De boezemvriend

The movie was a poor remake or "interpretation" of Danny Kaye's "The Inspector General" (1949) which was based on Gogol's "The Revisor". Either you love A. van Duin or you don't. There is no accounting for taste. Maybe you can't argue with success either, but it is Carry On vs Monty Python, when you prefer van Duin over Koot & Bie. The film itself was indeed a vehicle to cash in on the man's popularity. The Dutch film industry had turned from plain, decent and descriptive to sexy or just randy (Turkish Delight or Blue Movie) when this kind of movie hit the billboards. And after it the Verhoeven's and so on were successful in the US. Then Theo van Gogh came...and was killed.

This movie is bad, bad acting (to be honest, extreme OVERacting) and the only person who saves this piece of horses##t is Van Duin himself. The most dutch directors are pretty bad, and in this movie that is pretty noticable. It's just like the director tries to wipe away the true talent of Andre, whom I advice to go sit on the director's chair himself. I loved Andre when I was a kid, and I am still gratefull for the fun he gave me on tv during his saturdaynight shows. And he is still one of the best Dutch comedians. God bless you, Andre!

De Boezemvriend won't ring a bell to that many people. It's a long lost and forgotten Dutch comedy, but...a very enjoyable one. The chosen few who'll have the change to see it one day won't regret it. But it is hard to find. I taped it off TV once in the early 90's. I still have that tape and re-watched it recently. But it hasn't been on tv since.

De Boezemvriend is all about the charismatic face of leading actor André Van Duin. He's a funny-looking reddish man, who uses different tones of voice when he speaks. He's a famous and well respected comedian in the Dutch-speaking countries. He did movies, TV-shows, stand-up comedy acts and a lot of other stuff. He was on the peak of his success when this movie was shot...you don't hear much about him nowadays and that's a shame. I was a huge fan of his and I still think he was the best comedian in all Belgium and the Netherlands. De Boezemvriend is set in the time of Napoleon. Van Duin character is some sort of dentist who has to run for Napoleon troops because the want to recruit him as a soldier. During his hike, he gets mistaken for a French baron and a close friend to the emperor. De Boezemvriend contains a few truly hilarious scenes and an overall funny screenplay. The costumes and decors are fairly decent and I consider that to be a huge positive point, since it's only a small Dutch production. Van Duin's facial expressions are a joy to watch and the (former) Dutch beauty Vanessa shows a LOT of cleavage. What more do you want ??

This is typical an example of a simple humor comedy film. The best Dutch comedian Andre van Duin is the main character and leads the film, but without him the film is still very fun. Some other users think this is a bad acting film, this is not true. You should not take this film very seriously, or else I bet you'll find it a 'bad acting' film. Everything is just weird just like the whole story, but this is what they attempted with 'De Boezemvriend'.

If you have a chance to see this movie, watch it, it's still a very enjoyable movie. As you may already know, this film has not been released to DVD. Perhaps you'll find it on a VHS some day.

Possibly, this is a point of discussion, but I don't think there are a lot of Dutch people that don't remember André van Duin's old shows, and most of those will remember this gem; de Boezemvriend.

The humour, when looking back, is typically van Duin and by that logic, won't appeal to a lot of people....and with people I mean adults. But it will appeal powerfully to all van Duin fans and maybe even to all Dutch people. This movie was quite immensely popular and still is quite a hit on Dutch television.

The story line is ludicrous at best, the movie takes place in the time of Napoleon and has as little to do with reality as might humanly be possible.

As for the international audience...I don't know, I would advise you to take a look, even if it is only to see the once-hot Vanessa (you don't want to see her now).