Character (Karakter, dir: Mike van Diem)
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That - plus the big-budget biopic Rembrandt van Rijn, a French-Dutch co-production directed by Charles Matton, featuring Klaus-Maria Brandauer as the painter with Dutch star Johanna ter Steege as his wife, Saskia - gives some idea of the range of films recently completed, in production or in the planning stages in the Netherlands. But it also suggests a reason for the country’s recent success.
“A new generation of film-makers has arrived with a fresh outlook,” says Landsberger, as she headed off to fly the Holland Film flag in Toronto. “They want to produce films that not only please a Dutch audience, but to tell stories that can travel all over the world.”
While Dutch cultural policy and government economic incentives are keen to promote Dutch culture and Dutch-language films, the Netherlands remains an extremely cosmopolitan country, where almost everyone speaks at least two other languages, and where children grow up hearing English on a daily basis on subtitled television programmes (among imported features, only Disney cartoons are regularly dubbed into Dutch).
Luggage (dir: Jeroen Krabbé)
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Holland thus remains both an active co-production partner with overseas film-makers. And increasingly, the Netherlands will become a source of market-oriented English-language mainstream films drawing on the country’s pool of film-making talent and, just as importantly, on the funds recently freed up by the Dutch government’s new tax provisions.
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BOORMAN & CO
Prod: Cineventura, Signature Films (Belgium); Dir: Robbe de Hert; With Willeke van Ammelrooy, Sylvia Kristel, Jan Decleir.
LE CLOU DE J’HA
Prod: Motel Films, NPS Television; Dir: Karim Traïdia; With Sid Ahmed Agoumi, Jaap Spijkers, Monic Hendrickx.
CROSS FATE
Prod: Nestor Sanz Films, Argus Film Productions, Zentropa Entertainment (Denmark), Pan Film (Turkey); Dir: Nestor Sanz; With Karim Traïdia, Behrouz Seiri, Ingrid van der Lecq, Kitty Courbois.
DANCER IN THE DARK
Prod: What Else BV, Zentropa Entertainment (Denmark), Liberator Productions (France), Pain Unlimited (Germany), Trust Film (Sweden), Cinematograph (Norway), Icelandic Film Corporation; Dir: Lars von Trier; With Björk, Catherine Deneuve.
THE DETOUR
Prod: Sigma Pictures, Lotus Film (Austria), Lichtspiel Filmproduktion (Germany); Dir: Froukke Fokkema; With Joachim Bissmeier, Tamar van den Dop, Thom Hoffman, Willeke van Ammelrooy.
EVERYBODY FAMOUS!
Prod: Get Reel Productions, Otomatic (Belgium); Dir: Dominique Deruddere; With Victor Löw, Thekla Reiten, Alice Reys, Josse de Pauw.
GUTS
Prod: CV Lef; Dir: Ron Termaat; With Alice Reys, Viggo Waas, Rick Engelkes.
JACKY
Prod: Motel Films, VPRO Television; Dir: Fow Pyung Hu, Brad Ljatifis.
PAPA’S SONG
Prod: Stichting Aves; Dir: Sander Francken; With René van Asten, Romana Vrede.
REMBRANDT VAN RIJN
Prod: Argus Film Productions, Ognon Pictures (France); Dir: Charles Matton; With Klaus-Maria Brandauer, Johanna ter Steege.
SOMBREMAN’S ACTION
Prod: Egmond Film & Television; Dir: Casper Verbrugge; With Dirk Roofthooft, Oda Spelbos, Serge-Henri Valcke.
UNTER DEN PALMEN
Prod: Argus Film Productions, X Filme Creative Pool (Germany); Dir: Miriam Kruishoop; With Helmut Berger, Thom Hoffman, Sheri Hagen.
WILD MUSSELS
Prod: Argus Film Productions; Dir: Erik de Bruyn; With Fedja van Huët, Freek Bloom, Will van Kralingen.
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