A film series screening in conjunction with the exhibition Intensely Dutch: image, abstraction and the word
The national cinema of The Netherlands shows an enthusiasm for unique, home-grown stories and international encounters, often taking journeys through a wider world seen through Dutch eyes. The impressive social and political engagement of the post-World War Two era documentary tradition is exemplified by the films of Bert Haanstra, Herman van der Horst, Vincent Monnikendam and Johan van der Keuken, whose spirit also underpins the more recent features of Marleen Gorris, Maria Peters and the (Belgian) Dardenne Brothers. These unique stories, steeped in everyday reality, make strong assertions of cultural identity and humanistic concerns. No less distinctive is the taste for the absurd and fascination with the macabre, as seen in the films of Paul Verhoeven, George Sluizer and Alex van Warmerdam. The liberal attitude towards social issues that has made The Netherlands famous lends itself to the dark wit and eroticism of these stories.
With so many significant directors who make lyrical, insightful films investigating individual creativity, Dutch cinema boasts a tradition of documentaries about art and artists. Such “portraits” of the Cobra artists Karel Appel and Lucebert could be seen in relation to the classic Dutch tradition of portraiture, with particular attention paid to the rapport between the subject and the environment.
Projecting paradoxical images – light and dark, traditional and modern – ranging between documentary precision and freewheeling lyricism, this series presents shorts and feature films rarely seen on the big screen.
- Wednesday 10 June 1pm (Early screening)
Sunday 14 June 1pm (Early screening)
De Appel Iep Directed by Ed van der Elsken (1965) 16mm
The reality of Karel Appel Directed by Jan Vrijman (1961) 35mm (15mins)
Winning the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 1961, Jan Vrijman’s portrait of Karel Appel (1921 – 2005 ) voices the painter’s response to an overcrowded, possessed and frantic world: as he states in the film, a barbaric age in which he can only paint as a barbarian.
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- Wednesday 10 June 2pm & 7.15pm
Sunday 14 June 2pm
Lucebert, time and farewell/Lucebert: tijd en afscheid
Dir Johann van der Kueken 1994
55 mins 16mm Colour/B&W
As well as painter and prominent member of the Cobra Movement, Lucebert (1924 – 1994) is regarded as one of the most influential poets of 20th century Dutch literature. Composed of three short films made in 1964, 1966 and 1994, this trilogy pays him homage since he was director Johann van der Keuken’s mentor during his early years in Paris, making the transition from photographer to the maker of more than 40 influential documentaries.
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- Wednesday 17 June 1pm (Early screening)
Sunday 21 June 1pm (Early screening)
Zoo
Dir Bert Haanstra 1962
12 mins 16mm B&W
Affectionate visual essay using “candid camera” to compare animals with their human visitors to a Dutch zoo.
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Dir by Bert Haanstra 1958
10 mins 35mm Colour
Haanstra’s Academy Award-winning short portrays the deft artistry of traditional glass blowers, contrasting their work with machines that produce bottles and glass jars automatically.
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Dir Bert Haanstra 1950
11 mins 35mm B&W
Winning an award at the 1951 Cannes Film Festival, Haanstra’a early, lyrical short brought him to prominence as a documentarist in The Netherlands. Depicting Dutch landscapes solely as reflections in lakes, rivers and canals, the film displays high craftsmanship with a pure, poetic feeling for its subject; it is an unique and timely exercise in visual abstraction.
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- Wednesday 17 June 2pm & 7.15pm
Sunday 21 June 2pm
Fanfare/De fanfare
Dir Bert Haanstra 1958
93 mins 35mm Colour
Drawing on his documentary experience and humanistic instincts, Haanstra’s initial foray into fictional cinema is a comedy about a brass band preparing for competition, thrown into turmoil when a quibble arises about the musical content. Fanfare, a big hit at the box office, was also praised for its artistic importance and considered by many a turning point in Dutch film: "This film should set the tone for the future production of Dutch feature-films," wrote a critic.
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- Wednesday 24 June 1pm (Early screening)
Sunday 28 June 1pm (Early screening)
Mirror of Holland/ Spiegel van Holland
Dir Bert Haanstra 1950
11 mins 35mm B&W
Repeat – please see previous week’s description.
Bram van Velde
Dir Jean-Michel Meurice 1980
26 mins 16mm Colour
French language without subtitle
The reserved and solitary personality of the Dutch artist Bram van Velde (1895-1981) is revealed in a rare interview, made the year before his death at Grimaud, in the south of France. “I do not see much, the real interest me very little” and “we are not always alive… or not alive enough”. He pays homage to his mother who lived with her children in the greatest of poverty, talks of meeting Samuel Beckett and compares painting to “a great adventure”. Presented with the generous assistance of the Consulate General of France.
