De komst van Joachim Stiller

Chris Nolan is currently the most popular master of the puzzle film -creating elaborate suspense mysteries that tantalize audiences, ranging from cult status (MEMENTO) to blockbuster proportions (INCEPTION).

Belgian director Harry Kumel has achieved the cult part of the equation with loyal followings for his early '70s movies DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS and MALPERTUIS, but it is THE RETURN OF JOACHIM STILLER that I hope will someday cement his reputation in the pantheon of cinema auteurs.

Made for TV (Dutch is the language and casting mode, for a Belgian topic), film was never released in America and remains extremely obscure 35 years later. I will discuss its merits and indicate some of its unfortunate parochialism that made it a tough-sell for export.

The film brought to mind Wojciech Has's brilliant masterpiece THE SARAGOSSA MANUSCRIPT. Thanks to influential backing by fans like Jerry Garcia, that wonderful Polish film has developed an ever-growing (if small) cult. All Kumel needs is a similar champion.

Hugo Metsers stars as Freak (spelled with a double e, though IMDb's spell-check won't let me type it that way!), a journalist who starts the film interested in Kafka, more than a hint of how his dream-like, self-examining adventures will unfold. As in any good "Twilight Zone" episode, little things in his daily life become confusing and illogical, making him question existence in general.

One mundane early episode is pertinent: as he sits in his usual café, 3 blond, studly workmen in overalls arrive to completely dig up the street outside, snarling local traffic. He and the café owner comment on how they look more like extras in a Hollywood super-production than real workmen, and Freak is alarmed when they put the street back together without accomplishing anything. He writes an article about this non-event and sets in motion even stranger repercussions.

Based on a novel by Hubert Lampo (not sure if he was ever translated for English-speakers) everybody terms as "magical realism", the film goes off on too many tangents for its own good, resulting in a bloated 154-minute running time.

Chief candidate for excision that would help the whole is a nutsy subplot involving a mad artist, who is exploited by a stereotypical (even with fake white streak in his hair) art dealer, eating up several reels worth of over-the-top slapstick and general nastiness. In an American movie the artist would be played by Prof. Irwin Corey and Julian Schnabel would be a good choice as the dilettante exploiter, but the scenes are merely distasteful black humor right out of THE MAGIC Christian -mere misanthropy with a capital M.

Also holding JOACHIM STILLER back are too many local in-jokes and references. My stamp collecting fanaticism as a youth helped me no end in following some of these, as the use of an old (1919) stamp on letters is a key plot point I immediately noticed, since I had that stamp in my Belgian collection, while the art dealer's later reference to Katanga resonated since I had collected the stamps of that breakaway province (and its sibling Sud Kasai) of the old Belgian Congo back in the '60s. This stuff would be meaningless to a general "foreign" (that means me) audience.

Though made for TV, film includes full-frontal-nudity and Kumel had the good sense to team Freak with two fabulously beautiful leading ladies, Willeke van Ammelrooy (the bombshell of so many wonderful '70s Dutch movies like FRANK & EVA) and Cox Habbema. The color scheme and their Swinging costumes are more a late '60s time capsule than '70s, and in general the film should have been (perhaps) re-set in London, shot in English, lost its localism and substituted universal elements. I know this is blasphemy to fans of indigenous cinema, but I'm sure the overall movie would have benefited and in the long run it might have become as well known as English-shot DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS.

I saw this film as part of my Dutch language course at university. It's one of those where you're not quite sure what is going on, but you feel compelled to carry on watching to try and figure it out!! Haunting film that stayed in my thoughts for ages. I can't tell you what it's about because I don't really remember but it is worth a try!

De komst of Joachim Stiller is based upon the novel of Hubert Lampo. I know the writer personally and it's hard to believe that such a charming person writes such a strange book.

Anyway, I find this movie one of the best Belgian movies ever made. I do have the television version on video (+- 180 mins) and that version is okay. Never watch the cinema version because that only has a running time of aprox. 120 mins. By cutting away 60 (sixty !!!) mins of scenes (never understood why they did this) the story becomes very complex and you will not understand the plot of the movie. So always stay with the FULL version not the shorter Cinema/TV movie version !!!!

This movie is a magic realism movie. A real fine mystery about a journalist named Freek who gets a letter one day. Now everybody gets letters everyday so not worth making a movie of this subject you think now. Strange thing is that the letter was posted more then 20 years before Freek was born. How could someone know where Freek should live more then 20 years later as a grown up ? Then more strange things happen,and one name is always returning : 'Joachim Stiller' Who is he ? What's his mission ? Is he an enemy or a friend ? Freek wants to know who that Joachim Stiller is and starts searching.

I will not tell you what happens and how the movie ends, because you just have to see it. It's an old movie, and no spectacular special FX, but it's a real scary movie in his own way. I saw this movie for the first time at age 9, and I can tell you that I had nightmares of it. Something I never had or have when watching movies.(even not the bloody and scary horror movies.)

You'll have to search in private collections for this movie because I heard (it's a rumour not confirmed) that the last master copy of this movie is lost (stolen/destroyed ???) and not anymore in the archives of the public television Station (VRT, (that time known as BRT) ) wich was co producer and so the chance they'll ever show this great movie on television again is as good as not.

'De komst van Joachim Stiller' (= Dutch for 'the coming of Joachim Stiller') is a novel by the Flemish author Hubert Lampo from 1961.

'Magical realism' is this novel's keyword, a style of writing Lampo excelled in. It deals with the intrusion of the unexplainable into common, everyday's life. Setting up an atmosphere of tension and uneasiness as a consequence.

In 1976 Flemish producer Harry Kümel transferred 'De komst van Joachim Stiller' into a TV-series. Making them an instant hit in the low countries back then. A few decades later the Royal Belgian Film Institute incorporated Kümel's work in a DVD-series about great Belgian films: it is the very DVD this site is about.

Set in the lovely historical city of Antwerp, Belgium, the fascination of 'De komst van Joachim Stiller' will surely keep you watching until its very end. Its unexpected end, one may say, provided you haven't read Lampo's novel.

Have yourself carried back to the Antwerp of 1976, and surrender to the great Magical Realism of Lampo and Kümel. All set in a very low countries-style. No doubt 'De komst of Joachim Stiller' is one of the greatest films ever produced over there.