Alex van Warmerdam (born August 14, 1952) is a renaissance man. He directs and acts in film and theater, he paints, writes and is a graphic designer. The areas not covered, like music and production are covered by his two brothers; Vincent van Warmerdam and Marc van Warmerdam. Over the last 25 years, (about the time Verhoeven left to the States) he has been the most important auteur in the Netherlands. His style has been described as absurdist, funny, surreal, but above all Dutch, in the sense that he has a great eye for typical habits which represent Dutch culture better than any other filmmaker has. (Dutch characters often speak German in American films) It also gives a possible explanation why his films have not had much attention abroad so far, except for some minor awards in Venice and at the European Film Awards.
Van Warmerdam’s first feature Abel (Voyeur, 1986) is probably still his most famous film. As often, he wrote, directed and plays the main part himself. The film… read more
Alex van Warmerdam (born August 14, 1952) is a renaissance man. He directs and acts in film and theater, he paints, writes and is a graphic designer. The areas not covered, like music and production are covered by his two brothers; Vincent van Warmerdam and Marc van Warmerdam. Over the last 25 years, (about the time Verhoeven left to the States) he has been the most important auteur in the Netherlands. His style has been described as absurdist, funny, surreal, but above all Dutch, in the sense that he has a great eye for typical habits which represent Dutch culture better than any other filmmaker has. (Dutch characters often speak German in American films) It also gives a possible explanation why his films have not had much attention abroad so far, except for some minor awards in Venice and at the European Film Awards.
Van Warmerdam’s first feature Abel (Voyeur, 1986) is probably still his most famous film. As often, he wrote, directed and plays the main part himself. The film is about a 31 year old man ho hasn’t been out of the house for 10 years. He spends his days spying on the neighbours, fighting with his parents and trying to cut a fly in two pieces with a pair of giant scissors. The film takes place in a sort of 50’s atmosphere, but is playfully literal in its details. A peepshow exhibit has litterally written ‘’naked girls’’ over it, and in the entire town people drive only one type of car.
De Noorderlingen (The Northerners, 1992) is Van Warmerdam’s second and his favourite film. As with many of his films, it contains a dysfunctional family, with a father who is addicted to sex and a mother who becames more and more religious. The son, Thomas, escapes in a fantasyworld he created with the help of newsreports about the struggle for independence in Belgian Congo. Perhaps even more absurd than the film’s story is its setting. The entire film takes place in a sort of surreal 60’s new town, with only one street and a forest nearby. Furthermore the film deals with (calvinist) religion, which is still a big part of Dutch values and behavior, especially with the older generations(even when they’re not religious anymore), daily life in all its absurd details, colonialism and fantastic and fairytale-like elements. All of these themes are treated with a high level of satire and nothing is spared. It leads to a bizar little satirical masterpiece that tells more about Dutch society than the filmmaker probably would like to admit. Like Abel, De Noorderlingen was highly succesful in the little Orange country, and ended up in a recently made filmcanon of the 16 best Dutch films ever made. (in list with filmmakers like Ivens, Verhoeven, Zwartjes and Haanstra)
After a few lesser works, like de Jurk (1996, The Dress), Kleine Teun (Little Tony, 1998) and Grimm. (2003) Van Warmerdam had his comeback with Ober, (Waiter, 2006) another dark comedy, this time about a discontented waiter who is constantly bullied and harassed by his customers and has a wife who is sick. Although the film was quite succesful, and came close to some of his better works like Abel and De Noorderlingen, it was beaten by Verhoeven’s Blackbook at the best Dutch film awards, which he criticized and called a shitfilm by two dirty old men. He continued to shock the Dutch filmworld by giving examples of unbelievable parts in Blackbook in a typical van Warmerdam way (‘’the nazi suits weren’t tight enough in Verhoeven’s film, you can say a lot about nazi’s, but those suits fit them perfectly’’) he also commented on Verhoeven’s lack of direction for actress Carice van Houten in a scene where she’s dyeing her pussy and a German officer (Thom Hoffman) suddenly comes in. (‘’you either ask her to touch her pussy or talk to Tom Hoffman, but you can’t do both at the same time.‘’) Verhoeven’s last film De Laatste Dagen van Emma Blank (The Last Days of Emma Blank, 2009) had a relatively succesful festival run, winning a small award in Venice. In Holland it was less successful. The film was nominated for four Dutch film awards, but won none of the awards. —Frank Witkam
