De avonden

I enjoyed this film of the beloved Dutch novel, although I'm sure there are a lot of culture specific references I missed.

The dark, odd humor of Frits, a somewhat lost young man in his early 20s, who still lives at home and can't seem to make the leap to full adulthood is appealing, with a undertone of sadness. And the film shares his vaguely surreal, blackly comedic outlook. His mantra; "Things are bad. Otherwise I'm fine."

He is obsessed with a stuffed rabbit, confused about his sexuality, and completely out of sync with his parents.

What the film lacked, for me, was the deeply moving and even tragic power of the story to which I've now heard it compared several times "A Catcher in the Rye". This felt lighter, less substantial, if similar in seeing the world subjectively through the eyes of a less than centered young man. I quite liked it it, and will re-see it, but it didn't pack the kind of punch for me that Salinger's novel did.

Rudolf van den Berg makes a recognizable film of the novel by Gerard Reve with the same title. It is a difficult novel to make a movie because one has to enter into the complicated psychology of the young man Frits van Egters (a convincing Thom Hoffman) living with his parents. He has a difficulty to grow up and his contact with friends, neighbours, women are rather unsatisfactory so he prefers to make love with his rabbit-doll. The music by Bob Zimmerman gives the necessary rhythm to the slow pace of the movie. One likes to watch the strange dialogues of Frits with his indifferent father (Rijk De Gooier). The scenes are showing us the repetitive life of a Dutch family after the war, where nothing ever happens. But the director catches the inner passion of Frits who wants to unravel his secret "real life" to his parents who apparently do not understand him but feel compassion for him. At two times Frits thinks he is dead and he sees his mourning parents at his death-bed. So now they know definitely what they lost he thinks but some moments after he is again confronted with the

furniture of the living-room which has another sight by the frog-perspective of the camera. This seems to be the way he sees his life: from below. He finds only some emotional satisfaction by talking to his rabbit, rather than to human beings.

If it had been written in English instead of Dutch, Gerard Reve's first novel 'De Avonden' (the evenings, 1947) would probably have won international acclaim. Frits van Egters, the main character, could have become the antihero of a generation, like Holden Caufield in Salinger's 'Cather in the Rye' or Jimmy Porter in Osborne's 'Look Back in Anger'. Frits is an emotionally and socially disoriented, sensitive young man, who tries to hide his uncertainty and vulnerability behind his aloofness and a compulsive need to tell shocking jokes. 'De Avonden' gives a realistic picture of drab daily life in post-war Holland. However, underneath this deceptive realism, there a looms a world of fear, truly black humour and repressed (homo-)eroticism. 'De Avonden' was generally considered highly unsuited to be turned into a film, but director Rudolf van den Berg proved everybody wrong. He succeeded in combining the realistic and surreal elements of the novel into a beautiful, sensitive and monumental film, which merits to be seen by more than just Dutch and Flemish viewers, although the BBC broadcast it in the beginning of the 90's. Long live Auntie Beep.

how many times can one say:i liked the movie better than the book? in this case one can.i liked the book very well though,but the movie is lifted to a higher level by Thom Hoffman.Thom Hoffman has never done comedy and is known in Holland for his dark and depressing characters ,but he plays Frits van Egters with a fine sense of humor .Frits comes to an age that he must admit that his parents are only human and if he wants to make something out of his live he must do it all by himself.he must leave his fantasies behind and grow up. Thom plays the part in a way we can all recognize the incompleteness of our parents and ourselves,things we all get to deal with wen we grow up. pleasantly cynical by nature, for me this is the best dutch film ever made.