The Brussels Business

2012

Action / Documentary / History

Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 29%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 29%
IMDb Rating 6.6/10 10 297 297

europe brussels, belgium money european gravy train lobbyists

Plot summary

The Brussels Business is a docu-thriller that dives into the grey zone underneath European democracy. An expedition into the world of the 15,000 lobbyists in the EU-capital, of the PR-conglomerates, think tanks and their all embracing networks of power and their close ties to the political elites.

Director

Friedrich Moser Photo
Friedrich Moser

Top cast

Keith Richardon Photo
Keith Richardon as Self - Secretary General
Siim Kallas Photo
Siim Kallas as Self - vice-president of the European Commission
Pascal Kerneis Photo
Pascal Kerneis as Self - lobbyist, European Services Forum
Craig Holman Photo
Craig Holman as Self - lobby consultant, Public Citizen, Washington
720p.WEB
784.76 MB
1280*938
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
25 fps
1 hr 25 min
Seeds 2

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by zoldfulu2000 2 / 10

'Smart' movie of the dumb people

I started into this documentary with great interest as I lived in Brussels for quite some time and got to know the 'Brussels bubble' a bit closer than most viewers in the world. But sadly, I did not get to like it, and my interest fell pretty soon.If I have to characterise 'The Brussels Business', it's like a 'smart' movie of the dumb people, comparable to how an infamous brexiteer politician is often characterised as the "smart person of the dumb people" (Britons know who I mean :) ).The Brussels Business seems more of a propaganda movie with subtle intonations and subconscious suggestions to put reality in a different light. The movie itself is not a sci-fi, and shows a lot of real person and facts, just in a light that changes reality.
Reviewed by jebanadupa 3 / 10

Very slow paced documentary

Long shots of pages of documents with single words in focus and the rest left blurry might have some artistic impact, but as a documentary this movie fails. The effect of the dramatic music while zooming in and out of said documents only adds a smile on my face and never the desired shroud on my back. The information it provides could have been fitted in a 30 min feature. Trying to fill 90 minutes was a bad idea.Others than that, the information it provides is educating, but nothing more than what an educated man would suspect. No scandals uncovered, but a biased not fact based view on the lobbyist culture in Europe. Too often you hear sentences like 'we saw the documents and they reveal the huge influence of industry into politics' - but you do not get shown said documents, there are no citations, only some shots of who send them and who received them.I would not recommend to view this in a class in school as it does not provide enough material and especially not enough facts to discuss it.
Read more IMDb reviews

No comments yet

Be the first to leave a comment