They are people searching, and dreaming, and in Lara's case, sometimes have to put hairspray on a Dame Blanche. I love them, and I want to relate part of their story. The world in which Vrijdag, Vrijdagavond is set, features a Colruyt cash-and-carry, Deurne airport, record stores, croque-madames, hangovers and osteopaths. A world full of people who don't necessarily finish their sentences, and who sometimes misunderstand each other, or fall hopelessly into repeat patterns. It's a world that I seldom see portrayed in Belgian filmmaking - and herein lays the essence of my motivation. For this film, I am not interested in the out-of-the-ordinary, the extravagant, or the epic in se. What I want to do is render situations in all their everyday-ness. For me, the ordinary is extraordinary enough in itself.

TAKING THE TIME
I went about making this film the wrong way round. First came the 8 characters, then the title, and then the stories. Although I never intended to make a deep psychological character study, I did want to afford enough time to each of the characters. I saw it as a kaleidoscopic film, but not superficial. With pace, but not just racy. A running time of between 70 and 90 minutes seemed to best suit the situation.

35 mm
I did consider - as does everybody nowadays - filming Friday, Friday Evening on video. But I rejected the idea because I didn't want to end up with a 'fly-on-the wall' documentary or a video clip. I still think film is nicer, and a more sensitive medium than video. As I see it, it is the ideal medium to capture brief moments in the midst of the everyday-ness of my story. What is more, the 35 mm format is perfect for getting across the underlying message of my film, i.e. nothing is what it seems to be.

STYLES
My intention is to adopt a slightly different visual style for each character. The tense, unhappy character of Garcin is best portrayed in nervous, hand-held shots, as through the eyes of a casual observer. I want to portray the laid-back, nonchalant character of Lara in a different, even solemn, style. Lara is also one of the more poetic characters because she's so wonderfully uncomplicated. Frederique, as an eighties hippy fan, must be "glossier" and more flashy. The aim is to make for a lively synergy of people, places and feelings. "Vrijdag, Vrijdagavond", apart from being a characterization of eight people, is also largely about a city. It depicts its atmosphere (panoramas, houses, the people, monuments, public events) which, though not detailed in the scenario, still merits being put on film. This is also true for the wind - present throughout the story as a metaphor. It will be tangible in images of banging windows, posters blowing about, advertising boards rattling, etc. Finally I want to say that the rapid succession of scenes in this scenario must also be considered in a specific context. Antwerp is a city where people walk a lot, and I allow my characters to roam, by which I mean I take all the time needed to follow them around in what they are doing.

MUSIC, SOUND AND EDITING
J.J. Cale's song "Friday" lends itself perfectly, again fortuitously, as a theme song. It's as groovy as this story is easy going. If music features a lot in this film, it's because it's part and parcel of the lives of the characters. I don't want this to be just a music-driven film. Nor are we talking: "Put a lot of rock music in it and it'll be O.K."! On the other hand, I feel confident that, owing to my musical past and experience with video production, I have a real feel for rhythm and atmosphere, as well as for action and tension. That's probably why I often feel so at home in the editing room...

THE FIRST STEP
After ten years in the music business, I have finally taken time out to work on my first film. This has been a long time coming, but it is neither a whim nor 'a rest' for a travel-weary musician. For me, it is a long-awaited first step into the realm of dramatic film production, working with actors, and telling a story. As I've already mentioned, what I find lacking in film-making in Belgium - and especially Flanders - is a truth and freshness which I can find, for instance, in emerging Spanish, Danish or Iranian productions. Or in the stage productions of Arne Sierens and Alain Platel. The limitations of language all too easily appear as a major stumbling block, but this says more about the unimaginative production of Flemish 'soaps' than it does about the potential of the Flemish language. Added to which, the countries I've just mentioned are hardly Mecca's of the film industry...
The world that I know and want to portray as I see it is one of many languages and of unsophisticated spontaneity. It seems to me that there is plenty to say about how we are living at the beginning of this new century. And although I want to steer clear of political or social commentary - and of claiming to fully capture "life as it really is" - I do think it is time to go beyond comic book characters, Flemish personalities, student antics, or bucolic images from the past.