kip70 Reviews

Along the Way (2022)

Beautiful movie with amazing cast

[8/10 · 7 February 2022]

I saw this movie at the IFFR festival in Rotterdam, and was very pleasantly surprised by how much I liked the movie. It gave a very interesting insight in the problems and challenges of refugees trying to get to Europe, using a mix of fiction (90% of the movie) and a bit of documentary footage. Sometimes it was not clear which was which, but I feel that only added to the experience.

It was during the Q&A after the film that we found out how the movie was made. Shot with three actual refugees who never acted before as the main characters, filmed with the twin sisters in Europe but still stuck in Athens. So all the 'Istanbul' scenes turned out to be shot in parts of Athens that looked like Turkey. This knowledge made the movie even more special.

After the movie in the lobby of the movie theatre we found out that the girls biggest dream had come true when they walked into the lobby with beautiful traditional Afghan dresses on. They made it to The Netherlands! I wish them a very happy life here.

Mother Dao, the Turtlelike (1995)

Very special

[9/10 · 21 December 2007]

I agree with all the positive comments made by the other writers. This movie was on TV here in The Netherlands this week, on a Dutch version of the History Channel. They ran it four or five times, and I watched it each time. The images just mesmerized me, I could not stop watching. The appeal may have partly been the fact that the images were from my own countries colonial past, but I'm glad to read they grabbed non-Dutch viewers as well.

Some of the images speak for themselves, like the images from inside factories, or from native women taking a bath. Other images are very confusing, like the ones of dozens of (Indonesian) men coming off a boat, getting some medical exam and then being marched into a camp, surrounded by barbed wire. Were this prisoners, captured freedom fighters perhaps? Or just soldiers? At moments like that I missed some sort of captioning, explaining what was going on. But I guess it's a deliberate choice of the director, to enhance the exotic feel of the movie.

I was really fascinated to see all these 'familiar' Dutch faces there, people who could have been my (great)grandparents. And all these signs in Dutch, and young native children being taught Dutch in schools. It's not that long ago that the Dutch were kicked out (60 years), but somehow all the images felt very alien to me, as if this all happened much longer ago, or that it wasn't my own past I was watching. Very strange.

Watch it, if you can, and be amazed.

Nadine (2007)

Awful

[3/10 · 31 October 2007]

I saw this movie in Rotterdam, with the director and one of the actresses who played Nadine present for a Q&A after wards.

I'm almost sure the people who rated this movie a '10' are friends and family of the cast and crew, or perhaps it's the cast and crew themselves. Because I don't believe any true movie lover could rate this movie at better than a 4 or 5. I gave it a 3 myself.

My reasons? Almost too many to write down. For starters, I didn't like the story, and how the director worked out the story. It's about a 40 something woman who looks back at her life, after she kidnapped the baby of her ex-boyfriend. The flashbacks tell us how she came to that deed. Well, they try to tell us. Unfortunately the main character in these flashbacks is played by two totally different women. One not too attractive brunette (the youngest Nadine), another an attractive blond. The 42-year old Nadine who kidnapped the baby is played by yet another actress, attractive and dark haired this time. The director states that that is to give the story a more universal appeal. Unfortunately that didn't work for me at all. I found it very irritating to have to remind myself that we were looking at the same Nadine each time, although we were looking at totally different women. Playing with the same actors as her colleagues/friends, they stayed the same. That made it impossible for me to see the three Nadine's as one. So for me all the flashbacks didn't explain the current behavior of Nadine (the kidnapping) at all.

Then there were dozens of little things that annoyed me. Here's a couple:

• the miscast boyfriend of Nadine. He's quite a famous and popular actor in The Netherlands, but the director should have never let him play a dentist. Even if you've never seen him before, I'm sure you will agree he is one of the unlikeliest dentists ever;

• the blond Nadine gets pretty obsessed about getting pregnant from the dentist-boyfriend. In one scene she takes her temperature at the office (we viewers get the impression it's early in the morning). She immediately calls her boyfriend, because they should have sex as soon as possible. He answers her phone call in some nightclub, at night! (no, he was not at the other side of the world);

• the scenes where Nadine meets her ex-boyfriend and kidnaps the baby are obviously shot in France, or the French-speaking part of Belgium. All signs in the supermarket are in French. It is not until a Dutch security officer comes into the scene that you realise the supermarket is supposed to be in The Netherlands;

• in the hospital they go to (in The Netherlands)somehow all personnel speak Flamish, the Belgian version of Dutch;

• in the supermarket where she meets the ex-boyfriend the ex-boyfriend walks around with a Maxi-Cosi, with (presumably) his baby in it. Unfortunately he holds it so lightly that we immediately become aware that there's no baby in there at all;

• when Nadine is in Portugal with the baby she finds the house of one of her neighbor's on fire. All the neighbors got out safely, they're standing there yelling 'Fire!' (in Portugese...). What does Nadine do? She asks them to look after the baby, and runs into the house. To do what? To get a container of milk out of the microwave, that overcooked and caused all the smoke. Why on earth did Nadine risk her life and go into that house? And where did she get the fireproof hands that made it possible for her to pick up the scolding hot container with milk, and carry it outside? Very bad movie making, that's why.

I could go on for a while, but I don't want to spend too much time recollecting details from this lemon. Better try to forget it quickly.

And why did I rate it a '3', not '1'? I sort of enjoyed the characters played by Frank Lammers (Vince) and Michel van Dousselaere (Nadine's father). Both worth a point in my rating.

De Jantjes (1934)

A little gem

[9/10 · 21 July 2004]

Yes, this sure is a little pre-war Dutch gem. I always liked the Astaire/Rogers musicals, and watched this Dutch musical with quite a bit of anticipation. Could it be anywhere near as good as the Astaire/Rogers classics? Well... yes! Taking into account the budget, which must have been 1/1000th of the budget on an American film, De Jantjes came out very well indeed. Good story line, nice camera work, OK acting (although it always surprises me how 'old' Dutch from the 30s sounds) and a couple of classic songs. I didn't even know some of the songs in the movie were from that era. Thought they were much younger. A Chance to see Heintje David play and sing shouldn't be missed either. You should go see this movie when you get the chance!