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- Wednesday 24 June 2pm & 7.15pm
Sunday 28 June 2pm
The human Dutch/Alleman
Dir Bert Haanstra 1963
83 mins 35mm B&W
This influential documentary made Bert Haanstra one of the most popular filmmakers in the history of Dutch cinema. Upon release it was seen in the cinema by 20 percent of the total Dutch population. With dynamic editing and cross cutting, and subjects ranging from sport to the lingering effects of the war on The Netherlands, the film offers a sharp eye for the absurdities and ironies of 20th century existence and captures the underlying rhythm of a nation's life and people.
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- Wednesday 1 July 2pm & 7.15pm
Sunday 5 July 2pm
Broken mirrors/Gebroken spiegels
Dir Marleen Gorris 1984
108 mins 35mm Colour Rated R (unclassified)
Lineke Rijxman, Henriette Tol
Dutch with English subtitles
Gorris’ dark, compelling feminist thriller operates with parallel narratives: a tale of women working in a brothel and a “respectable” businessman and serial killer who incarcerates his female victims and documents their slow death with a cheap, instamatic camera. Whilst this Dutch director has had a relatively small output, her deceptively straightforward style has made considerable impact internationally with a sophisticated melding of relevant political issues, extreme plot situations and compassionate characterisations.
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- Wednesday 8 July 1pm (Early screening)
Sunday 12 July 1pm (Early screening)
Shoot the nets
Dir Herman van der Horst 1950
20 mins 16mm B&W Rated G
Herman van der Horst documents herring fishing in the North Sea, following a group of Dutch fishermen on their annual voyage to the Dogger Bank. The film won a prize at the 1951 Cannes Film Festival.
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Dir Herman van der Horst 1952
21 mins 16mm B&W Rated G
Herman van der Horst’s award-winning short documents a new city arising from the bombed out ruins of Rotterdam at the end of World War II - the result of a massive Luftwaffe raid. The Dutch title, Houen zo!, refers to the crane operators term “steady as you go” and the documentary offers an impression, without comment, of a city taking on new life in a mighty symphony of labour.
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- Wednesday 8July 2pm & 7.15pm
Sunday 12 July 2pm
Antonia's line
Dir Marleen Gorris 1996
102 mins 35mm Colour Rated M15+
Willeke van Ammelrooy, Els Dottermans
Dutch with English subtitles
Gorris’ remarkable story of an indomitable, inspiring woman who builds a new life with her daughter in a quiet Dutch village after World War II was seen by many as an atypically gentle work from this radical Dutch filmmaker. Antonia's Line nonetheless deals with topics ranging from rape to incest, to the plight of the working woman in this story of several generations of a family. Warmer and lighter than Gorris's first two films ( Broken mirrors screened on 1 & 5 July in this series), yet still with a strong feminist backbone, the importance of female friendship remains essential, as does Gorris' skillful characterization and handling of actors. The film won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 1996.
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- Wednesday 15 July 2pm & 7.15pm
Sunday 19 July 2pm
The child/ L’enfant
Dir Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne 2005
95 mins 35mm Colour Rated M
Jérémie Renier, Déborah François
French with English subtitles
For more than three decades, brothers Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne have been prolific filmmakers in and around their hometown of Seraing, a French-speaking region of Belgium, which provides the gritty, post-industrial landscape of many of their films. Their earliest works - documentaries arising out of their involvement with community politics - have provided the brothers with a unique perspective on social realities and has making them keen observers of the familiar districts of their town. Along with the work of Marleen Gorris, the brothers have evolved from the post-World War Two documentary tradition of the region. The Dardennes’ films usually portray young people at the fringes of society: immigrants, the unemployed, the inhabitants of shelters. The child, focuses on dispossessed 20-year-old Bruno who lives with his 18-year-old girlfriend Sonia. They survive on Sonia’s unemployment benefits and Bruno’s petty thefts. When Sonia gives birth to their child, Jimmy, he becomes little more than a new source of wealth to the desperate Bruno. The child was awarded the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
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- Wednesday 22 July 2pm & 7.15pm
Sunday 26 July 2pm
Rosetta
Dir Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne 1999
90 mins 35mm Colour Rated M
Émilie Dequenne, Fabrizio Rongione
French with English subtitles
The Dardenne Brothers’ (see notes above) third feature is stark portrayal of a young woman coming of age at the edge of social oblivion. Rosetta lives in a tiny, beat-up trailer without toilets or running water with her alcoholic, irresponsible, and utterly dispirited mother who requires her frequent care. The film offers an unsentimental account of the volatile Rosetta, determined to find work in order to escape the grinding poverty of her life. Awarded the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
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- Wednesday 29 July 1pm (Early screening)
Sunday 2 August 1pm (Early screening)
Father and daughter
Dir Michael Dudock de Wit 2000
8 mins 35mm Colour
In this quintessentially Dutch animation, a father says goodbye to his young daughter. As the landscapes live through the seasons, so the girl lives through hers. She becomes a young woman, has a family, and in time, grows old, yet within her is always the longing for her absent parent.
