Karakter

Character is one of the best period films I have ever seen, and the enormous quantity of very interesting aspects in it make it worth watching.

I saw this film with the natural curiosity that a best foreign film Academy Award arouses in many people, and I was really delighted and surprised (Altough, I must admit I had hoped Spain's Secrets of the Heart would win). The story is quite beautiful, and Mike van Diem created a very solid screen play based on well known Ferdinand Bordewijk's novel.

The film has some extraordinary moments; I must say that the one that impressed me most was the final scene of the film, a scene of great visual impact and also of an incredibly big narrative content; it is the scene that reveals the mystery behind the cruel A.B. Dreverhaven's behaviour.

The performances given out in this film are simply spectacular especially Jan Decleir's as Dreverhaven. I also think Betty Schuurman as Jacob's mother and Victor Löw as De Gankelaar are terrific. One more thing, the art design is beautiful; the image the film gives us of the 1930's Amsterdam is very powerful and very beautiful.

Not only is it a great film then, but it is a story that carries a lot of feelings, and will take you on quiet an emotional ride. I can only say this: enjoy it!

It is not too frequent that we get Dutch programmes of films or TV-minis in this corner of Europe, and when they do appear it is thanks to the regional Basque TV Station `EITB'. Indeed over two years has passed since seeing the excellent mini `Charlotte Sophie Bentinck' (1996) (qv) and seeing the very interesting `Karakter' recently.

Set in the 1920's this film has excellent mise-en-scéne wonderfully photographed, mostly in Holland and Belgium, but with some scenes shot in Wroclaw, Poland, with street-cars of the times, in which the darkened almost greyish brickwork of the tenement buildings and the industrial port areas takes on an intense protagonism in the film's development. Palais van Boem's musical contribution is mostly just right, though at times seemed to be a little boorish.

A young, illegitimate boy grows up with his unmarried mother, whilst the father, Dreverhaven, continuously appeals to her to marry him, but always rejected. However, the father seems to do everything possible to disrupt the young man's life, as his mother becomes more and more detached and uncaring. It would seem that Dreverhaven is playing out a real-life game of chess around his son Jacob, as if trying to corner him into submission and apathy, but which the young man manages to survive. The psychological impression is that one or the other would undo his `bitter foe', but that despite the father's vast fortune and power the struggle of will would rebound against him.But as the Dutch saying goes: ‘De één zijn dood, is de ander zijn brood'

This is no `thriller' in the ordinary sense, more a psychological suspense which requires attention throughout. The acting is magnificent: both Fedja van Huêt and Jan Decleir play out their parts with just the right touch, especially Decleir, and Lou Landré as Rentenstein is almost spellbinding, not to be missed.

Here is another example of the unarguable fact: here in Europe we make cinema, not blockbuster box-office hits.

It's no wonder that this Dutch drama got the 1997 Academy Award for the best foreign country movie in the year of "Titanic". It tells the rise-and-fall-story of a young man in the Netherlands of the 1920's who's working hard to escape from the ghetto and to become an idealistic lawyer. Unfortunately his brutal an tyrannic father fights against him in any possible way, and at the end father and son are facing in a hard fight for life and death.

The story is great, the characters (sic!) of the plot even more, and the acting is pure adrenaline-driven. The whole atmosphere, supported by the dark filming locations of Amsterdam, Belgium, Germany (the Speicherstadt in Hamburg) and Poland, is disturbing and depressing. A great psycho drama and insight into the human psyche with a powerful performance by Jan Decleir as villain Dreverhaven that can easily compete with Anthony Hopkins' Hannibal Lecter movies!

Karakter is quite stunning on several levels. The cinematography is gorgeous - without the use of any noticeable special effects or surrealistic dream sequences. The quality of the filming surpasses that of most movies.

One of the best things for me (as an American) about watching foreign films is not knowing who most of the actors are, and this makes it easier to completely accept them as the characters they play. The two leads were outstanding, and the supporting characters (particularly Betty Schuurman as Joba, and Nans Kesting as Jan Maan) were very effective.

I found the story to be engrossing and - more than anything, the pacing amazed me. A person accustomed to reading classic novels would probably appreciate the way this film unfolded. There is a desire to reach the end, but no hurry.

For sure, this film wouldn't interest everyone, but I rank it among my favorite films. It deserved to win the Academy Award for Best Picture last year: for the story, for the performances, for the direction ... it's rare that one finds a movie so well-put together.

is a real shame that this kind of movies have to be discovered 3 or 4 years since the release (most dont find their way to theaters) i know that people in the entertainment business are in just for the sake of money, but if they dont want to invest in producing quality movies (books,music etc) at least have to be more open in let these great movies have a decent distribution in the states.