greatwes

I just saw this film/documentary again, after 44 (!) years and, like wine, it has improved with age. This is probably because of the time difference - thing truly were different nearly half a century ago. The Memorial Day (May 4) sequence is touching and brilliantly filmed. Haanstra found some WW II footage and re-shot those locations after 20 years with some nifty editing. The(Dutch) commentary was written and spoken by Simon Carmiggelt, a Dutch word smith par excellence, by Haanstra's invitation. I noticed that Carmiggelt knows when to be quiet and let the images speak for themselves. The English VO is by Peter Ustinov. This film is often 'accompanied' by the ten minute short 'Zoo', Haanstra's observations of humans in the Amsterdam zoo Artis. In many instances he placed the camera inside the cages, giving us a look at humans from the animals' perspective. A pearl!

I grew up with Ja Zuster Nee Zuster in the sixties in the Netherlands and to this day I still whistle many of the tunes from this brilliant children's program that aired '67/'68. The producers could have pumped in some extra money and 'hired' the Dam Square for their dance numbers, but they decided to keep it '67-campy and filmed it on a back lot. Many tongue-in-cheek references to that era: on the TV we see the baptism of Prince Willem Alexander, watch 'het Dafje' driving by, the winking picture of then Queen Juliana. The actors are acceptable, but I reminisce about the original performances by Leen Jongewaard, Hetty Blok and Wim Sonneveld. The current 'Nurse Klivia' does a mediocre 'Groningen' accent and mixes it with an Amsterdam accent. Hetty would cringe... . And yes, Annie M.G. Schmidt did write those lyrics to 'Fuchsia' on purpose. A final word: Please, please a P.C. Hooft Award for Annie. Posthumously, but NOW!