Hi Bor, first of all you want to talk about the opening film: Sea of time.
‘That’s right, we can’t ignore that movie. After all, the most beautiful spot at the Netherlands Film Festival is reserved for the opening film. I don’t want to give too much away just yet, but I can say: Sea of time is a mourning drama and does what it intends. As a viewer you absolutely go along with the emotions of the main characters. The story revolves around a couple who lose their child during a long sailing trip across the ocean. You feel that suffering.
‘The film consists, as it were, of two parts, which are told interchangeably. We see the young couple during that particular sailing trip and also experience how they are doing decades later. There are two things I find interesting about this film. First, the cast is excellent; the actors know how to convey the emotions very strongly. The young couple is played by Sallie Harmsen and Reinout Scholten van Aschat, the older couple – no longer a couple – by Elsie de Brauw and Gijs Scholten van Aschat. Also fascinating to see, a real father and son who share that role. Although Elsie de Brauw doesn’t look like Sallie Harmsen at all, that doesn’t bother at all. Still a bit of the magic of film.
‘What I also think is strong, and director Theu Boermans does that very well, is that the process of grieving is depicted in three ways. On one side we see the old movies of the couple from the eighties, with the child on the boat. That gives you a heavy feeling, knowing that everything is going to go wrong. In addition, there is an extremely stylized stage performance in the film, such a disaster. As a viewer you can think: isn’t this a bit too much? And yet it works surprisingly well in such a film, which in itself is the third representation of the suffering. So yes, a successful opening film Sea of time.’
Which film stands out next?
‘That is narcosis, with which the NFF also shows the Dutch entry of the Oscars. This is a debut film by Martijn de Jong and is also about mourning. Strikingly, two of the major premiere films are both about grief and how to deal with it. Here we see a couple whose husband, played by Fedja van Huêt, is a professional diver and – to put it bluntly – does not resurface. That’s not a spoiler, it becomes clear almost immediately. The mother, played by Thekla Reuten, is left alone with two children.
“I would call this one of her best roles. It is clever how she depicts these different styles of mourning. You can be paralyzed, but you can also be searching and trying to climb out of that difficult situation. By the way, I don’t know where they got them from, but those two kids are so incredibly well cast. In films, what is sometimes referred to as the ‘musical problem’ is regularly mentioned. Children who, because of their musical experience, recite the dialogue somewhat singly. Well, not here.’
And apart from the NFF: which film is currently playing that we should not leave unmentioned?
‘Let’s talk about it then Don’t Worry Darling have, with Florence Pugh and Harry Styles. We find ourselves in a kind of fake fifties in America, the well-known suburb but in the middle of the desert. It is an enclave, close to sectarianism, where the men go to work in a column and the women stay at home. They have no idea what those men actually do. As a viewer you soon know: this is a dystopia.
‘Well, what many are curious about is Styles’ role in this film. As an idealized, superficial husband, he’s cast quite well for the first half of the film. But the moment a lot more is asked of him as an actor, especially when it comes to emotion, things get a bit shaky. That goes for the entire movie. Colleague Berend Jan Bockting writes in his review (★★★☆☆): ‘By that time, the plot is heading straight for a somewhat grotesque B-movie territory.’