Leef! Is about Anna (Monic Hendrickx), an obstetrician and her family. Her real dream is to be a writer, but because of her mother she never had the self-confidence to become one. They have a problem as a family, in fact they have everything but they don't manage to feel happy. One of her daughters is a problem child and the other one has a weak heart and her husband Paul (Peter Blok) is cheating on her.
The premiere of Leef! was a real strange one, that was because of the director Willem van de Sande Bakhuyzen died just two days before the premiere. I had a real double feeling about it because I'm a big fan of him so it was difficult the give an objective judge about the movie right away. Now it's a while ago and I think I can do it.
Leef! is a great movie. First of all the acting in this movie is fantastic. Monic Hendrickx and Peter Blok are good as always, but also Sophie van Winden was great, it's one of her first movies, she did a great job. The camera is moving constantly, which creates entity in the movie. The music also creates the right feeling. The last days I heard a few times that people link this movie with movies like Magnolia and Short cuts. I don't think that's right. Leef! is good enough to judge it on itself. What is also said a lot is the the movie is (too) complex, indeed you have to think and pay attention to get everything, but since when is that not a good point. I like it to watch a movie actively. Of course there are also a few minuses, at the end there are too much improbabilities and cliché's to add everything together. So at the end it is too much of a feel good movie. But don't get me wrong, Leef! is a fantastic movie that shows real problems and that is harrowing to see. Leef! is about people, it's a movie with a heart and it is really a must to see.
I'm looking forward to see the last movie of Willem van de Sande Bakhuyzen, Ik omhels je met 1000 armen, which you can see in 2006.
