Netherlands

POSTWAR CINEMA

In the 1950s, few Dutch fiction films were made for lack of money and equipment, but the Dutch documentary flourished instead. In 1952, Bert Haanstra (1916–1997), Max de Haas, Ytzen Brusse, and Herman van der Horst (1910–1976) received a collective award at the Cannes Film Festival; Van der Horst was awarded the Grand Prix for his Shoot the Nets (1952). This Dutch Documentary School made films about postwar reconstruction in the Netherlands and about nature. The documentarists created rhythmic plays of image and sound, using extreme camera angles and spectacular editing. A highlight was Haanstra's Glas ( Glass , 1958), which won an Academy Award ^® in 1960. His candid camera films, including Alleman ( Everyman , 1963), were internationally popular. His fiction film debut, Fanfare (1958), remained the best-attended film in Holland until the release of Verhoeven's Turks fruit ( Turkish Delight , 1973).

In 1956, the NBB and the government founded the Production Fund in order to stimulate feature film production. Fons Rademakers (b. 1920) made his debut with Village on the River (1958), a playful series of stories about a country doctor, which received an Oscar ^® nomination; eventually, Rademakers won an Academy Award ^® for The Assault . In Als twee druppels water ( The Spitting Image , 1963), he demythologized the role of "resistance heroes" during World War II, and in Max Havelaar (1976) he treated another national trauma: the colonial past. With these tasteful literary adaptations Dutch fiction film came to maturity.

In 1958, the Dutch Film Academy was founded. The first wave of graduated students were inspired by the French New Wave. Within a few weeks and with a minimal budget, Pim de la Parra (b. 1940) and Wim Verstappen (1937–2004) produced De Minder gelukkige terugkeer van Joszef Katus naar het land van Rembrandt (1966), shown in Cannes. They pleaded for continuous film production and produced thirteen feature films from 1965 to1973. Martin Scorsese was co-writer for their thriller Bezeten—Het gat in de muur ( Obsessions , 1969). Blue Movie (1971) candidly shows how an ex-convict, who missed the sexual revolution, catches up. Verstappen defended himself successfully against a ban of the film, which sped up the ending of traditional censorship. Frans Weisz (b. 1938), who studied at both the Dutch Film Academy and the Roman film school Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, made his feature debut with the experimental Het Gangstermeisje ( A Gangster Girl or Gangstergirl , 1966), then achieved commercial success with genre movies, such as De Inbreker ( The Burglar , 1972). From Charlotte (1980) on, Weisz worked in a more personal style, in which the theater, the Holocaust, and the traumas of Jewish survivors are recurrent subjects.

Experimental documentary makers broke new ground in the early 1960s. In contrast to earlier Dutch documentary, humans were treated less as metaphors and more as individuals. Louis van Gasteren (b. 1922) analyzed his own shots of police violence against an innocent student in Omdat mijn fiets daar stond ( Because My Bike Stood There , 1966). Jan Vrijman's (1925–1997) De Werkelijkheid van Karel Appel (1962) was reviled in the Netherlands but won a Golden Bear in Berlin. In 1988, Vrijman co-founded the International Documentary Film Festival, which, together with the International Film Festival Rotterdam (founded 1972), is the biggest Dutch film festival. Johan van der Keuken (1938–2001) made intimate portraits, such as Beppie (1965), after which more socially engaged, associatively edited, and metadocumentary-like documentaries followed. He reassembled his images drawn from reality into recalcitrant,

poetic, or contemplative compositions, such as I Love $ (1986) and Amsterdam Global Village (1996).

Until the 1970s, animation cinema meant commissioned filming. For Philips, George Pal (1908–1980) made puppet animation in the 1930s, and Joop Geesink (1913–1984) and Marten Toonder (1912–2005) peaked their animation production in the 1950s. Since the 1970s, Paul Driessen and Gerrit van Dijk have produced free animation films for adults. In addition, Le Château de sable ( The Sand Castle , Co Hoedeman, 1977), Anna en Bella (Børge Ring, 1984), and Father and Daughter (Michael Dudok de Wit, 2000) have won Academy Awards ^® .

The year 1971 was a turning point in Dutch film history. The success of Blue Movie was surpassed by Verhoeven's Wat zien ik ( Diary of a Hooker , 1971), and his Turkish Delight (1973) is the most successful Dutch film ever, with 3.3 million spectators. The film, about a wild but doomed romance, caused a sensation with its energetic pace, its new stars Rutger Hauer (b. 1944) and Monique van de Ven (b. 1952), and its explicit nudity. Thanks to these and Verhoeven's subsequent all-time high Dutch box-office hits, such as Keetje Tippel (1975) and Soldaat van Oranje ( Soldier of Orange, 1977), Dutch cinema knew palmy days, with films focusing on the German occupation, the colonial past, and (homo)sexual emancipation. Such actors as Rutger Hauer and Jeroen Krabbé (b. 1944) broke through internationally. Verhoeven and his director of photography, Jan de Bont (b. 1943), left for Hollywood. In the United States, Verhoeven made the science fiction films RoboCop (1987) and Total Recall (1990) and the erotic thriller Basic Instinct (1992), among others. His films were criticized for their provocative use of sex and violence. De Bont established his Hollywood reputation with the action thrillers Speed (1994) and Twister (1996).

