Renée Soutendijk is back in the spotlight with two cinema films and a prestigious prize. The ‘grande dame’ of Dutch cinema enjoys working with a new generation. And perhaps even more importantly: as the years have gone by, the pressure to have to do things has disappeared.
Sometimes a Dutch film abroad suddenly takes wing. That will happen this fall Sweet dreams , a poetic, mildly comic drama about the colonial past of the Netherlands. Renée Soutendijk stars as the mother of a family that operates a sugar factory in Indonesia around 1900. The epic was submitted for the Oscars on behalf of the Netherlands and was selected for Toronto and Locarno, where Soutendijk won the acting prize for her sharp performance.
Soutendijk is enjoying the film’s international triumph: “We all made this project together. Everyone inspired each other on set, there was such a good atmosphere. While shooting, I realized again why I became an actress.”
Yet the leading actress in particular was in the spotlight at the Swiss festival. Both the remarkably young audience and the journalists remembered Soutendijk as one of the muses of Paul Verhoeven, with whom they made the controversial films in the early 1980s. Splashes and The fourth man made. Especially the latter, in which she plays a mysterious widow who seduces writer Jeroen Krabbé, still has a dear place in her heart: “The appreciation for that film abroad was unlikely. Jeroen and I both owe so many opportunities to this in Hollywood, England and Germany.”
Down to earth Dutchman
The actress also found there was something uncomfortable about all the praise and selfies in Locarno. “I certainly enjoy appreciation, but it should never last too long,” she explains. “The down-to-earth Dutchness runs in my veins. I don’t like fuss or hyped-up situations. Ultimately, I am a person like all other people who do their best to practice a profession that makes them happy.”
Because of the satirical humor in director Ena Sendijarević’s script, Soutendijk immediately said yes: “I like smart comedies, that is something I would have liked to do more of in my career.” Her personal favorites list includes titles such as: Being John Malkovich and Lost in translation . “But you always have to wait and see what comes your way and exactly what a director sees in you. I felt a lot of freedom with this project when I noticed that Ena and I were on the same page in terms of humor and taste.”
In general, she cherishes fond memories of the many female directors she worked with during her long career. “I feel like there is a more harmonious atmosphere on a set when there is a woman at the helm,” she explains. “Female directors are less likely to raise their voices when something is not going as it should. There seems to be more room for respect and therefore less breeding ground for conflict.”
Female perspective
Soutendijk also has a clear preference for telling stories that view the world from a female perspective: “These are often the most interesting roles for an actress, and that view is still underrepresented in the film world. Although these types of films are made more often now than in the 80s, when I was in, for example From the cool lakes of death played.”
Soutendijk found it even more interesting to propose Sweet dreams working with a relatively young cast and crew. “I don’t like looking back, I don’t like people who say that everything was better in the past,” she laughs. “I find it much more interesting to look ahead and continue to experience and learn new things. The rapid digitalization of the world, for example, offers so many new opportunities, also for the film world.”
For example, many aerial shots can now be taken with drones instead of huge ones cranes that have to be moved every time – this saves time and money. And running multiple takes is much easier now that expensive material such as celluloid is no longer used. “It’s less effort to try out scenes in multiple ways. One time I played Agathe without emotions, the next version very theatrical and over the top. This way, Ena had many opportunities in the editing room to adjust the tone of the film.”
New ambitions
In the film, Agathe is a woman who struggles with her emotions, the loss of her husband and the demise of the sugar factory. But at the same time she also seems to be a kind of phantom, a ghostly apparition that symbolizes old times that will no longer return. “The search for the balance between human and caricature was exciting,” says Soutendijk. “Sometimes you try something that really doesn’t work. For example, at first Agathe had an Indonesian accent. But that didn’t make her more attractive. Now she talks quite slowly, very distinctly. A way that is more suitable for the tropics, where everything seems to go slower because of the heat.”
It has been a long time since two major cinema films featuring Soutendijk were released within three months. After Sweet dreams will follow in December Take me with you the new tragicomedy from the team that Gooish women made. Soutendijk plays the concerned wife of a terminally ill man, played by Jeroen Krabbé. “The great directors of my generation, such as Verhoeven, make fewer films than before,” analyzes the actress. “And the younger generation tells a lot of stories in which there are no roles for women my age. But in recent years that meant that I was on set less often than I would have liked.”
During that period, the actress partly returned to the theater and, among other things, appeared in the successful marathon performance Secure , based on the Danish hit series. Yet Soutendijk’s agenda is currently empty. The theater world is having a hard time and there are currently no concrete film projects planned.
The actress does not dare to hope too much for the success of Sweet dreams will offer new opportunities abroad. “It is much easier for these types of arthouse titles to find an audience nowadays, also due to digitalization and the success of streaming services,” she says. “If the film is seen, it may mean that actors or makers stand out. And hopefully casting directors or directors will think of you more quickly.” But at the same time, Soutendijk also notices that her ambitions have changed over the years: “I now have the luxury of only doing things that give me energy. Everything I do now, I do because I enjoy it. After forty years, the sacred obligation has disappeared.”
Sweet dreams opened the 43rd edition of the Dutch Film Festival in Utrecht on Friday, September 22. The film will be in regular cinemas from Thursday, September 28.
Jeroen Krabbé about Renée Soutendijk
Actor Jeroen Krabbe has been friends with Renée Soutendijk for forty years. They played together The fourth man and soon in Take me with you .
“Renée is one of the most important actresses of her generation. She is a diamond: you can look at her from so many sides, and every side fascinates and arouses admiration. It is amazing how many different roles she has played in her career, and she is convincing in every role. That is not given to every actor. Renée is also not easy to understand as a person, she keeps many thoughts and feelings to herself.
We worked together for the first time with The fourth man – perhaps the best film Paul Verhoeven has made in his life. There were so many layers to that story. But it was quite a tough process, because Paul didn’t know exactly what he wanted with her character. Did her Christine Halsslag know or not what she was doing with her men? Was it coincidence or design? That’s why she had to play each scene in two different ways. She did that excellently, but it also made her desperate at times.
We also had a lot of make out scenes together. Actually, we both found that quite annoying, but we both knew what we had gotten ourselves into, it was part of the story. We talked about it together and decided to go for it completely. That process has created a very intense bond between us. It became even stronger in Hollywood, where we both then tried to gain a foothold. It was quite a disappointing experience, especially in the beginning, because it sometimes seemed as if no one was waiting for us. Also in that process The fourth man played a crucial role for both of us.”
Three times an unforgettable Soutendijk
1. Splashes (1980): Snack bar owner Fientje retaliates when an aggressive motorcyclist (Hugo Metsers) approaches her cart. She throws a pan of boiling frying fat over his bare chest. He screams and convulses in pain.
2. From the cool lakes of death (1982): Soutendijk plays a woman who tries to do things differently in a male-dominated world. She succumbs to the oppression and literally goes crazy. Her Hedwig ends up naked in an solitary cell, with her hair cut off.
3. The fourth man (1983). During a drunken evening, writer Gerard discovers home movies and sees what happened to Christine’s previous three husbands. Soutendijk balances the entire film – and that scene in particular – on the border between innocent and calculating. Its role certainly continued abroad femme fatale stick to her for a long time.