Die letzten Tage der Emma Blank

I can't understand why Alex Warmerdam's movies haven't reached a larger audience. Quirky, bizarre, original dialog, beautiful setting, great actors - with wife Annet Malherbe always the true star. His latest is a remake of a play and plays out like one. I thought the Dutch dunes were portrayed fabulously and the house was a marvel. The acting great, with national promise Eva van de Wijdeven putting down a stellar performance that matches young French actresses like the girl who played in Swimming Pool and our own Carice. The plot is as with all his screenplays disturbing yet hilarious, isolated yet universal, crazy yet supernormal. The guy cracks me up. Give him a global distributor for God's sake!

Of course, the plot is not the same as PARASITE, from South Korea, but the atmosphere and tone are very close one to the other. Dark comedy, second degree, subtle, a terrific social and characters study. Maybe it should be watched several times, but the script is very accurate and splendidly shown. But I don't think wide audiences should appreciate this little gem.

It's a shame the movie does not keep one pace or sticks with its concept and instead opts to change gears every now and then. Unfortunately when it does so, it almost falls flat on its back. Funny, quirky and anything but political correct and still somehow predictable after awhile. Not completely of course, but enough to make a weird balance (not in a good way that is).

The acting is good and the idea is very nice. But again it changes too often in tone (not visually, just mood-wise) to stick with you. Or at least me that is. Of course it depends on your level of tolerance and how much you like those sort of movies anyway.

The questions come to mind .. a)how does he choose the scripts... b)are the followers closet deadpan humour addicts? .. and on and on and on..

If you know AVW's movies, this is in line of others. You have to catch on - read the motivations of the characters - like in real life, people usually don't spiel out monologues like in Hamlet.

It is funny, quirky, yeah..all that. But it is a bit dark too. The fist 30min is the most intriguing as each character review themself - you are like meeting new ppl in a party. The next hour or so goes deep into the relationships, and the last bit... well.. I really can't remember, since I saw this last year. But darn thing is I remember the ending of Die Hard 1.

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

at first sigh - cruel. mixture of theater play and horror title. in fact, only honest picture from a part of ordinary existence. this is its key. the credible chain of gestures and dialogs. the details of action. the brilliant gray acting. a film as warning about sickness, pity, roles in a group, links between people. a wise film, far of usual traps, clear and grave, profound and clear as a water glass. each character as drawing of a state of soul. the performance of Marlies Heuer is really beautiful. the work of her colleagues - impressive. must see it ! not only as a special Dutch film. but as question about roots of decisions of every day.