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Dir Bert Haanstra 1962
12 mins 16mm B&W
Affectionate visual essay using “candid camera” to compare animals with their human visitors to a Dutch zoo.
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Dir Bert Haanstra 1958
18 mins 16mm Colour
Canvases selected from twenty-nine museums in twelve countries form this impressive cinematic “painting” commissioned by the Dutch Arts Ministry to mark the 350th anniversary of Rembrandt's birth. Director, Haanstra, himself a painter, united cinematography and painting to relate Rembrandt's work to events in the artist’s life. The beauty of the film lies in the refined lighting, Haanstra's emphasis on vital details in the paintings, and his gradual dramatisation of the characters in Rembrandt's portraits.
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- Wednesday 29 July 2pm & 7.15pm
Sunday 2 August 2pm
Souls of Naples
Dir Vincent Monnikendam 2004
94 mins 35mm Colour Rated PG
Using the painting, The Seven Acts of Mercy by Caravaggio as a metaphor, Vincent Monnikendam’s Souls of Naples presents a portrait, light and dark, of a city that has survived for over two and a half thousand years. The altarpiece, painted in 1607, was commissioned by the noble founders of the Pio Monte della Misericordia, a charitable institution, still active, who believe they continue to fulfill the humanitarian 400-year code of their organization: to care for the poor. But the incomparable riches and splendour of Naples contrasts with the lives of many Neapolitans in abject poverty. The myth-enshrouded painting serves Monnikendam during his travels through a divided Naples: luxurious aristocratic palaces and the most dilapidated back streets. Cutting across the social spectrum, spending most of his time with the poor, the director captures the poignancy of people living at the edge, who have literally grown out of the thrilling history of this captivating town.
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- Wednesday 5 August 2pm & 7.15pm
Sunday 9 August 2pm
Little Crumb/Kruimeltje
Dir Maria Peters 1999
119 mins 35mm Colour Rated PG
Ruud Feltkamp, Hugo Haenen
Dutch with English subtitles
Maria Peters’ cinematic adaption of the best selling novel by Dutch journalist Chris van Abkoude (published for the first time in 1923, now in its 73rd edition) is a charming story set in 1920s Rotterdam. Surviving with his less-than-caring foster mother, a ten year-old boy, known as Little Crumb, has made the streets his home, but longs to be reunited with the parents he never knew. This warm-hearted, Dickensian, family tale of friendship and hope was The Netherlands official selection for the Foreign Film category at the 2001 Academy Awards.
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- Wednesday 12 August 2pm & 7.15pm
Sunday 16 August 2pm
De Noordelingen
Dir Alex van Warmerdam 1992
108 mins 35mm Colour Rated R (unclassified)
Jack Wouterse, Annet Malherbe
Dutch with English subtitles
The free-wheeling, absurdist films of Alex Van Warmerdam have drawn comparisons with the work of Spanish-born filmmaker Luis Buñuel. In his surreal black comedy, set in a 1960s housing development - the so called 'nieuwbouw-wijk' - Van Warmerdam’s weird universe provides insights into Dutch character and humour. The story follows the inhabitants of the rural mini-town: a mother who is drawn into sainthood, a young boy obsessed with events in the Belgian Congo, an iron-fisted hunter, a sexually frustrated butcher and a postman who reads all the mail and knows the bizarre secrets of the estate’s eccentric inhabitants. Murder, adultery, miracles, surreal hallucinations and a hint of Grimms’ fairytales - nothing is too strange in this landscape.
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- Wednesday 19 August 2pm & 7.15pm
Sunday 23 August 2pm
The vanishing/Spoorloos
Dir George Sluizer 1988
107 mins 35mm Colour Rated R (unclassified)
Gene Bervoets, Johanna ter Steege
Dutch and French with English subtitles
Based on Tim Krabbé’s original novella The Golden Egg, George Sluizer’s first version of The vanishing (the film was subsequently remade in Hollywood by the same director) remains infinitely superior. The story focuses on a young Dutch couple driving through France on a holiday. At a crowded service station the woman, Saskia, disappears. No one sees it happen, and for the next three years, her lover, Rex, obsessively tries to find her. This chilling story is made all the more shocking by Sluizer’s detached, casual direction. Receiving worldwide recognition and winning many awards, the film was the Dutch entry for the 1989 Academy Awards.
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Film program supported by
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