Ja zuster, nee zuster

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!

It's kind of funny, in America and other countries this movie is very popular by homosexual people (the DVD release there even has a pink cover), while in The Netherlands this movie is regarded as a children's movie based on a '60's almost entirely lost (tapes were too expensive in the '60's for the Dutch broadcasting stations that other material was recorded over the original tapes.) TV-series that was made for the entire family.

This movie is made in the same style as those campy, over-the-top American musical movies such as "Singin' in the Rain" and "An American in Paris". So fans of those types of movies will already be delighted by this movie. Further more this movie also reminded me of those old MGM comedies from the '30's and '40's.I have to admit that I'm not really a big fan of musicals. Why? Because normally a musical movie features about maybe 2 good songs and the rest is absolute fodder. I however enjoyed every musical number in "Ja zuster, nee zuster", not only because most songs are very well known old sing-along-songs written by Annie M.G. Schmidt and composer Harry Bannink but also because they have a very high fun-level. The musical numbers are so ridiculously over-the-top that they become fun to listen to and definitely watch at.

The story really isn't the most essential part of the movie. This is one of those movies that really don't need a story at all. This movie is all about the atmosphere and the characters that are in it. The typical '60's atmosphere this movie is set in is truly notable in the houses and their interiors and the characters are highly fun. Normally Dutch movies have the tendency to put as many as possible famous Dutch names in a movie as possible. The cast of "Ja zuster, nee zuster" mainly consists out of fairly unknown actors (with the exception of Loes Luca, Paul de Leeuw and some actors in small cameo roles) which I absolutely applaud.

Especially to you Americans, don't let the pink movie cover scare you off! I can assure you as a straight adult male person that this movie is good, clean, entertaining fun for the entire family.

9/10

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Only two years, at the end of the sixties, Dutch national tv featured the tv-series Ja zuster, Nee zuster. Intended as a children's programme, writer Annie MG Schmidt added so much refinement to the script that adults (parents or not) were equally keen to watch the adventures of the tenants in a nursing home. Following some misplaced economies, most of the series was not kept for future generations. All this added to the myth of Ja zuster, Nee zuster, a myth that was not entirely shared by Annie Schmidt herself. (BTW The brilliant combination with composer Harry Bannink produced a number of songs, that are still being sung today, 35 years later.) On one hand the movie closely resembles the original tv-series. The characters are similar, and with great care the songs have been re-styled and visualised. The story line has been adapted, hence the greater emphasis on some characters. Again, the movie is full of innuendo, which needs not restrain anyone from viewing. Nowhere it is vulgar. The visualization is brilliant, as are the choreographies. The cast is very well composed, and all characters are played in a very natural way. This might be the first movie in all my life I will go and see more than once in the cinema, before acquiring the DVD for home viewing. Needless to say that this movie deserves the highest acclaim and recommendations.

Maybe you won't get to experience a full Castro Theater singing along with the star of the movie, but I think you'll enjoy it almost as much as I did! And while it played in the 27th San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, it isn't really a Gay film. It's just a movie that has a special appeal to a Gay audience. I doubt that most of the audience speaks Dutch. I doubt that most of the audience had ever heard any of the songs. I had no idea that this movie had its origins in a long lost '60s Dutch TV series. None of this mattered. The movie was silly and just plain fun. The characters burst out in song and start dancing. There were bits and pieces that reminded me of '60s American musical and others that reminded me of British sit-coms. There were heroes and villains. There is growth and change. The Dutch Queen even comes to visit. Yes Nurse, No Nurse could never have been made in the US. And that's a good thing.

Happy comment on the 60-ties in the pre-hippie era, where everything had to be neat and tidy. The story is about a household ruled by a good and naive nurse that has to compete with a nasty neighbour. The film was made after the television series, that turned some characters' behaviour more into a running gag than a film is able to do. The original TV-series only remain to exist in the memory of people as the tape copies were reused and thus destroyed in the pre-VCR times. Based on the concepts of the series a new script was made with a simple storyline that makes up a nice base for singing (of the original songs) and dancing. Most of the songs are now classics by writer Annie M.G. Schmidt and composer Harrie Bannink, who both recently died. I think nevertheless that it is a very Dutch movie. Subtilties are harder to understand for outsiders. One other goof found. In the scene with the singing flight attendants, a model plane is used of a 747-400. It was introduced in 1988. Even a 747 is questionable as it wasn't launched until 1969 and KLM took it's first one into operation in 1971.