Directing
A nuanced portrait of the (Amsterdam) police which portrays not only the police as an institution, but also individual officers. Issues raised include: ethnic profiling, lack of influence by neighbourhood officers, the role of women within the police force and the question of whether the police sometimes use excessive force, for example during the clearance of squats by the ME (Riot Police) in Amsterdam’s Kinkerbuurt neighbourhood, where defenceless locals were beaten by officers with batons.
The successful photographer Diane is in Rome for a photo assignment, but seems mostly to be looking for Giovanni, an old acquaintance and probably a lover. Against the backdrop of the political situation, which is strained due to the attacks by the Red Brigades, Diane and Giovanni hopelessly pass each other by.
With the book The Waves by Virginia Woolf as point of departure, the film follows six characters trying to recapture the feeling of harmony they knew as children. They meet each other in a restaurant at a farewell dinner for Percival, who is leaving for India. When he dies through an accident in India, the group falls apart.
The Amsterdamse Bos (Amsterdam Forest), located between Amstelveen and Schiphol, was constructed during the years of economic crisis. In 1934, Amsterdam had 50,000 unemployed residents, who were put to work on the project as part of a government relief scheme. Annette Apon made this short documentary about the creation of the Amsterdamse Bos for the Amsterdams Stadsjournaal.
Fien de la Mar (1898-1965) was a Dutch actress with exceptional allure and extraordinary talent. With this she celebrated many triumphs, but her life ultimately ended in tragedy.
An unlikely friendship blossoms between Elsa, a preppy, idle, spoiled blond who calls herself Gino, and Nina, a wannabe anarchist who plots with three others to blow up an arms factory. Nina is often sour and tempestuous, but with Gino she's spontaneous and funny. Yet the friendship often founders, as the feckless Gino spoils Nina's frequent and demanding plans. They decide to rob Gino's rich uncle to pay for bombs and creature comforts, they sneak into a stranger's house, they steal a painting belonging to one of Gino's boyfriends, bombs fail to explode, and Gino costs Nina the trust of her anarchist pals. Then comes the crocodile test, the ultimate for any friendship.
The film presents regular Stadsjournaal actor Gerard Thoolen as a rebellious cyclist gallivanting around the streets of Amsterdam performing anarchic stunts on his bicycle. He clumsily cuts up cars, kicks their wingmirrors off, generally torments motorists and takes part in a bicycle race on his heavy ride. When his black gentleman’s bike gets stuck in the tram rails, he angrily grabs a pneumatic drill.
The importance of the Atelier as a meeting and working-place for independent or beginning filmmakers is highlighted in Last days of Studio Frans van de Staak a necrology of his films by Kees Hin (2002), which focuses mainly on Van de Staak's non-naturalistic style of directing actors.
A film about Leonie Brandt, an actress who used her talent to become a brilliant double agent, living a life shrouded in intrigues and mysteries.
In the period 1891-1927, Henriette Roland Holst goes through a dramatic development. As an aspiring poet from an affluent bourgeois milieu she throws herself, full with idealism and conviction, into the labour movement. Within the various socialistic parties however, a fierce battle on direction takes place, wherein Henriette has trouble finding her place. After returning disillusioned from a trip to the Soviet Union, she does not feel at home in any leftist party. Later she will recollect on this period in her biography "Het vuur brandde voort" (translation: "The fire rages on"). The film reconstructs this period with the use of old film material combined with texts by Henriette Roland Holst herself: fragments from letters, poems, speeches and books, sparingly supplemented with personal commentary by the filmmaker.
Kees (Ramsey Nasr) is a gently eccentric loner who takes his imaginary dog for a walk each evening and likes to listen in on his neighbors' conversations. He is lonely. He has no real family, as his father is dead and his mother is institutionalized. However, when the chronically unemployed Kees gets a job at a bank, many of his co-workers don't know what to make of him, and scarcely anyone talks to him -- until the day someone comments on a photo in his wallet. Though he doesn't actually know the woman in the picture, Kees tells them the woman in the photo is his girlfriend and starts spinning tales about their "relationship." Before long, Kees has invented an entire alternate personality and is stealing photos from others to fit the new "friends" and "family" he's created.
