Marcel and Bob are sitting at a small table in a stone house in the middle of a Belgian forest. Wood crackles in the stove, the wind blows through the trees and the two faithful friends drown their sorrows in wine and rum. Both are long-time alcoholics whose families have left them, and together they plan to commit suicide. A tragicomic story about the life of two losers whose mutual friendship gives them strength while at the same time pulls them down. Will at least one of them break out of the vicious circle?Read More »
Netherlands
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Sabine Lubbe Bakker & Niels van Koevorden – Ne me quitte pas (2013)
2011-2020DocumentaryDramaNetherlandsNiels van KoevordenSabine Lubbe Bakker -
Paul Verhoeven – Keetje Tippel AKA Katie Tippel (1975)
Drama1971-1980NetherlandsPaul VerhoevenQuote:
The young girl Keetje moves to Amsterdam in 1881 with her impoverished family, and is led into prostitution in order to survive. In the process she sees the corrupting influence of money.Read More » -
Frederieke Jochems – De Blikvanger AKA The Eyecatcher (1988)
1981-1990ExperimentalFrederieke JochemsNetherlandsShort FilmIn an Escher-like staircase, two characters, a man a woman, move around each other, in full view of the bizarre objects in the space: an infinite clock, a miniature surveillance camera, the hose of a vacuum cleaner. The camera always chooses a subjective point of view, namely from the vantage point of one of the objects or characters, who lose themselves in a game of attraction or repulsion. A surreal universe.Read More »
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Nanouk Leopold – Cobain (2018)
Nanouk Leopold2011-2020DramaNetherlandsQuote:
Cobain (15) tries to get his pregnant mother Mia to quit her self-destructive lifestyle. When she refuses to clean up her act, Cobain takes over.Read More » -
Joris Ivens – De wigwam AKA The Tipi (1911)
1911-1920Euro WesternsJoris IvensNetherlandsSilentWesternAt the age of 13 Joris Ivens was fond of Cowboys and Indians stories, so he decided to invent one himself. He made a script and used a camera from his father’s shop. This became his first film Wigwam, with his own family as cast. Black Eagle, a bad indian, kidnaps the daughter of a farmer’s family. Flaming Arrow, played by the young Joris Ivens, saves the child from the kidnapper and brings it back to her family. No better conclusion than smoking a peace pipe.Read More »
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Joris Ivens – De brug AKA The Bridge (1928)
Joris Ivens1921-1930DocumentaryNetherlandsSilentThe vertical lift-bridge in Rotterdam is the object of study in The Bridge. Normally it seems to be a very static object, but Joris Ivens made a very dynamic film out of it. “For me, the bridge consisted of a laboratory of movements, tints, forms, contrasts, rythms and the relationship between all these phenomena”. The film was immediately recognised as a masterpiece by international critics and colleague filmmakers; Joris Ivens was at once the most famous avant-garde filmmaker of the Netherlands.Read More »
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Bianca Stigter – Three Minutes: A Lengthening (2021)
2021-2030Bianca StigterDocumentaryNetherlandsThree Minutes – A Lengthening presents a home movie shot by David Kurtz in 1938 in a Jewish town in Poland and tries to postpone its ending. As long as we are watching, history is not over yet. The three minutes of footage, mostly in color, are the only moving images left of the Jewish inhabitants of Nasielsk before the Holocaust. The existing three minutes are examined to unravel the human stories hidden in the celluloid. The footage is imaginatively edited to create a film that lasts more than an hour. Different voices enhance the images. Glenn Kurtz, grandson of David Kurtz, provides his knowledge of the footage. Maurice Chandler, who appears in the film as a boy, shares his memories. Actress Helena Bonham Carter narrates the film essay.Read More »
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Harry Kümel – Eline Vere [Expanded Version] (1991)
1991-2000ArthouseDramaHarry KümelNetherlandsHarry Kümel’s last major film to-date, a masterpiece of vividly operatic style and fluid camerawork. Despite being based on a 19th century classic Dutch novel, the film is less a traditional costumer (as apparently the critics took it to be) than a flamboyant fantasy on Kümel’s running theme of a vicious cycle of repeated wrong decisions and bad choices that engulf the lead character and eventually destroy her. The film displays the usual influences of von Sternberg, Resnais, Bergman, the Belgian symbolists, but creates a uniquely Kümelian feel and texture of a different reality at one remove from ours.Read More »
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Ben Verbong – De onfatsoenlijke vrouw AKA The Indecent Woman (1991)
1991-2000Ben VerbongDramaNetherlandsA woman with a steady marriage and a little daughter, goes berserk and engages in a game of seduction.Read More »