Une noble intention

When you leave the Central Station of Amsterdam you see the Victoria hotel. This hotel was build at the end of the 19th century. When you look a little better you see there is something strange with the hotel, it has encapsulated a house.

The inhabitant of this house, the violin builder Walter Vedder (Gijs Scholten van Aschat) and his cousin Christof Anijs (Jacob Derwig) are the main characters of a novel by Thomas Rosenboom that Joram Lursen in 2015 adapted into the film "A noble intention".

The two main characters live in very different circumstances. One (Walter Vedder) lives in the big city of Amsterdam, the other (Christof Anijs) in the countryside of Hoogeveen, in the North of Holland. Amsterdam was growing again after the Golden Age of the 17th century and the city expended beyond the canal belt. Hoogeveen was on the decline as peat was substituted more and more by oil. One is speculating on the selling price of his house that must be bought (he thought), because otherwise the hotel can't be realised. The other is helping poor farmers that cannot pay the bill of the doctor. He works as a pharmacist, although without the necessary licenses.

Despite their differences the two main characters are not only cousins but also idealists working on a joint plan. The profit on the house of Vedder will be used to provide loans to poor farmers in Hoogeveen. With these loans the farmers can finance their emigration to the United States. With their earnings in the United States the farmers will amortize their loans.

This plan already goes wrong in the first step. Imagining that he is sitting on a mountain of gold, Vedder loses his grip on reality and overplays his hand. He becomes more and more of a recluse, wating on an offer that never comes.

The story thus takes on characteristics of both "Repulsion" (1965, Roman Polanski) with respect to the reclusion of Vedder, and the character of Scrooge (Charles Dickens) in reverse, with respect to noble intentions evolving into greed in stead of the other way round.

"A noble intention" was one of the most expensive Dutch productions ever. Integrating computer generated images of old buildings with material shot on location was one of the technical challenges. On close inspection some of these transitions are not completely invisible.

Based on a fictional Dutch book speculating on how the two 19th century homes that the Victoria Hotel was built around came to be. Amsterdam's Central Station is directly across the street from the Victoria Hotel, which was built in the late 1880's. If you look closely at the hotel you will notice that there are two single dwellings that the hotel was built around. This is the story of how that came to be and it involves three cousins and the attempt to help some poor peat farmers achieve a better life in America.

This is a very sad but well meaning drama. The letter from the peat farmers really saved this from being a total tragedy. I loved the images of the hotel then and the hotel now.

It is the precursor to my city's Up house (which sadly I witnessed the monstrous fitness center, etc being built around a poor old lady's home here in Seattle ), with the exception that in the modern build they made no attempt to make the building beautiful and the owner wasn't holding out for more money...she just wanted to live in peace in her home.

Despite an expensive production, the narrative is unconvincing. "Value of location" is one of the main topics of the film. Nonetheless, the film does not give the viewer a sense of place.

The choice and ordering of scenes undermine any tension to be build up. The different story lines do not support, but destroy each other. Important changes in the plot are not properly introduced or visually translated. As a result the gradual emotional breakdown of the violin maker, one of the main characters, is not convincing. The end scene of the doctor, the other main character, is so ridiculous and pathetic that it melts down the entire Hoogeveen storyline. Vital themes such as social injustice, or the arrival of modernity are treated as interchangeable backdrop. A relevant storyline is lacking.

By result the causality of the narrative breaks down and all events become arbitrary.

Pretty frustrating, as Rosenboom's success novel must have had all layers in place. A film can never be as rich as a novel, but a film must present those strings that contain the story. That is unfortunately not the case here.

Very irritating: the diction of the actors, especially their accents, which is typical of people working for national radio and TV in the Netherlands. "Bekakt Goois". In Hoogeveen.

Visually stunning but with a story that presents a dreary view of late 19th century Amsterdam. A pharmacist and his cousin concoct a plan to emigrate poor peat workers to America when an investor decides to build a luxury hotel and buy up downtown properties. They see an opportunity to pocket some money and offer the peasants a new start in the land of the free. Things don't go well in negotiations lending to some tragic results. Slower paced but excellent performances keep A Noble Intention interesting if flawed.