Unter den Palmen

This is a very interesting movie written and directed by a young female director. The visuals and music are beautiful. At times the movie is slow, but in all I found the movie compelling.

There are very few good and interesting films being made in Holland these days therefore it's really admirable to see a project like this being made. I especially like it because the story and the characters are so different from anything else. People that criticise this movie are lazy and don't understand films can entertain on different levels. I recently saw the director on TV and it was amazing to see that she is a vibrant, beautiful young girl with balls and international allure. She will probably blossom more abroad than in Holland where they can't seem to handle a woman being both talented and beautiful.

The visual beauty of this film caught me completely. Nobody who knows Rotterdam has seen this city like this before. The cinematographie and styling are of a very high quality and it's obvious the director chose to use these ways to tell the story. You can tell that this film is made with a lot of thought and a particular sensitive, maybe female approach. I find it unfair to intellectualize this emotional film, but the different layers in which this film is told are very interesting. For Dutch cinema this film is a true gem, maybe too special for most people to understand or appreciate in its own right.

I've seen three hour films that went by quicker than this one. The plot was thin and extremely slow. The dialogues were oh, so meaningful and boring. But the worst part for me was the ice cold atmosphere of the film. The blue neon light and the minimal music were all pretty enough, but because of the lack of an interesting story it's all that you remember at the end of the film: coldness.

Though this movie is visually very attractive, opening with night shots of Rotterdam in a Bladerunner, bigcity style, it can not hide that the story is actually very thin. after 20 minutes the effect of uncorrected tube-lights have lost their charm and you start to notice that the dialogue is really slow and not that interesting. If the goal of the movie is to make you really feel the uncomfortable atmosphere it succeeded. The uncomfortable feeling you get with this movie is helped by the bad dialogue and the visual abundance to cover this up. Helping also is the way the soundtrack, though really good, has been put under the worst pieces of dialogue that clearly needed some help. All this makes you hope for a good twist at the end of the movie that will make the time spent listening to semi-filosophicall chitchat worthwhile. Too bad this twist doesn't come and you are left wondering how it is possible that a 70 minutes movie can feel like it took 150 minutes. A waste of money and talent.

The blue wash that prevails in this movie does provide a sense of cold. Cold purpose, cold clarity (at times) and the effect of the characters retreating from each other and themselves. OK so maybe one can read too much into this but nonetheless the "colour" scenes are not always the best ones. So no Psycho comparisons. I truly did find myself watching through the blue haze trying to determine if I appreciated it or not. I guess time is the best measure as I look back, I remember that aspect of the show the best.

Udo Kier also does a fine job.

I enjoyed this movie and have hunted for a copy ever since seeing in on IFC.