Abel

Abel is a very amusing movie. It has been made with love and class. It has a very familiar odor of burned potatoes and crispy fishfingers. Life is sweet certainly when you are still within reach of your (obsessive) mother and notwithstanding the difficult relation to your strict dad. I could make this a lot longer but at this instant I just wanted to be the first person to add a comment. In short, very good movie !

Wonderful surreal comedy of Dutch (bad) manners, with superb playing through the entire cast of eccentrics, misfits and lunatics. Olga Zuiderhoek is excellent as the implacably doting mother Duif, obsessed with fertility and sabotaging all her husband's schemes to get their son Abel to lead a "normal" life. But the film is made by Henri Garcin as (the possibly ironically named) husband Victor, whose descent into madness is delightfully reminiscent of Herbert Lom's Inspector Dreyfus.

Only Annet Malherbe's Zus lets the side down, passive and accepting of her place on her admirers' pedestals, more cipher than Circe. Maybe her line that "all women like to be watched" seemed profound thirty years ago; not so much now.

This movie is one of the best dutch movies of all times. Not a storyline with a hero, lots of action and beautiful women in it, but a sort of anti-hero who lives with his parents and does not know who to behave in the mature world. When you see the parents, you will understand why.

You have to understand dutch absurd humor, but I really do not know anyone who did not like the movie, most of the people I know love it, except maybe for my late grandparents. See it and you will love it! Also the fact that this Van Warmerdam's first movie, should give him all the respect he deserves.

Although the last commentator found the movie a bit too weird, I'm delighted that people in far-away Virginia have the possibility to enjoy such an obscure Dutch art-house movie. Long live globalization. As for the film, I heard it's a classic among cinéphiles in France and other countries, but I completely understand those who find it a bit too weird, like our friend from Virginia. Different places, different sorts of humour. But if you like Bunuel, it's worth the try.

Cheers, Arnoud (Amsterdam)

I love this film. I always have, since first seeing it some fifteen or so years ago. It is SERIOUSLY weird, but absolutely hilarious. Being in Dutch probably helped! Surreal scenery also helped with the mood of this wonderful film. The opening scenes nearly put me off, but after a while you realise it assists in the strange and weird world of Alex v W!!! De Noorderlingen is another of his and is also a very funny and odd little film.....maybe i just like this serious looking fellow's decidedly wry eye on the world.

I urge anyone to see this film, but more than that, i urge anyone who knows where i can buy a copy to tell me where from. I had it on video for years but it's worn out!