From 1971, Dutch cinema attendance went slightly up again, reaching a minor peak in 1978—the year of Grease and Saturday Night Fever . Hereafter it dropped again and this time more radically, lasting through the early 1990s. The lowest attendance was in 1992 (13.7 million), after which it slowly rose. After 1976, Dutch cinema gradually changed with the rise of a new generation of film directors, including Ate de Jong (b. 1953) and Orlow Seunke (b. 1952). Jos Stelling (b. 1945) adapted the medieval play Mariken van Nieumeghen (1974), but he switched afterwards to absurdist tragicomedies, like De Illusionist ( The Illusionist , 1983). In 1981, he founded the Dutch Film Festival, where the most important awards for Dutch cinema are given. In the early 1980s, many films flopped; too many directors were beginners and money was lacking. The government provided two new financial injections, the Fund for Dutch Cinema and the Coproduction Fund Internal Broadcasting. In 1993, the former merged with the Production Fund into the Netherlands Film Fund, which saw an increase in ways of film funding. The prestige of Dutch cinema rose with Academy Awards ^® for Rademaker's The Assault , Marleen Gorris's (b. 1948) Antonia's Line (1995), and Mike Van Diem's (b. 1959) Character . The comedy hit Flodder (1984) by Dick Maas of First Floor Features (FFF) inspired two sequels and a TV series, yet public attendance at both FFF productions and at Dutch films in general remained variable. The FFF produced some twenty films, among which number two absurdist comedies by Alex van Warmerdam, Abel ( Voyeur , 1986) and De Noorderlingen ( The Northerners , 1992). FFF built a studio complex in Almere (near Amsterdam), but it was sold after a series of flops.

In 1998 the Ministry of Economics introduced the CV-arrangement, which allowed private investors a tax reduction. The film industry thus received 200 million Euros in five years. Expensive productions such as The Discovery of Heaven (2001) by Krabbé became possible. The share of Dutch films screened domestically rose from 3.7 percent in 1997 to 13.6 percent in 2003. In 2003, 20 percent of Dutch-released productions were children's films; in 2004 this was 25 percent. Since the 1950s, Henk van der Linden (b. 1925) directed films for children matinees, and since 1972 Karst van der Meulen specialized in the genre too, just as Ben Sombogaart (b. 1947) has done more recently. Sombogaart's Abeltje (1998) was the first adaptation of the popular children's books of Annie M.G. Schmidt by producer Burny Bos (b. 1944). Bos also produced the sparkling film Minoes (Vincent Bal, 2001), in which a cat changes into a girl. Johan Nijenhuis's youth-oriented film Costa! (2000), was popular, in part, because of its young soap stars, Katja Schuurman and Georgina Verbaan.

With little means, new directors made unusual films: Robert Jan Westdijk made Zusje (1995), Paula van der Oest made Zus (2002), and Eddy Terstall made Simon (2004). An imported trend is that of refilming classic TV series, such as Ja zuster, nee zuster ( Yes Nurse, No Nurse , 2002). Another trend is films based on true events, such as Van God Los ( Stir Crazy , 2003), about a criminal youth gang in the Catholic South, and 06/05 (2004), about the murder of politician Pim Fortuyn. Shortly after the shooting of the later film, director Theo van Gogh (1957–2004) was himself murdered by a Muslim extremist. The problems of a multicultural Dutch society are the focus of Van Gogh's Cool! (2004), and Shouf shouf habibi! (Albert ter Heerdt, 2004) takes an ironic but endearing look at Dutch Moroccans. The CV-arrangement ended in 2003, and although the budget of the Film Fund was raised, the result has been lower attendance, less productivity, and a bleak future for Dutch cinema.

Nowadays, some 30 Dutch films per year are produced and shown, against an average of 115 American movies and 70 European movies (Dutch films excluded). In 2004 75% of the distribution market was taken in by the Dutch distribution branches of American companies (UIP, Warner Bros., Disney/Buena Vista, Columbia/TriStar, and Fox); UIP owns 20% of the market. The biggest independent Dutch distributors are A-Film and RCV. The American majors distribute Dutch films occasionally. In 2004, the Netherlands had 243 cinemas and art houses, with 690 screens and 114,880 chairs. Fewer Dutch citizens visit the cinema, but those who do tend to go more frequently.