Leedvermaak

Even the most joyous weddings can be a time for melancholy reflection, and when the past intrudes on the reception for a newly married Dutch Jewish couple it brings back memories of survivor's guilt for the parents, who during World War II had abandoned their daughter to safe hiding before being forced into Nazi prison camps. The same specter of guilt haunts the rest of the party as well, with the bride and groom both entering their second marriage and each ex-spouse attending the ceremony. Just keeping all the faces straight can be quite a challenge, but if the wedding is chaotic the film itself is confident and well crafted. Stylistically it exists in that uncomfortable limbo between theater and screen: the script is full of meaningful stage dialogue, while the presentation is visually fluid. Audiences outside the film festival circuit may never get a chance to see it, but anyone looking for something more than popcorn entertainment will find it a thoughtful drama worth searching out.

It seems as if director Frans Weisz is focusing more and more on intimate family relations in his films as he gets older. After working on comedy and musicals in the Seventies and dramas in the Eighties, he made a film version of Judith Herzberg's play "Leedvermaak". The play, also known as 'Polonaise', was first performed in 1983 and based on improvisations by the original cast. The film version turned out to be the first in a trilogy chronicling a family that is still suffering because of the Halocaust generations after the fact.

Lea (Catherine ten Bruggencate) and Nico (Pierre Bokma) are getting married and her parents, Ada (Kitty Courbois) and Simon (Peter Oosthoek) throw them an extravagant party. The entire event is being caught on video by Lea's ex Alexander (Hugo Haenen). A number of guests have prepared the usual silly and embarrassing musical numbers to perform, including Nico's stepmother Duifje (Sigrid Koetse). But despite all of this, the subject of the holocaust keeps rearing it's ugly head in conversation, as Ada and Simon are both Auschwitz survivors and Nico's father Zwart (Rijk de Gooyer) lost his first wife in the war. Also attending is the woman who sheltered Lea during that time: Riet (Annet Nieuwenhuyzen).

The entire film takes place in the time leading up to, during and just after the wedding party. There are a lot of characters to keep track off and a whole bunch of instrumental versions of Sixties and Seventies hits performed by The Bach Boys led by Pim Oosthoek in the background. Although the story is supposed to be set in the Seventies, Alexander's video camera seem to stem from a later era. All during the party, people of various ages contemplate sex, death, lost loves, future loves that may be or may have been, and turning on the lights when you get home.

The film was critically lauded and received a number of prices, including 'Golden Calf' awards for Weisz, Bokma and Nieuwenhuijzen. This inspired the director, the playwright and the entire cast to reunite a dozen years later for "Qui vive" (following the same family in the Eighties) and another eight years after that with "Happy End" (the final part set in the Nineties). This is especially notice worthy as neither of the first two films was a substantial big hit outside the art house crowd and the films remain relatively unknown with the greater part of the Dutch audience.

7 out of 10

shadows from past. a wedding. dialogs about forbidden themes. a show. and the ash taste of a movie about family but, more important, about the signification of the roots. the Shoah is only the axis. the choices, the memories, the need of new beginning, the cold words and the exercises of reconciliation who are only new start for new crisis. a film who seems not be real original. not exactly for its status as adaptation of a play but for the pieces who are not originals for a genre of film. so, its virtue is the cruel honesty to remind and to use known tools for the sketch of profound pain who seems be only part of the past. a powerful film. who could be a puzzle of Brueghel 's fools parties and inspired manner to talk about a dark page from the XX th century.