Hans Veerman Movies
- 2001
Post-teenage angst sets the stage for this low-key drama from the Netherlands. Leen (Fedja van Huet) was born and raised in a quiet fishing village along the coast of Holland. Leen's hometown is the sort of place where nothing much ever happens, and as he's grown into adulthood, he's become bored and frustrated with his lot in life, though he doesn't know what to do about his ennui beyond riding his motorcycle, drinking lots of beer, and listening to death metal with his buddies Daan (Frank Lammers) and Jacob (Freek Brom), who are trying to put a band together. Leen's mother (Will van Kralingen) is just as bored and even more lonely, and has begun to display a decidedly sexual interest in her son. A chance meeting with a man from Ireland (Marin Dunne) finally gives Leen a goal, as he makes plans to move to Dublin, but actually leaving his hometown behind turns out to be a lot harder for Leen than he thought. Writer and director Erik de Bruyn, who made his debut with Wilde Mossels, based his screenplay on experiences from his own youth. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fedja van Huêt
- 1994
This award winning biographical drama is based on the autobiography of Dutch poet Valentine Boecke. It is also the Netherlands' entry in the Oscars. Valentine Boeck is in his twenties and has already become a cult figure in Dutch coffeehouses. He is not only famed for his writing, but also, for his militant non-conformity and drug usage. His life's motto is simply that all actions must be followed by a reaction. Boecke was raised by a dictatorial father whom Boecke rebelled against. While it became the source of many great poems, it also made normal relationships and emotions difficult for him. He had a life changing event when he met Mieke the teacher who encouraged him when he was young. He meets her again after her life has taken a downward spiral of alcoholism and internalized rage. He is drawn to her and they make passionate love. She disappears, but then returns a few months later--pregnant. He then must deal with his conflicting emotions, that of paternity and entrapment. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Antonie Kamerling, Loes Wouterson, (more)
- 1989
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
- Starring:
- Geert de Jong, Theu Boermans, (more)
- 1986
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
- Starring:
- Peter Faber, Geert de Jong, (more)
When an attempted political coup in Northern Italy fails, most of the mercenaries hired by the coup leaders disperse. Not so Martin (Rutger Hauer), who intends to rob his duplicitous former employer Arnolfini (Fernando Hillbeck). Martin is able to raise his own army by using a stolen religious artifact as a talisman. He later kidnaps Arnolfini's prospective daughter-in-law Agnes (Jennifer Jason Leigh),who saves herself from gang rape by feigning eternal devotion to her captor. Weeks of plunder and destruction follow, with a deadly plague thrown into the stew. Flesh and Blood has also been released under the title The Rose and the Sword. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rutger Hauer, Jennifer Jason Leigh, (more)
- 1985
Quick-paced and sobering, this docudrama focuses on a tragedy that occurred in the 1890s in northern Holland. Those were desperate times, and a harsh winter did nothing to alleviate starvation and the consequent looting of foodstuffs. Farmers -- who were better off than the rest of their compatriots -- in particular were the target of looters, so when three masked men broke into the home of one such farmer, it was not exactly an unexpected occurrence. Two men were wounded by gunfire, and in a bogus trial, three brothers were convicted of the crime even though it was clear they were far from the scene at that time. A scorned lover of one of the brothers was only too happy to lie and testify against them. Feelings ran so high that even when the schoolmaster proved they could not have committed the crime, and after new evidence established the guilt of the real perpetrators, the legal system refused to reconsider the case against the brothers. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
This stylish erotic thriller gained a cult following for its frank treatment of bisexuality, bizarre visuals, and an extremely sexy performance by Renee Soutendijk as a woman who may or may not have killed her three previous husbands. Jeroen Krabbe is terrific as the intended fourth, a broken-down bisexual writer who is pulled into Soutendijk's web like an unsuspecting fly. Bloody and erotic, De Vierde Man will also interest fans of director Paul Verhoeven, who returned to many of the same themes in his smash American hit Basic Instinct. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeroen Krabbé, Renée Soutendijk, (more)
- 1983
Black humor dominates in this macabre story about a murderously animated elevator and its repairman Felix (Huub Stapel) and Felix's voluntary new assistant Mieke (Willeke van Ammelrooy), a reporter for a tabloid paper. When the elevator decapitates a security guard and tries to suffocate some party-goers, it becomes obvious that it needs more than a 60,000-mile check-up. After Felix narrows down the possibilities to some experiments his company is doing with microchips, he is coincidentally suspended from his job -- indicating that the elevator is not acting alone. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Huub Stapel, Willeke van Ammelrooy, (more)
- 1981
In the late 1920s a lower-class bricklayer and part-time accordion player became a kind of pariah in the small Dutch town where he lived because of his anarchic views and his inner upheaval in trying to reconcile his beliefs to his actions. He falls in love with a married woman (Marja Kok), and they eventually consummate their relationship when the husband is thrown in jail. The anarchist asks the woman to move in with him as his housekeeper, and she does so, sending her six children to the poorhouse. This act inflames the town's authorities, and legal orders are written up for her to return to her home and take care of her children. When she refuses to do so, four policemen arrive to bring her out by force, and that is when the anarchist decides to take matters into his own hands. The woman of this story was still alive when this film was released; she saw it, and testified that it was an accurate account of what had happened then. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gerard Thoolen, Marja Kok, (more)
Spetters further elaborates on the themes of sexual obsession previously probed in director Paul Verhoeven's Turkish Delight (1973). Hans Van Tongeren, Toon Agterberg and Maarten Spanjer play, respectively, Reen, Eve and Hans, a closely-knit group of teenage motorcycle lovers who idolize local cycling champion Witkamp (played by Rutger Hauer, the star of Delight). Unfortunately, the adolescents' attempts to rebel take a dark and brutal turn when Van Tongeren is permanently injured in a road accident and Agterberg is gang raped by a group of homosexuals. While the other two young men lust after Fientje (Renee Soutendjik), a promiscuous hashhouse waitress, Agterberg responds to the rape by coming out and taking Fientje's gay brother as a lover. Verhoeven is artistically and sexually graphic in juxtaposing "cycle love" with the friends' carnal interrelations. The title of Spetters is an indigenous triple-entendre -- it refers to the Dutch vernacular for "grease spatterings" (both the oily renderings left behind by the motorcycles commandeered by the film's central characters and the grease slung by Soutendjik), is a slang term for male ejaculate, and was frequently used in the seventies and eighties to refer to people who are sexually appealing ("That girl is a spetter.")
~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hans Van Tongeren, Renée Soutendijk, (more)
- 1979
- R
Laura (Bibi Andersson) has long been divorced from her theater-critic husband Alfred (Anthony Perkins), though they still see one another from time to time. One day, while working at the icon museum she directs, Laura strikes up a conversation with Sylvia (Sandra Dumas). The two take a shine to one another immediately, and soon they are in bed together. This begins to lead to problems, because Sylvia is young and still lives at home with her parents, who are beginning to suspect something has been going on. Ex-husband Alfred chimes in, saying that Laura should be more careful. By this time, Alfred and Sylvia have also become lovers, as Laura soon discovers. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bibi Andersson, Anthony Perkins, (more)
