Pierre Bokma Movies

A put-upon, middle-aged waiter whose life seems to be dictated by the writings of his best friend begs the author of his colorless autobiography for a new hue in a film writer, star, and director Alex van Warmerdam's absurdist take on fate, creativity, and power. A virtual human punching bag for his demanding wife, formidable mistress, and boisterous neighbors, Edgar (van Warmerdam) waits tables at a decrepit dive restaurant known as The West. But work offers no escape from the draining demands of his everyday life, because Edgar's customers are just as unrepentantly abusive as his friends and family. Herman (Mark Reitman) is the author in charge of telling the tale of Edgar's miserable existence, but as persistently as the hapless waiter implores the relentless writer for a merciful break in the madness of his life, Herman's sadistic wife Suzie (Thekla Reuten) always seems to steer Edgar's life in the most disagreeable direction possible. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Larry (Burt Reynolds) is a middle-aged, ex-hippie, second-hand bookstore owner who has settled into a reclusive existence following his arrival in Amsterdam 30-years-ago. The appearance of a girl who resembles a lost-love from long ago sparks a vitality that slowly brings the intelligent but curmudgeonly hermit out of his shell. His memory and youth reinvigorated as he enters into a fond friendship with the likeable Aisha (Carmen Chaplin), Larry is flooded with memories as he begins to recapture the carefree optimism of his youth. Quickly invited to attend a party in which Aisha celebrates her coming of age, an elated Larry is transported back to his happier days in Morocco and soon finds that love may not be as elusive as he had previously thought. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

In this Dutch drama, the alcoholic tendencies of an up-and-coming young lawyer get him into a situation where he must make a decision that could make or break his career. It is a sensitive time for Ernst Quispel. At home, he is having trouble with his wife and his father, who is pressuring him to join the family law firm. His drinking is also getting progressively heavier and one night, while particularly drunk, he is arrested along with a group of violent skinheads. While locked up, one of the youths dies and Ernst watches while the police deftly sweep the matter under the carpet. The dilemma comes up when Ernst is forced to decide whether or not to testify in the court inquest demanded by the dead boy's parents. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Though it is hardly the reputation the Netherlands has around the world, this small nation has significant numbers of very dedicated religious believers, and many of them are to be found in small towns or on islands away from the big cities. In this story, one such group dominates life on an island off the coast from Rotterdam. In the story, a group of adolescents have grown up together in this wholesomely close-knit, if slightly repressed, community. They even remain friends after they discover the joys and terrors of sex. Each of them goes on to adult occupations. One becomes an accomplished musician, and another, the preacher's son, comes back to the island as an important reporter. While he is there a horrible murder takes place, and he becomes involved in the investigations that follow. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Unlike the reclusive J.D. Salinger, who has never allowed any of his stories or novels to be made into movies, this 1947 Dutch novel, which was to the same generation of youngsters growing up in the Netherlands what The Catcher In The Rye was for Americans, was made into a well-appreciated film in 1989. In the story, Fritz van Egters (Thom Hoffman) has already flunked out of college, and is suffering through a boring office job. He still lives at home with his tiresomely doctrinaire communist parents, and has a set of friends who don't do much to excite interest either. The time period of the film is Fritz's Christmas to New Year's holiday break, during which he seeks to find some escape from the tedium of his life. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

The Dutch-filmed Assault was based on a novel by Harry Mulisch. Presented in a non-linear, flashback/flashword fashion, the film tells the story of a physician whose family was killed by the Nazis during World War II. This came about after the family's neighbors dragged the body of a dead collaborator to their doorstep. The doctor spends his entire adult life trying to find out why his neighbors had betrayed his family. At various isolated moments of political upheaval in Europe, the doctor comes closer and closer to the truth. During a 1984 anti-missile rally, the mystery is solved--and the answer is more complex than anyone back in 1945 had imagined. The hero's "growth" is thus placed in the context of the international turmoil of the four decades following the war. Marc van Uchelen plays the main character as a 12-year-old, while Derek de Lint portrays the adult physician. In a nicely underplayed symbolic touch, Monique van de Ven is cast in a dual role, playing de Lint's wife in the "present" scenes, and an older woman who is murdered by the Nazis because she shelters young van Uchelen in the flashback sequences. The Assault was the "best foreign film" Academy Award winner of 1987. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide