Het meisje met het rode haar

Feminism must not have been very strong in 1981 in the Netherlands if this film gained any popular acclaim there. I say this because "the girl with the red hair," Hannie Schaft, an actual member of the Dutch Resistance to German occupation in World War II, isn't favorably depicted. She is shown as constantly conflicted about and uncomfortable with her resistance work, doesn't do any of it well, and repeatedly fails. Thus she is just what we would expect from a "fragile female" trying to perform "men's work"--the exact stereotype that the real Hannie Schaft struggled so much against. Therefore, if this film ever played well with Dutch audiences, it could only have been because the filmmakers managed to elicit sympathy for the protagonist by making her every bit as weak and uncertain as they imagined the women in the audience to be. But in reality, people who take on dangerous espionage, sabotage, and assassination work (or join the military)--and who stay with it any length of time--aren't like the rest of us. They gain a toughness and skill which allows them to succeed, as the real Hannie Schaft did--enough to make the German occupiers want her dead, even as the war was ending. Moreover, this film is historically superficial in its treatment of Schaft, failing completely to cover or even mention her sabotage work or include her famous partnership with the Oversteegen sisters (the very resistance fighters who helped immortalize her after the war).

"The girl with the red hair" tells the story of the Dutch resistance fighter Hannie Schaft (1920 - 1945). Together with "Sophie Scholl, the final days" (2005, Marc Rothemund) "The girl with the red hair" forms an interesting combination. In both films a young girl goes into resistance against the Nazi regime and in both films she pays with her life.

There are however also differences between the two films. Sophie Scholl remained nonviolent while Hannie Schaft hardened during her career in the resistance movement and ultimately performed liquidations. "The girl with the red hair" is mainly about the character development of Hannie in the resistance movement.

In the beginning of the film Hannie gives up her law school in order to serve justice in a more practical (and violent) way. This reminded me of "A short film about killing" (1988, Krzysztof Kieslowski). In this film from the Dekalog series a law student is portrayed both during his final exam and his first case.

In practical life al sorts of ethical issues arise. Focused on working in a resistance movement during the Second World War one can think of the following.

How to take into account possible reprisals the German occupier would undertake? This issue is at the heart of "The assault" (1986, Fons Rademakers). This film centers around a liquidation not performed by Hannie Schaft, but it is presented in a way very much like a liquidation Hannie Schaft did perform.

How to eliminate personal motives in selecting actions and targets? This issue appears in "The girl with the red hair" after the death of the fiance of Hannie.

It is also interesting to compare "The girl with the red hair" with "Soldier of Orange" (1977, Paul Verhoeven). In this comparison the ethical issues are not so much ones that the resistance fighter has to take into accoount regarding the society but much more the other way round. "Soldier of Orange" is the story of Erik Hazelhof Roelfzema, also a resistance fighter, but one of a more glamerous kind than Hannie Schaft. Roelfzema had also connections with the royal family. Right after the war Roelfzema was very popular, but his popularity diminished when it was revealed in 2015 that he was involved in planning a coup in 1947 to prevent the independence of Indonesia.

Hannie Schaft on the other hand was not very popular after the war because of her Communist background. After the end of the Cold War her popularity is once again on the rise.

Hannie Schaft is played by Renée Soutendijk, an actress that was at the top of her game in those years. She played both in arthouse movies such as "The girl with the red hair" as in more commercial films such as for example "Spetters" (1980, Paul Verhoeven). She could also play very different characters. In "The girl with the red hair" she plays an idealistic girl from the higher classes, in "Spetters" on the other hand she plays a very opportunistic girl from lower descent.

"The girl with the red hair" is a rather slow movie, and so is the music. I imagined hearing music similar to that from films of the brothers Taviani. I was right. Nicola Piovani wrote the music, as he did for "Fiorile" (1993, Paolo and Vittorio Taviani).

The cinematography is very beautiful, somewhere in between color and black and white. A bid like the cinematography in "Sleepy hollow" (1999, Tim Burton). Of course the red hair is in color and really sets the images on fire.

Renée Soutendijk plays her first leading role as a young law student who joins the Dutch resistance in WWII and trains to be a liquidator. Having already garnered attention the year before in Paul Verhoeven's controversial "Spetters", Soutendijk decided to leave the sitcom Zeg 'ns Aaa (wich had not yet found a big audience) to concentrate on a career in film rather than television. The movie was shot to resemble black and white pictures from the period and looks suitably bleak and gray, making the lead characters's red hair stand out even more. Eventually circumstances force her to dye it (it made her the most recognizable resistance fighter) and at that point both the story and the film seem to lose all color. Not that there was anything to laugh about in the first place.

Debutant director and co-writer Ben Verbong decided to omit any references to Jannetje Johanna Schaft (the girl with the red hair) being a communist, even though that was one of the main reasons for her to join the resistance. There is hardly any dialog anyway, as none of the group members want too much emotional attachments. Even when she get romantically involved with fellow resistance fighter Hugo, they never seem especially passionate. The sparseness of the spoken word makes this picture seem even more like a psychological study of the lengths people will go to in desperate times as we watch the title character struggle with becoming a hit woman on a bicycle.

Although the film is certainly well made and Soutendijk proves to be a capable lead, there is absolutely nothing uplifting in the entire picture. The combination of long silent scenes and colorless photography makes for quite a depressive sitting. The period is recreated in great detail, with only Loes Luca's different hairstyles seeming to be a little out of place at times. Verbong and Soutendijk teamed up again in 1994 for the "Sliver" like thriller 'De Flat'. This marked Renée's return to Dutch films after a stint in Hollywood and Verbong's goodbye from his homeland, as he decided to move to Germany after wards.

7 out of 10