12.02.25, Universal Soldier (1992)

Studium Generale and KASKcinema join forces for an anthology of cinematic corporeality. Although cinema deals in immortality, few bodies have been so successfully preserved for eternity as that of Jean-Claude Van Damme. As Belgium's most sought-after export, JCVD melted celluloid prints throughout the 1980s and 1990s with glimpses of his glutes, abs and biceps muscles. Fresco-like fight manoeuvres and eyes full of childlike innocence made him stand leg-split and shrugged above the hunks of ungainly flesh that made up action cinema.

Universal Soldier lets us behold an actor and a body at the top of their game. Soaked in techno-paranoia as only the nineties felt, this small-scale sci-fi epic outlines the story of a cyborg soldier on the run from the government agency that created him — as well as a gruff Dolph Lundgren. This breakthrough film by genre craftsman Roland Emmerich has the same genetic material as his later hits, such as Independence Day (1996), but is distinguished by its more intimate scale and flesh-toned characters. Van Damme takes centre stage here as Emmerich's supreme Vitriviusman; a body exposed from all sides to exhibit the bliss of action anatomy.

This film will be introduced by KASKcinema programmer Lennart Soberon.

The film also plays at 18:00 at KASKcinema as part of Studium Generale