Rene Seegers Movies
- 1999
A woman must choose between secure affection and fiery passion in this romantic costume drama. In 1899, Emilie van Thuile (Johanna Ter Steege), a delicate woman prone to fainting, is still getting over the death of her husband, an archeologist, when his assistant Hugo (Anthony Calf) asks for her hand in marriage. Emilie doesn't find Hugo terribly exciting, but she misses the security of a husband and agrees to wed him anyway. She accompanies Hugo to Italy, where he's completing the project that Mr. Van Thuile was working on at the time of his death, the uncovering and reconstruction of an ancient temple. While staying in a nearby spa and hotel, Emilie meets Capt. Aldo (Massimo Ghini), a doctor who has recently returned from military service in Africa. Emilie is captivated by the ruggedly handsome physician, who seems quite interested in her as well. Emilie impulsively runs off with Aldo, despite the warnings of innkeeper DeSantis (Alessandro Haber), who tells Emilie that Aldo is a notorious ladies' man who will abandon her once he's had his way with her. A Woman of the North received its most positive notices for Gianni Giovagnoni's production design and Goert Giltay's cinematography. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Johanna ter Steege, Massimo Ghini, (more)
- 1998
Radu Mihaileanu directed this French-Belgian-Romanian-Dutch comedy-drama, set in Central Europe during the summer of 1941. Yiddish-speaking Jews purchase a train, forge identity papers, and leave town. Posing as both prisoners and Nazis, they hope to reach Palestine via the Soviet Union, but problems arise when they encounter real Germans. To make matters worse, resistance fighters plan to dynamite the train. Made in Romania with French and German dialogue, this film won an international critics prize at the 1998 Venice Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lionel Abelanski, Rufus, (more)
- 1997
Scottish comedian Alan Cumming stars in this Dutch psychological drama, set in Vienna but mainly filmed in Budapest. Crazed stand-up comedian Daniel (Cumming) pleases his hospitalized mother (Hedi Temessy) by dressing to resemble his sister Hannah, who died in a Nazi concentration camp. After his girlfriend (Serena Gordon) drops him, he takes up with naive Texan Lilian (Juliet Aubrey), who is attempting to solve the mystery of her Nazi father's link to chemical businessman Wittfogel (Frank Finlay). Shown at the 1997 Nederlands Film Festival/Holland Film Meeting. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alan Cumming, Juliet Aubrey, (more)
- 1997
This British-Dutch-Hungarian biographical drama combines incidents from the life of novelist Feodor Dostoyevsky with a dramatization of his short novel The Gambler. The character of Polina in the novel was based by Dostoyevsky on Polina Suslova, his 1862-63 lover. In the tradition of Dennis Potter, this film mixes fiction with reality, opening in 1870 with a woman and child seeking someone in a casino at the German resort of Baden-Baden.
The story then leaps backward to 1866 St. Petersburg, where impoverished student Anna (Jodhi May) accepts a stenographic position with cantankerous 45-year-old Dostoyevsky (Michael Gambon), who lives with his epileptic stepson Pasha (William Houston). Dostoyevsky is writing serialized installments of Crime and Punishment. He has only 27 days to write a minimum of 160 pages on another novel for the publisher Stellovsky (Thom Jansen), who has covered his gambling debts. If Dostoyevsky doesn't meet this deadline, Stellovsky will acquire the rights to all of his current and future books. Anna quits but later comes back so she can pay for her father's funeral. In the process of getting Dostoyevsky's imagination to paper, Anna soon understands that The Gambler is autobiographical -- the tale of a young couple Polina (Polly Walker) and Alexei (Dominic West) at the casino in the fictional German resort Roulettenburg, where Alexei's gambling obsession has put him in debt. As the work on The Gambler continues, an attraction develops between the author and the secretary, and scenes from the work-in-progress are featured.
In real life, Anna Grigoryevna Snitkina did indeed take shorthand on The Gambler, and she went on to become Dostoyevsky's second wife in 1867. Appearing as a gambling grandmother is movie veteran Luise Rainer. Scenes of St. Petersburg, Baden-Baden, and Roulettenburg were all shot in Hungarian locations. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
The story then leaps backward to 1866 St. Petersburg, where impoverished student Anna (Jodhi May) accepts a stenographic position with cantankerous 45-year-old Dostoyevsky (Michael Gambon), who lives with his epileptic stepson Pasha (William Houston). Dostoyevsky is writing serialized installments of Crime and Punishment. He has only 27 days to write a minimum of 160 pages on another novel for the publisher Stellovsky (Thom Jansen), who has covered his gambling debts. If Dostoyevsky doesn't meet this deadline, Stellovsky will acquire the rights to all of his current and future books. Anna quits but later comes back so she can pay for her father's funeral. In the process of getting Dostoyevsky's imagination to paper, Anna soon understands that The Gambler is autobiographical -- the tale of a young couple Polina (Polly Walker) and Alexei (Dominic West) at the casino in the fictional German resort Roulettenburg, where Alexei's gambling obsession has put him in debt. As the work on The Gambler continues, an attraction develops between the author and the secretary, and scenes from the work-in-progress are featured.
