After recently viewing the very good film Meeuwen sterven in de haven (1955-also reviewed) I left the stream on and went to sort out a few small things round the house. Getting back,I found that a interesting looking Dutch film (with Eng Subs) that I've never heard of was streaming, this led to me going for a haircut.
View on the film:
Originally planned to be a TV movie until praise at festival screenings led to it being put on the big screen instead, co-writer (with Anna De Pagter)/director Andre Delvaux subtly displays Miereveld's detachment via framing group shots where Miereveld stays alone in the background/in the empty side of the frame. As the years roll by, Delvaux brings out the heaviness Miereveld's obsession with Fran has on him, in long tracking shots (backed by a pretty flute score from Frederic Devreese) of Miereveld walking the streets on his own, twirling into shiny, elegant panning shots towards Miereveld meeting the adult Fran.
Leaving the school to get away from the sight of Fran, Pagter & Delvaux adaptation of Johan Daisne's novel take a excellent, forensic approach to the balding Miereveld, whose OCD at first becomes hair-raising during a trim from the hairdresser, and continues to consume Miereveld as he becomes delusional with life. Moving on to doing autopsies for the police over a decade whilst nursing his obsession for Fran, the writers unleash an astonishing, double locking twist ending in the reunion between the duo, which keys into the unreliability of Miereveld's memory, with the decades Miereveld has wanted to express his for her, being wiped by the perfect Fran he has seen, proving to be a image of his own desires.
At a distance from the obsessive Miereveld until the final entanglement, Beata Tyszkiewicz gives a outstanding, thoughtful performance as Fran, whose polite talking style,sweet smile and thoughtful in keeping her personal life private, is interpreted by Miereveld in a unique way. Uncomfortable in his own skin, Senne Rouffaer gives an extraordinary turn as Miereveld, thanks to the restrained shell appearance he wears being used by Rouffaer to bottle up the obsession with Fran and the gallons of necrotic filling him up,pouring out when Miereveld has his hair cut short.
View on the film:
Originally planned to be a TV movie until praise at festival screenings led to it being put on the big screen instead, co-writer (with Anna De Pagter)/director Andre Delvaux subtly displays Miereveld's detachment via framing group shots where Miereveld stays alone in the background/in the empty side of the frame. As the years roll by, Delvaux brings out the heaviness Miereveld's obsession with Fran has on him, in long tracking shots (backed by a pretty flute score from Frederic Devreese) of Miereveld walking the streets on his own, twirling into shiny, elegant panning shots towards Miereveld meeting the adult Fran.
Leaving the school to get away from the sight of Fran, Pagter & Delvaux adaptation of Johan Daisne's novel take a excellent, forensic approach to the balding Miereveld, whose OCD at first becomes hair-raising during a trim from the hairdresser, and continues to consume Miereveld as he becomes delusional with life. Moving on to doing autopsies for the police over a decade whilst nursing his obsession for Fran, the writers unleash an astonishing, double locking twist ending in the reunion between the duo, which keys into the unreliability of Miereveld's memory, with the decades Miereveld has wanted to express his for her, being wiped by the perfect Fran he has seen, proving to be a image of his own desires.
At a distance from the obsessive Miereveld until the final entanglement, Beata Tyszkiewicz gives a outstanding, thoughtful performance as Fran, whose polite talking style,sweet smile and thoughtful in keeping her personal life private, is interpreted by Miereveld in a unique way. Uncomfortable in his own skin, Senne Rouffaer gives an extraordinary turn as Miereveld, thanks to the restrained shell appearance he wears being used by Rouffaer to bottle up the obsession with Fran and the gallons of necrotic filling him up,pouring out when Miereveld has his hair cut short.