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Iceberg4000
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An Amsterdam Tale (1999)
Amsterdam Film Noir
I have this movie on DVD for years, and it's an interesting, underexposed Dutch movie. Unlike what the other reviewer posted, this is not a Horror movie, and not even in the slightest sense meant to be a Horror movie (I' d call it a Film Noir). It's about the very well known Red Light District in Amsterdam, and more about the crime scene evolving behind it. Something that the many (foreign) visitors of the area won't see, a world of well-dressed backstabbers and manipulating dames. Actors Joe Maruzzo(The Sopranos) and Sylvia Kristel (Emanuelle)give the film a more international appeal. The movie is shot with a limited budget, but if you can look trough that you'll see a side of Amsterdam you have not seen before.
Brimstone (2016)
I hoped for so much more...
As a Dutch citizen, I was really stoked for this movie. The interview I've read with Dutch director Martin Koolhoven, who worked for years on this script and getting this movie made, was so promising. Now, as my fellow Dutchies now, our country's output in movies is still pretty worthless. I do really admire Koolhoven for pulling of a big project as this, I don't think there are a lot of Dutch directors who would be able to handle a movie on this scale(apart from Verhoeven, Kuijpers and Jan Kounen).
Brimstone definitely has it's moments, with beautiful cinematography and strong acting. I do like that the story is told in reverse chronological order. The main thing I didn't like was the father, he was a too flat character. What could've been a layered, torn, religion obsessed man ended up in being a monster straight out of a slasher kind of Horror flick, who's only desire was to r*pe his posterity. Almost laughable. At points the characters have to over explain their intentions, using bible quotes (to really prove to the audience that the bible can be a base for this sickness? we get that okay...) Another moment I felt was really over explaining was how the daughter had to ask her mother how she could live under this circumstances. I mean, the mother was muzzled, I think just a simple disapproving look would've been enough. This lack of subtlety also displays when mother commits suicide in the full church, and preacher daddy immediately starts screaming "this is a abomination and blabla". I think the father would've been shocked for a bit, not that his wife was dead (he was a clear psychopath) but that she didn't apply to his rules. He doesn't have to shout all his underlying motives to get this plot point clear to the audience. Come to think of it, I'm happy there weren't 3 voice overs explaining the character's inner thoughts for the three viewers that could've missed it. I really feel that the story could've been build up more fluid, dragging you more in the darkness step by step (like the movie Dogville, for instance).
Last thing that I didn't like were some of the sex scenes. I get the purpose, but some of it felt so "Dutch". As in bad. Like the scene for Frank's shooting duel, I get that the world of a brothel is special/different/interesting and you want to show that, but to me it came across as a bad Tiroler sex film bit.
Still though, after all I said, I'd definitely watch a new Koolhoven movie because he there were enough promising and enjoyable things in this one.
Plan C (2012)
Dutch Fargo is worth to watch!
First of, people who seen a couple of dutch flicks know we that the movie standard in the Netherlands is quite low. Our cinema is known for bad dialog, stage actors, unnecessary naked scenes and floppy story lines. On top of it, because budgets aren't big here, the Filmfund (sponsering from the government) has to backup finance often to even get a movie made here. The same film fund is one of the reasons for the bad filmmaking: this board comes often with silly demands regarding to scripts/story lines before the money comes trough. The film fund people do not always have a background in film (like politics) and needless to say, a work of art does not get better with 20 different views on a subject. A well known example i heard was a great script got turned down because " audiences wouldn't't get it" . Resulting in adding unnecessary voice-overs (or flashbacks) explaining everything we saw in the movie, which made the film direct-to-video material.
Plan C was not supported by the Filmfund, and it is easy one of the better movies made in the Netherlands.
Ruben van der Meer and especially Ton Kas are fun to watch. René van 't Hof is also good, but unfortunately, for a smalltime crook his upper class Dutch accent annoyed me (reminded me of the bum in the movie Amsterdamned who spoke proper and decent Dutch).
The movie itself is funny and witty, and.....pretty much a l copy of Fargo. Could have been Fargo 2, although the plot isn't that complicated. From the father with a debt, the crook and the killer and a job that goes wrong to little details, shots, music, repeating phrases/dialog and if anyone doubts there's the poster in Simon's room of the Checkers game king that is either copied or a reference to the Accordeon king poster in little Scotty Lundergards room.
But, copy, reference or influenced by, this is one of the few dutch movies i would recommend to people and i will be looking forward to the director's new one. Watch it!