When talking about foreign film, I mean anything not English. I fully understand that for another part of the world, English is the foreign one but let's just assume most people reading this, speak English and take that as the starting ground for this post. Although I'm Dutch myself, I started watching English film from a young age and to me that always felt more normal than Dutch tv. But now that I'm close to my forties and techniques have changed as well as the whole global film industry as a whole, I would like to take you back with me on my personal journey regarding foreign film, in this part specifically, Dutch film.
I remember being a teen and going to the cinema every single week as they had special priced tickets every Monday when they used to showcase a brand-new (soon to come) movie. The surprise of which movie it would be was nice as well as the fact that it didn't cost an arm and a leg to go to the cinema. Visiting the cinema on Mondays has been a tradition for a few years during my teens.
It happened every once in a while that they would air a foreign movie such as French or something Asiatic. I forgot one of these movies that was quite a famous one in the end, but I felt so annoyed having to check the subs constantly, I prefer being able to listen without reading as well.
And then there was the first Dutch production that made an impact and made me think for the very first time: "wow, this was actually a great movie!". I had to look up what the title was "Lek" and I could only find it back now because I remembered the role of actor Cas Jansen and could go back in his movie history to fact check my memory. After all, that's 23 years ago we're speaking about. It was not the movie that made such a huge impact that I want to discuss it here but this was the moment that a huge shift in Dutch movie productions was made and people started to rave more and more about our "very own" Dutch productions.
Once this movie came out, more and more Dutch productions appeared in a rapid pace and they became better and better by every year that followed.
Nowadays there are so many great Dutch movies being released that it's quite hard to decide which ones are favourites of mine because I honestly consider something a favourite when I can easily watch something over and over again. Not immediately, but the next year and after etc. Looking back, I personally have more affinity with Dutch TV shows than movies because I'm really impressed when a show can put me on the tip of my chair for 10 or more episodes rather than just 1,5 hours during a movie.
Let's check out two of the famous and classic movie productions from Dutch soil, maybe you have seen them? Make sure to put English subs in the settings when watching it if you don't understand Dutch.
One of Paul Verhoeven's masterpieces is Turks Fruit. With Monique van de Ven and Rutger Hauer, two famous Dutch actors, playing the main characters in the movie, this is an absolute must watch classic if you love foreign movies. Although I wasn't even born when it came out, I even remember the buzz about this movie even in my childhood. It was definitely not suitable for kids. As it's been forever since I've seen it, I want to share with you this great review which is actually about the book but the author decides to re-watch the movie after reading it as well. I wouldn't have been able to share this better and while the trailer of this old movie is not that appealing, make sure to read this if you're curious about the movie.
In another genre, action and thriller, I'd like to share with you Amsterdamned from 1988 which I believe is a classic from Dutch production as well. Both movies shared were produced decades before my love for Dutch film started to grow. This movie is about some grewsome murders taking place in Amsterdamn and detective Visser (played by Huub Stapel, another famous actor from Dutch bottom) is following the killer around.
The movie is famous for the stunt scenes as they are so much better compared to the other movies released until then. Check out the trailer if you haven't seen it yet and love this genre.
I'm going to stick to the classics for this post but will surely return with some more modern movies in the future.
To stay within the classic theme, I'm sharing two of the very famous tv shows in Holland, both are not as old as the movies shared above, but for me, they definitely date (partially) from a time where Dutch tv shows were not as great as they are nowadays. Both of them have one common denominator which is crime, a lot of crime! It seems that even in the early years, Dutch productions in the crime theme were produced very well and this hasn't changed over the next decades. On the contrary, they seems to match up to the Spanish shows with this topic quite good in some cases. You could ask yourself why that is, I think I have the answer to that.
As with the Spanish shows often focussed on the crimes of big drug lords as Escobar and El Chapo, which is often based on true events, the (drug) crime rate in Holland seems to go every year, often situations just as violent as the dry by shootings happening in South America, being gang related. Where us Dutchies used to think this stuff only happened on the other side of the world, looking at the news, we know better now. There's been a huge uprise in drug related crimes in that tiny European country and apparently it's at least being a good inspiration for some amazing shows and movies.
Penoza is the very first TV show I found on Dutch tv, on public tv even. I accidentally watched an episode, then forgot about it and missed some follow up episodes, to find it back years later and watch a full season of crime and action. The role of Carmen played by Monique Hendrickx is done so well that I instantly respected her as an actress. She managed to play this role just as good as any male drug lord in another movie or show.
Carmen is the wife of a big drug lord in Holland. The moment he gets executed she takes charge of the family business. Let's say she absolutely nails it and often you will find yourself sitting on the tip of your chair watching this show.
When you've seen the trailer of S1 and are curious about the other seasons (5 of them), they can be found on Youtube as well. On top of that, Penoza was also found in cinema, with the fans being sad once the final chapter was the actual closure of the whole show.
Originating from almost the same period as Penoza, van God los was another one of these classics most people in Holland have seen. That is if you fancy the crime theme, of course. Fun fact is that this show has a different plot and characters in every episode where a true crime is the base for the plot.
I personally don't remember much of the show, but I do remember the movie that dates from 2003 and will leave that trailer below as the season contains different episodes not following one storyline.
Holland sure has a history of crime, action and drug related movies and tv shows. If you like this genre and are not more of a romcom fan only, you can surely find loads of great Dutch movies and tv shows to watch if you're bored and looking for something else. While I started writing this post, I discovered that there are so many great ones to share that I will have to follow up on this post in the future to give you more tips.
This is all for today, any comments below are highly appreciated.
Thanks for reading!
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