The greatest flop you never heard of
Nitwits was supposed to be Nikolai van der Heyde's glorious comeback as a filmmaker after years of working in the advertisement business. It became one of the biggest flops in Dutch cinema ever (and that's saying something). This alleged comedy was torn to pieces by every available critic and left the cinema's after one week. The plot concerns an over the hill C-list actor (played by Ramses Shaffy) who has an extra marital affair with an actress 20 years his junior (Monique Rosier).
Besides running to and fro between his wife and his lover, the unstoppable actor is also starring in a play at night and filming commercials (how ironic for Van der Heyde) during the day. The movie turned out to be one big incoherent mess, with only the lovely Rosier's appearance slightly bearable. To top it all off, writer/director Van der Heyde brought the avalanche of negativity down on himself by doing a cameo in the final scene of the film.
In the late Eigthies Dutch cinema goers were very reluctant to go see a film in their native language anyway, as all productions were either W.W.II movies or sub par sex comedies (like this one). Co-funded by KRO television, a 'Making of' special was produced by Maria Peters, but never broadcast because of the movies immediate withdrawal from cinema screens. Eventually they did broadcast "Nitwits" as a mini series with extra footage in Januari 1990, which of course nobody watched either. The theatrical version has never been seen on television and remains unreleased on VHS or DVD till this day. So if anyone has a recording of any of the three parts that were shown on TV, you've got some pretty unique material there.
Unratable
Besides running to and fro between his wife and his lover, the unstoppable actor is also starring in a play at night and filming commercials (how ironic for Van der Heyde) during the day. The movie turned out to be one big incoherent mess, with only the lovely Rosier's appearance slightly bearable. To top it all off, writer/director Van der Heyde brought the avalanche of negativity down on himself by doing a cameo in the final scene of the film.
In the late Eigthies Dutch cinema goers were very reluctant to go see a film in their native language anyway, as all productions were either W.W.II movies or sub par sex comedies (like this one). Co-funded by KRO television, a 'Making of' special was produced by Maria Peters, but never broadcast because of the movies immediate withdrawal from cinema screens. Eventually they did broadcast "Nitwits" as a mini series with extra footage in Januari 1990, which of course nobody watched either. The theatrical version has never been seen on television and remains unreleased on VHS or DVD till this day. So if anyone has a recording of any of the three parts that were shown on TV, you've got some pretty unique material there.
Unratable
- Chip_douglas
- Nov 18, 2005