In real life, Anna Grigoryevna Snitkina did indeed take shorthand on The Gambler, and she went on to become Dostoyevsky's second wife in 1867. Appearing as a gambling grandmother is movie veteran Luise Rainer. Scenes of St. Petersburg, Baden-Baden, and Roulettenburg were all shot in Hungarian locations. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Gambon, Jodhi May, (more)
- 1995
In this Dutch drama, a former vaudevillian tries one last time to find the dignity of a legitimate role. Instead he finds himself faced with a past he tried hard to bury. It is base upon a 1982 novel by Harry Mulisch. Willem, a 78-year old man, comes from a long line of illustrious stage actors. But unlike them, he was never able to rise beyond the level of vaudeville performer. This has caused him tremendous pain. His break finally comes after he is offered the part of an aging classical actor who kills his male co-star/lover before he goes on to play Prospero in The Tempest. He takes the role, and the resulting heat from his castmates who change when he demonstrates real talent. He has major problems though. He butts heads with the director. He becomes confused when a younger actress makes untoward advances. Finally he has trouble playing a homosexual. The strain causes him to suffer disturbing flashbacks about his dysfunctional family life and his mother's death. The weight of the memories causes him to collapse during the final rehearsal. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1992
It seems that misdeeds by inhabitants of the Dutch provinces make for believable stories, whether they are mysteries by Willem van de Wettering, or psychological thrillers by Simon Vestdijk, who wrote the book this film is based on. In the story, set in the 1950s, Hendrik Grond (Gijs Scholten van Aschat) has a good law practice, and a happy marriage which has produced a son. He is so contented that his world is completely shattered when, undetected, he catches his wife in bed with his law firm's senior partner. In fact, he has become quietly unhinged, and he arranges a series of "accidents" to ensure his revenge - becoming involved in the local underworld in the process. Will he succeed in committing a series of "perfect" crimes, or will the police inspector (Johan Simons) investigating these incidents get wise? ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gijs Scholten van Ashat, Renée Soutendijk, (more)
- 1989
This documentary explores the changes in the structure of Dutch society after World War Two as the Netherlands rapidly went from being a major colonial power abroad and an agricultural country domestically, to being a major industrial and commercial center with virtually no colonial holdings. Despite these major external changes, the film also shows that those who held power in the society before the war quickly regained a position of dominance in midst of the postwar transformation. Thus, the "internal" structure of the country remained (regrettably, in the view of the documentarians) the same. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1984
Director Leon de Winter has taken a thriller with political and psychological overtones, and scrambled it into a series of vignettes that are mixed-up in time and in location, thereby dashing any hope of following the story. A journalist goes to a southern European country to interview a well-known terrorist who has refused to stop his activities even though the revolution he fought for ended successfully five years earlier. Questions are raised about adopting violence as a way of life without at first realizing it and about the seeming impossibility of raising the consciousness of backwater cultures. Perhaps because of the way the story has been filleted into fragments, characters like the journalist and terrorist do not have enough continuous screen time to build up their individuality, a second factor that makes it difficult to become involved in the drama. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Johan Leysen, Angela Winkler, (more)
- 1983
In a curious mix of documentary footage of interviews with politicians, sociologists, economists, and other professionals, and a fictional story about a filmmaker (the "Faust" of the title), director René Seegers has come up with challenging questions: where is progress taking everyone; is "progress" in fact, disappearing; and can people do no more than question the Ineffable without expecting an answer? ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Krijn ter Braak, Bruce Gray, (more)
- 1980
This drama by three young directors (Rene Seegers, Jean van de Velde, and Leon de Winter) is enhanced by its unique perspective: it contrasts the unappealing, industrialized, noisy, poor, and polluted world of today with an ideal view of the past. Herman Durer (Felix-Jan Kuipers) is a social dropout who has spent a bit of time behind bars and finds the concept of a job repugnant. Then one day he reads a book (itself unusual) about a leisurely, 18th-century life in Italy, just the kind of life he wants to lead. Armed with gritty determination and no sense, Herman leaves Amsterdam for the greener pastures of Italy. His imagination conjures up an 18th-century view of the world around him that stands in stark contrast to the reality he sees on his way to an unobtainable Shangri-la. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ab Abspoel
