Frans van de Staak

  • Frans van de Staak – Kladboekscènes AKA Wastebook Scenes (1994)

    1991-2000ArthouseDramaFrans van de StaakNetherlands

    Quote:
    Film of play about the original and witty eighteenth-century writer and academic Lichtenberg.

    The film is based on the play Lichtenberg, Scenes on the Threshold of the Modern Age by Cyrille Offermans. While the protagonist Lichtenberg has several things in common with George Christoph Lichtenberg (1742-1799) an experimental physicist and writer of the famous Sudelbücher as well as many no less infamous letters – no attempt has been made at accuracy. Several facts from the life of the historic figure have been incorporated into the character, but the latter remains the brain-child of the writer Offermans. From time to time Lichtenberg quotes writers he could not know, strictly speaking: 19th- and 20th-century authors. These are formulations of ideas emanating from his own work in a natural way.Read More »

  • Frans van de Staak – Schijnsel AKA Glint (1996)

    1991-2000ArthouseDramaFrans van de StaakNetherlands

    Quote:
    Every scene of the film comprises a dialogue between a man and a woman. The dialogues are fragmentary, in other words, the dialogue in one scene does not tie in with that of the next. In addition there is no development in the relationship between the actor and the actress towards a happy or unhappy ending. The dialogues are not only of substantial interest; it is above all material for the actors. The film balances on the boundary between portraying an intimate relationship between a woman and a man and the intimacy in the acting between the actor and actress. When an actor or actress hardly has any words in a scene, he or she portrays loneliness; when he/she has a monologue, then the attention is focused on speaking the text, on (the reflection about) being an actor.Read More »

  • Frans van de Staak – Rooksporen AKA Traces of Smoke (1992)

    1991-2000DramaExperimentalFrans van de StaakNetherlands

    Quote:
    The central character in Rooksporen is a woman who finds herself facing an interrogator. Around these interrogation scenes are scenes in which 26 witnesses (from A to Z) are introduced: first in their houses and then in a space adjacent to the interrogation room. The questioner has an ambiguous identity and function: he directs his questions at the woman and then turns away only listening and watching as a sounding-board, to the witnesses. And the witnesses also have an elusive identity. Who or what they are remains unclear, they exist thanks to the sensuality and/or obscurity of their language. It is also far from clear what the woman is accused of. Most witnesses eventually think she is guilty, but what of remains the question. Read More »

  • Frans van de Staak – Lastpak AKA Nuisance (2001)

    2001-2010ArthouseDramaFrans van de StaakNetherlands

    Quote:
    A man performs infectious playlets for his surroundings.

    A court-jester without a king. The protagonist in the film is an actor (René van het Hof) who is acting his life. He is a nuisance, but only for those who have had enough of his play acting or who are ashamed to be around this clown. His wife breaks up with him because she just can’t tolerate the man any more and he seems to accept that in an apparently matter-of-fact way. He leaves the city for a cottage in the countryside. He soon has a new audience. The woman next door and her daughter are curious to make his acquaintance and are at once enthusiastic about the ingenious simplicity of the shows by this nuisance who is not yet a nuisance to them, but a welcome change in there all-too-ordinary life. Read More »

  • Frans van de Staak – Ongedaan gedaan aka Undone Done (1989)

    1981-1990ExperimentalFrans van de StaakNetherlands

    Two couples, four characters portrayed by eight actors, based on texts, some poems by Gerrit Kouwenaar. The film follows four persons (each played by two different actors alternating in the roles) as they rush about the streets of Amsterdam, each of them extremely busy doing something. One highlight of the film is the reading of several of the poems of celebrated poet Gerrit Kouwenaar. Despite its severely experimental style and deliberate storylessness, this film was sufficiently inventive and rhythmically interesting to receive a warm reception from some critics. [Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide]Read More »

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