By Jake Howell jake.howell@utoronto.ca

Countdown To Cannes: Alex Van Warmerdam

Posted Wednesday, April 24th, 2013 - Comments Off on Countdown To Cannes: Alex Van Warmerdam
Be Sociable, Share!

ALEX VAN WARMERDAM

Background: Dutch; born in North Holland, Netherlands, 1952.

Known for / style: Abel (1986), The Northerners (1992), Little Tony (1998); black comedies, acting in his own films, casting his wife (Dutch actress Annet Malherbe), working in theater and fine art.

Notable accolades: The majority of van Warmerdam’s trophy wins originate from the Nederlands Film Festival, which understandably treats the local with higher regard. But van Warmerdam has done okay outside his home country, winning Best Young Film at the 1992 European Film Awards for The Northerners. On the prestige circuit, Venice awarded van Warmerdam a FIPRESCI prize for 1996’s De jurk, and the Europa Cinemas Label for 2009’s The Last Days of Emma Blank.

Film he’s bringing to Cannes: Borgman, a thriller following the title character, who may be the Devil incarnate. He joins a neighborhood and disturbs the status quo. Jan Bijvoet stars as Borgman, with van Warmerdam and his wife tagging along in supporting roles.

Previous Cannes appearances:  Van Warmerdam’s only Cannes debut is Little Tony, which played Un Certain Regard in 1998.

Could it win the Palme? First things first: have you seen the trailer? I mean, wow. Borgman looks absolutely smashing, the kind of film that comes out of nowhere and surprises even the most prepared of festivalgoers. While the cast of Borgman is more or less unknown (save for van Warmerdam and his wife Annet), it shouldn’t  matter if the film delivers what the mysterious teaser promises. Besides, as I mentioned above, van Warmerdam’s The Last Days of Emma Blank won the Europa Cinemas Label, an award given to gems unearthed in a “discovery” program. I can envision a similar situation when Borgman unspools—it won’t be much of a personal discovery, given the international attention all Competition films receive, but if there’s a festival notorious for dark horse wins, it’s Cannes.

Why you should care: There hasn’t been a Dutch film selected for the Competition since 1975. That means in just under a month, van Warmerdam’s little film will have defeated a four-decade-long dry spell since Jos Stelling’s Mariken van Nieumeghen at the 28th Cannes Film Festival (we’re on the cusp of the 66th, folks). There’s something to this Borgman business that’s got festival director Thierry Frémaux eager to program the film, and I’m determined to find out why.

If you want to watch the man at work, van Warmerdam posted a cute behind-the-scenes video on the set of Borgman. (It’s in Dutch without subtitles.)

Follow Jake Howell on Twitter: @Jake_Howell

Be Sociable, Share!

Posted in MCN Originals, Movie City News | Comments Off on Countdown To Cannes: Alex Van Warmerdam

Comments are closed.

Quote Unquotesee all »

It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon