nigiweij

Wandering through Momo's dream world was a great pleasure. This smart series is a great example for others. The plot is intelligently structured. The series' dialogue is witty, and its script is hilarious. All actors are splendid. The confident Momo and Eveline are amazing, and all side characters are remarkable as well, ranging from the disillusioned Flemish writer to the chain smoking publisher. Momo's language use is highly entertaining. And lastly, all this is also well-filmed and -edited, and shot at stunning locations.

Although I primarily watched the series for my amusement, it furthermore provided frank perspectives on culture clashes between those who live where they were born, those who built up an existence elsewhere, and those caught up in the middle. And on people who decide to become a different person. As a viewer, you are invited to think about these matters.

In short: highly recommended!

Aleksey German invites you on a journey through the madness of Stalinist Moscow. Not only is the story a journey with unexpected turns, also the cinematography evokes this sense of adventure; long shots, the camera following the footsteps of the protagonist, people wandering through the line of sight. With its incredible detailedness, a true living world emerges. A delight to watch with its rich visual languge, albeit intensive to stay focussed for 2h27m.

German chose a similar style for his equally masterful Hard to be a God (2013), which enters the realm of sci-fi and historical pictures, or Gaspar Noe's virtuoso Enter the Void (2009).

With its critical approach to the Stalinist period, German realised this film exactly at the right moment (1998): in the Soviet age, the film would have been censored, and in the Putin age Stalin was placed back on his pedestal, banning the hilarious British comedy Death of Stalin (2017), a film which through a different strategy aims to similarly show the remarkable climate of the last days of Stalin. What these two films have in common is the wish to reconstruct the absurdity and arbitrariness which governed human lives at that point, served with a dose of irony and black humour.

I was really surprised to see this film had so many negative user reviews.

The Dutch are not particularly proud of their national cinema. If you'd ask a random Dutch person on the streets about his/her opinion about the country's films, the answer would probably be that only cheesy romcoms are produced there. Yet who is more familiar with Dutch cinema, knows this is nonsense. Among the wonderful Dutch directors are Paul Verhoeven, George Sluizer, Alex van Warmerdam, Bert Haanstra, Nanouk Leopold, and Marleen Gorris.

Also Nouchka van Brakel deserves more appreciation for her oeuvre, as it is surprising and sophisticated. She was the first female film director active in the Netherlands. The Cool Lakes of Death can be considered one of her finest.

The Cool Lakes of Death is a great film. It is based on a book from 1900 by the famous literary writer Frederik van Eeden, who was part of the naturalism movement which highly valued psychoanalysis.

It is a period drama set in the 19th-century Dutch upper class climate, yet its story has not become old. For this reason, both the film and the book have kept their quality.

This poetic and smartly edited film deals with female desire. Adolescence and passion clash with a restrained and protestant upbringing. Love and death chase each other. All these conflicting emotions are convincingly displayed in the performance of lead actress Renée Soutendijk. The scenery of the story at the start is the typicly flat and watery Dutch landscape, fields and forests, dunes and sea, and later the English countryside and Paris. Yet clarity gradually give way to the fogginess of a fever dream during this search for love and happiness.

It could be compared in its themes to Buñuel's Belle de jour, but then different in its formal and stylistic choices. Mubi called it a marriage between James Ivory and Lars von Trier. Certainly not boring, don't hesitate to give this film a chance!