Cloaca

It's been a while since I saw this film, but the one thing I remember best is the fact I was so unimpressed by the acting. While I was still living in Holland, a friend of the family said: 'if you want to see the creme de la creme of Dutch acting, rent this film!' So I did and I wasn't impressed in the least by the unconvincing Dutch actors. Seeing British and (fair enough) a few American actors on screen, you believe they are the people they're portraying. But in this film, I'm sad to say, I had the feeling that the four main actors were very uncomfortable, undoubtedly did their best, but the outcome is nothing much... If you like arty films and are a fan of any of the actors, go and rent it... But if you really want to see a good Dutch film, rent 'Van God Los'. That was far better than this, (this was, to sum up: a rather weak effort to make it feel like a good film). and based on real events.

The story about four men in their mid-life crisis is well written and does not loose focus at any moment. Convincing actors. I did not like the scene with the prostitute. All scenes are realistic and seem to come out of really every-day life. The psychology of the friends is well described by strong dialogue.

The play "Cloaca" was, in the year 2002, one of the most succesful plays of that year. And because of the fact that in Holland, we don't have lots of issues we want to film, 'they' decided to make a movie of "Cloaca", with the same (great) actors as in th play. 'They' succeeded. The movie is one of the best Dutch movies ever, if not THE best, I'm still thinking of calling it that. The story is about a group of men, who are all 40 years old. Back when they were students, they were best friends, but after several years, the relation between these men went down hill. One of the guys, Pieter (Pierre Bokma), has a problem, and to solve this problem he needs the help of his friends, in special the help of Tom (Peter Blok) while he is a lawyer. But Tom en his two other friends Joep (Gijs Scholten van Aschat), who is running for minister, and Maarten (Jaap Spijkers), a director, have enough problems for themselves. And the only thing they can focuse on, is there own problem. This delivers some great scenes, like the one in which Maarten is trying to tell Joep that he had sex with his 18 year old daughter, when they were preparing Maarten's latest play. When Joep enters the room, he tells Maarten how wonderful he liked the play, gives Maarten a hug and gives him no chance to tell his story.

This is typical for this movie; no one listens to the other, and this is brilliantly played by the best actors we have in Holland. Gijs Scholten van Aschat (who had the chance to play the raper in Lars von Triers "Dogville", but didn't do it because he wanted to make "Cloaca") plays Joep on a wonderfull way, and also the other die hard theater actors Pierre Bokma, Peter Blok and Jaap Spijkers give a fantastic performance. If you like good acting: GO SEE THIS ONE!!!

This is a wonderful drama, originally a play but successfully transformed to cinema. By that I mean that the superb writing is supplemented by images which carry the load.

It is the story of four men who in college had a band called Cloaca. We encounter them 20 years later, each with problems we identify. This all rings true, so true and so closely written that I would probably like it even it were a filmed play.

That's because of the way it is constructed. Each of the men and all of the possible pairings by turns take the role of being outside the play, on the side of the viewer, commenting on the others. This fold is made explicit by two devices. One involves paintings from an artist whose passion is remarked upon and who clearly reflects on the pictures we see. This is one case where the structure is more apt for film than stage.

The other device is more visual (as we never see the paintings). One of the men is a playwright/director who is putting on a play that manipulates this notion of the chorus in the action. He is having sex with a girl in the play who has a central role in that play, and who also happens to be the daughter of one of the other men. Her role in the play is one of the most striking scenes in film: she is covered in some sort of mud and is hosed down to become nude. Its really quite beautiful, interspersed with shots of her disapproving father in the audience being struck by that beauty. Now this fold would have worked better in the stage production I suppose.

There's no question but that this is a guy movie, and proudly not silly. There is no compromise in the dramatic arc to land you in a happy ending. It seems true, and real, and a genuine voyage into what men actually deal with.

A subtle point: all of these men have noble moments but are all damaged in ways that allow them to damage. This is common. But this business about weaving the drama by having subgroups of two among the four take control, well I find that fascinating. Women simply do not do this in my experience, and never in film. Its a turbulent, shifting set of alliances based on direct relaxing of dominance to form partnerships, which then jointly dominate. The result is an essay on the nature of dominant control of the situation, heightened by the fact that we are there only to experience what they control.

A "cloaca" is a single orifice that serves sexual and all elimination needs.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

Calling this movie one of the best Dutch in recent years is perhaps not enough. It certainly deserves a spot among the best Dutch movies of all time as well!

If I had to compare this movie to any other, I would say that this movie is the Dutch "Glengarry Glen Ross". It has only powerhouse actors in it, the movie doesn't just have one main character, it follows multiple story lines from all the different characters and it has an excellent written story. Don't let the fact that this is just a 'made for TV' movie scare you of. The only reason the movie didn't got a theatrical release is because Dutch cinema in general is not very popular by the main stream audience and besides movies like this just don't do well in Dutch cinema's, regardless of the language spoken. A shame because that also in a way means that not too often Dutch movies like "Cloaca" will ever be made and released. This movie however truly screams for more.

The story at first starts of rather simple but just like in real life things are more complicated than they at first seem. Every character in the movie has problem(s) on their own and the one thing that connects everything is their friendship. The four old college buddies, now in their forties, try to help each other but have to cope with their own difficulties as well. By helping each other out they discover the true meaning of friendship and start evaluation the way their lives are progressing thus far and where things went wrong for them and they let the 'good old times' revive as well. It's a real character movie and a movie like this always requires some extremely good actors. "Cloaca" really has this. It makes the movie, the story and the situations in this all feel very real and understandable.

"Cloaca" has the best acting you'll probably ever see in a Dutch movie. All of the actors in this movie are well taught and established actors, who appear mostly on the stage. It's too bad that Dutch movies not too often give the chance to let actors like this shine on the silver screen. Ductch cinema doesn't often offer roles like these to actors of this caliber. Pierre Bokma, Gijs Scholten van Aschat and Pierre Bokma are all probably the best Dutch actors at the moment. It also definitely helps the movie that the three of them are real life friends and went to college together (along with the movie its director Willem van de Sande Bakhuyzen), it definitely shows on screen, since they all have such a great chemistry and share some great anticipation and reaction with each other. It lifts their performances to an even higher level and makes the timing spot on.

The movie is deliberately kept low key. No fancy tricks are used and the movie mostly relies on telling its story purely through its characters. It's based on a stage play by Maria Goos, which starred for most part the same actors that also appear in this movie. It means that the movie also feels 'stagey' at times, with its characters and dialog. This doesn't always work out well in movies but there are exceptions and when there are exceptions, they are always brilliant ones. "Cloaca" is a wonderful example of this. It's a real shame by the way that the British Kevin Spacey stage play version wasn't an huge success.

The movie is extremely well directed by Willem van de Sande Bakhuyzen. Of course the storytelling is slow but van de Sande Bakhuyzen's directing keeps the pace always high and the movie interesting. The movie also has some beautiful cinematography and a suiting musical score. A real lost for Dutch cinema, that Willem van de Sande Bakhuyzen died in 2005 of cancer. He made the best movies in his last years and I would had definitely been interested in seeing more movies of him, definitely if they were like "Cloaca".

10/10

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