Flodder

"Flodder" tells the story of the anti social family of the same name. Their house turns out te be on toxic soil and so the city council is forced to find a new place for them to live. A social worker proposes to give them a vacant house in an upper class neighbourhood. Of course this results in agitation and problems.

"Flodder" performed very well at the box office. It resulted in several sequels and a TV series. Nevertheless almost 40 years later I could find very few reviews.

Maybe this has something to do with the fact that the film is generally viewed as "cheap amusement" with a "Louis de Funes" type of humor. In my view this is not entirely correct.

The film is sometimes described as ridiculing the Dutch welfare state, showing that state tolerating and sometimes even rewarding bad behaviour.

The question is however who exactly is being ridiculed?

The Flodder family consists indeed of some petty criminals, but they don't engage in real serious crimes. The story is told through their eyes so inevitably the viewer starts to identify with them.

In my opinion it is much more the wealthy inhabitants of the neighbourhood that are ridiculed. Of these inhabitants the men are treated rather mildly. They don't like the family Flodder very much but are "compensated" by the fact that the sexy and busty daughter Kees (Tatjana Simic) is included. Especially the wealthy women are made fun of. They are proud of the careers of their husbands without doing very much themselves. Nevertheless they feel very much superior to the Flodder family.

The Dutch welvare state finally is represented by the social worker Sjakie (Lou Landré). He doesn't understand much of real life and made me think of the social worker in "A clockwork orange" (1971, Stanley Kubrick).

At the end the neighborhood dispute escalates in some kind of a civil war, underlining, somewhat superfluously, the over the top character of the movie.

Seeing the movie again after many years I must admit that some of the humor (but not all!) has not aged well. An example is the character of Tatjana Simic portrayed as an object of desire of many men. This portraying would be considered sexist today. Even more however you won't find the somewhat sadistic jokes about pets in a contemporary film very easily.

Flodder, the movie adaptation of the beloved TV series, earns a solid 8/10 from me. While it may not capture all the elements that made the series exceptionally enjoyable, the film still stands strong on its own merits. It successfully brings the unique and uproarious world of the Flodder family to the big screen, offering a good dose of humor and entertainment.

The movie maintains the essence of what makes Flodder such a beloved franchise its quirky characters, offbeat humor, and the outrageous situations the family finds themselves in. However, fans of the series might notice the absence of Coen van Vrijberghe, whose presence added a distinct flavor to the show. His absence in the film is felt and leaves a bit of a void for those familiar with his contribution to the series.

Despite this, the movie does a commendable job of translating the chaotic and unconventional life of the Flodder family into a feature-length format. It retains the spirit of the series, while also introducing the characters and their bizarre lifestyle to potentially new audiences.

Flodder the movie is a great comedy movie with a wonderful concept and great leading actors. after i watch it 50 times it is still very funny. Because Flodder is still popular there are still rumors to reboot Flodder, That is a totally obsolete idea. Because you get an exact copy like Flodder was. The concept Flodder is also very obsolete especially after more than 30 years.

Although a poor film it contains more than enough good jokes, and that is just why it was being made.If you like the rude dutch sense of humor this would be a movie you certainly like. Lots of influence of Brutti, Scorchi e Cattivi from Ettore Scola. If you think flodder is a bit corny, go and see this tasteful movie.

Flodder is without a doubt the funniest film I've ever seen. Timing is the keyword in this movie. I've must have seen the movie for more than 30 times. Every time I discover something new that makes me laugh out loud. The acting is superb and so is the directing. All in all, this is maybe the best movie ever made in Holland.

10/10