Peter Faber Movies

In this arthouse film, Heading for England seems to be the continental version of the complex English idiomatic expression "gone west," one meaning of which is someone who has gone away, never to return. Hans (Geert Lageveen) is a high-school student whose factory worker father wants him to become a university student. At the beginning of the film, he watches the brutal treatment of a transvestite barber by his fellow students, which results in injury of several students by the aggrieved cross-dresser, and his committing suicide by walking into the ocean. Later, the boy and his father are involved in an unresolved conflict over whether he will go to the university. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In a quest to recover the international esteem they once held, an American avant-garde theatrical repertory company takes the stage at an Amsterdam theater festival. However, in addition to the artistic reverses they have experienced, they brought along every one of the problems they had back in the U.S., from professional rivalries to romantic entanglements. These are heightened in the new setting, as new difficulties inevitably arise. The apparent connection this film has to its title, Van Gogh's Ear, is that the mentally troubled artist who hailed from the Netherlands was prone to making dramatic gestures to illuminate his inner states. Sometimes these resulted in masterpieces: at other times they were simply acts of self-mutilation. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Liesje has heard about her father all her life. The story her mother tells her is that she met and married in Rio de Janeiro, and left him to return to Amsterdam because she was homesick. He is supposed to rejoin them after he has made a lot of money from his crocodile hunting business. In the meantime, they have been staying at her grandfather's house. Grandpa is dead, and Liesje's mother has a boyfriend who is staying in his old room. Liesje is not happy about his, and quietly manages to sell off some old heirloom stamps to find her father and set things right. Instead, she discovers the truth, which is that he is just around the corner, and is serving time in prison for smuggling. This serious children's drama is based on a book by Burny Bos, and was released in some markets as Maman! dessine-moi un papa. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

A well-wrought sequel to the popular Schatjes, Mama Is Boos! draws on the same styles and themes that inspired the success of the earlier comedy. The all-out war between the parents and their children in Schatjes has become an all-out war declared by Danny Gisberts (Geert de Jong) against her two-timing, fickle husband John (Peter Faber). She throws objects as well as tantrums, is not above kidnapping her kids, and has a final, glorious say about what she thinks of him at a NATO gathering featuring her husband. NATO's stage entertainment is cleverly sub-par, but that cannot be said for this comedy, which is fast-paced and fun. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Set in the tough, impoverished year of 1934 in Amsterdam, when people were desperate for jobs and food, this sentimental story is based on a World War II novel by Piet Bakker about a streetwise, lonely kid named Ciske who lives with his harsh and shrewish mother and is raised without affection or gentleness. As directed by Guido Pieters, Ciske (Danny de Munk) has lost the persona of a basically innocent urchin trying to cope and has become a more worldly-wise, modern youngster with a bent toward improvisation. This clash between the sophisticated present and the simpler past continues in other aspects of the filmed story as well, and along with disjunctions in the sequencing of scenes, perhaps due to heavy editing, undermines the charming and accomplished acting of the 14-year-old lead and the young supporting actors. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In one action-filled segment after another, this spoof of Hollywood exaggeration, rebellious teenagers, military machos, and domineering parents mimics some well-known characters and scenes from American movies, and pits a family's brood of kids against the Dutch army. In the constant battle with their parents, the son blows up their bedroom, and the daughter fights it out with her mother over a new boyfriend (they both want him). The father is a helicopter pilot from the nearby military base and as his children's activities escalate into setting up barbed wire around the house, the military gathers its forces for an attack. While a kind of uncontrollable anarchy pervades each step in the story, this fast-paced spoof does not have a definitive plot to hold everything together, and nor any noticeable character development - though for some viewers, the incongruous scenes would be entertaining enough by themselves. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Set in the Netherlands between 1856 and 1888, this story centers on the gradual coming-of-age of Hedwig (Renée Soutendijk), the daughter of a wealthy family who has been "protected" from ever knowing about sex, a forbidden topic. At 16, Hewig marries a man who cannot stand the idea of sex, seeing all aspects related to it as sinful and demeaning. Given the fact that Helwig is as sensual as most young women her age, she eventually meets an accomplished, attractive pianist and falls in love -- leaving her sterile life with her inflexible husband and taking on a new life as the mistress of the pianist. Soon she is pregnant, and while the pianist is away on a concert tour, she has their child. Her happiness is short-lived because the little baby becomes ill and dies. At this point, Hedwig is living in Paris and the death of her child robs her of the stability she had known until now, and she ends up in a hospital for treatment of her mental and emotional collapse. Although cured of her emotional breakdown, she comes out of the hospital addicted to heroin -- a habit she is forced to sustain through prostitution. Finally, she is able to end the addiction with the help of a nun, and then she returns to the Netherlands to start looking for a new beginning. Based on a Frederik van Eeden novel that was published in 1900 and was far-sighted for its time, attacking the repressive behavior of the religiously "upright," this film still sees Hedwig as morally flawed, her lover as another "free-living" artist, and farmers as somewhat backward. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Set in a remote seaside village somewhere in the Netherlands, this drama centers on the increasingly bizarre behavior of a tourist who has become romantically obsessed by a local beauty. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A famous trial which took place in Ghent is the subject of this courtroom drama, which exposes the activities of an unabashed villain. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This story is about an outspoken older veterinarian who is disliked by his community for that very reason, as well as for his tendency to campaign local farmers to use new methods. After his wife left him, he is accused by a local girl of having made her pregnant, she is readily believed, and he must go to great lengths to prove his innocence. The movie is adapted from a popular Dutch novel l by A. Roothaert. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

It's late 1944, and the Allied armies are confident they'll win the World War II and be home in time for Christmas. What's needed, says British general Bernard Law Montgomery, is a knockout punch, a bold strike through Holland, where German troops are spread thin, that will put the Allies into Germany. Paratroops led by British major general Robert Urquhart (Sean Connery) and American brigadier general James Gavin (Ryan O'Neal) will seize a thin road and five bridges through Holland into Germany, with paratroops led by Lieutenant Col. John Frost (Sir Anthony Hopkins) holding the most critical bridge at a small town called Arnhem. Over this road shall pass combined forces led by British Lieutenant Gen. Brian Horrocks (Edward Fox) and British Lieutenant Col. Joe Vandeleur (Michael Caine). The plan requires precise timing, so much so that one planner tells Lieutenant Gen. Frederick Browning (Dirk Bogarde), "Sir, I think we may be going a bridge too far." The plan also has one critical flaw: Instead of a smattering of German soldiers, the area around Arnhem is loaded with crack SS troops. Disaster ensues. Based on a book by historian Cornelius Ryan, A Bridge Too Far is reminiscent of another movie based on a Ryan book, The Longest Day. Like that movie, it is loaded with more than 15 international stars, including Sir Laurence Olivier, Robert Redford, Hardy Krueger, Gene Hackman, Maximilian Schell, and Liv Ullman. ~ Nick Sambides, Jr., All Movie Guide