Netherlands movies

Mysterious Skin

Drama, Mystery, 2004

“The summer I was eight years old, five hours disappeared from my life. Five hours, lost, gone without a trace…” These are the words of Brian Lackey (’Brady Corbet’ (qv)), a troubled 18 year-old, growing up in the stiflingly small town of Hutchinson, Kansas. Plagued by nightmares, Brian believes that he may have been the victim of an alien abduction. Local Neil McCormick (’Joseph Gordon-Levitt’ (qv)) however, is the ultimate beautiful outsider. With a loving but promiscuous mother (’Elisabeth Shue’ (qv)), Neil is wise beyond his years and curious about his developing sexuality, having found what he perceived to be love from his Little League baseball coach (played by ‘Hal Hartley’ (qv) veteran ‘Bill Sage’ (qv)) at a very early age. Now, ten years later, Neil is a teenage hustler, nonchalant about the dangerous path his life is taking. Neil’s pursuit of love leads him to New York City, while Brian’s voyage of self discovery leads him to Neil - who helps him to unlock the dark secrets of their past. Based on the acclaimed novel by ‘Scott Heim (II)’ (qv), “Mysterious Skin” explores the hearts and minds of two very different boys who come to find the key to their future happiness lies in the exorcism of their collective demons.

Download: DivX iPod 

The Butterfly Tattoo

Drama, Romance, Thriller, 2008

“Chris Marshall met the girl he was going to kill on a warm night in early June, when of the colleges in Oxford was holding its summer ball.” A chance meeting with Jenny at an Oxford party leaves seventeen-year-old Chris with hope for a summer romance - and no premonition of trouble. Busy with his job and soon in love with Jenny, whose cheerful surface belies the dark uncertainty of her past, Chris misses all the signs of danger. Before he knows it, he’s caught in the sinister web of a criminal whose desire for revenge crushes those who stand in his way.

Download: DivX iPod 

Black Book

Drama, Thriller, War, 2006

In 1944, in the occupied Holland, the Jewish Rachel Stein is hiding from the Nazis in a house of a Christian family. When her hiding place is bombed, Rachel escapes by chance, but she is found by a stranger called Van Gein that invites her to join a group of Jews in a boat to escape to Belgium on the next night. He advises her to bring money and jewels for her survival and very few luggage. Rachel visits lawyer and friend of her family Wim Small that gives her a large amount for her travel. When she meets the refugees, she finds that her family is in the group. While crossing the swamp, a Nazi patrol boat arrives and kills the fugitives, but Rachel is the only one to survive. Later she joins a cell of resistance leaded by the Dutch Gerben Kuipers under the identity of Ellis de Vries; after meeting the Nazi Officer Ludwig Müntze in a train, Kuipers proposes Ellis to work as a spy seducing Müntze. During her assignment, Rachel recognizes Günther Franken as the commander of the attack to the boat of refugees and later she discovers that the murders are part of a scheme with a traitor in the resistance team.

Download: DivX iPod 

Julius Caesar

Biography, Drama, History, War, 2002

The story of the rise and fall of the Roman Emperor Gaius Julius Caesar, born July 13, 100 B.C., and starting his career as a young Roman with visions of greatness for the Eternal City. When Sulla conquers Rome with his troops, Caesar is one of the very few to stand up against the despotic dictator. This impresses Pompeius, Sulla’s general, and he protects the young man, who is a nephew of Marius, a well known veteran, against the wrath of Sulla. After Sulla’s death, Caesar returns from exile and starts his political career. Caesar’s daughter Julia marries general and senator Pompeius, and Caesar takes Pompeius’ troops in order to simply safeguard the borders to Gaul, but instead conquers the whole country. His final victory takes place at the fortress of Alesia, where the Germanic troops under Vercingetorix capitulate. Back in Rome, Ceasar is not trusted anymore, since the troops are loyal to him alone and it is feared by Pompeius and Cato that he will use the troops to conquer Rome and declare himself King, including the establishing of a inheritbale right to the throne. Instead, Caesar does none of that and sets off to Egypt in order to ensure a constant delivery of agricultural goods to the Roman Empire. After a glorious return to Rome, his former friends Pompeius and Cato are dead, their deaths blamed on Caesar, and his personal life is in ruins since he could not resist the temptation of beautiful Egyptian empress Cleopatra. Being inveigled and aided by a group of rebellious and untrusting senators around Cassius, his nephew Brutus finally kills Julius Caesar at March 15, 44. B.C. (the Ides of March) at the age of 55, starting an era of civil wars.

Download: DivX iPod 

Nightwatching

Biography, Drama, History, Mystery, 2007

With the 400th anniversary of Rembrandt’s birth in 2006, NIGHTWATCHING is truly a feast for the senses. Extravagant, suspenseful and sensuously beautiful, the mystery behind the extraordinary artist’s infamous painting is perfectly explored by one of the most iconic Directors of our time - Peter Greenaway. The year 1642 marks the turning point in the life of the famous Dutch painter, Rembrandt, turning him from a wealthy respected celebrity into a discredited pauper. At the insistence of his pregnant wife Saskia, Rembrandt has reluctantly agreed to paint the Amsterdam Musketeer Militia in a group portrait that will later become to be known as The Nightwatch. He soon discovers that there is a conspiracy afoot with the Amsterdam merchants playing at soldiers maneuvering for financial advantage and personal power in, that time, the richest city in the Western World. Rembrandt stumbles on a foul murder. Confident in the birth of a longed-for son and heir, Rembrandt is determined to expose the conspiring murderers and builds his accusation meticulously in the form of the commissioned painting, uncovering the seamy and hypocritical side to Dutch Society in the Golden Age. Rembrandt’s great good fortune turns. Saskia dies. Rembrandt reveals the accusation of murder in the painting and the conspirators plan revenge. They set out to discredit him at home and abroad. They plant a treacherous mistress, Geertje, to seduce him. They try to blind him. They plan his social and financial ruin, and to create the circumstances for his slide into penury, insult his young mistress Hendrickje, conspire to destroy his son, and bring Rembrandt to his knees. The bold and courageous painting of the Nightwatch, exceptional in aesthetics and content, is Rembrandt’s most celebrated painting, it consolidated his reputation as a master-painter but it also destroyed him socially and financially.

Download: DivX iPod 

The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema

Documentary, 2006

THE PERVERT’S GUIDE TO CINEMA takes the viewer on an exhilarating ride through some of the greatest movies ever made. Serving as presenter and guide is the charismatic Slavoj Zizek, acclaimed philosopher and psychoanalyst. With his engaging and passionate approach to thinking, Zizek delves into the hidden language of cinema, uncovering what movies can tell us about ourselves. Whether he is untangling the famously baffling films of David Lynch, or overturning everything you thought you knew about Hitchcock, Zizek illuminates the screen with his passion, intellect, and unfailing sense of humour. THE PERVERT’S GUIDE TO CINEMA cuts its cloth from the very world of the movies it discusses; by shooting at original locations and from replica sets it creates the uncanny illusion that Zizek is speaking from ‘within’ the films themselves. Together the three parts construct a compelling dialectic of ideas. Described by The Times in London as ‘the woman helming this Freudian inquest,’ director Sophie Fiennes’ collaboration with Slavoj Zizek illustrates the immediacy with which film and television can communicate complex ideas. Says Zizek: ‘My big obsession is to make things clear. I can really explain a line of thought if I can somehow illustrate it in a scene from a film. THE PERVERT’S GUIDE TO CINEMA is really about what psychoanalysis can tell us about cinema.’

Download: DivX iPod 

The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover

Comedy, Drama, Horror, 1989

The plot revolves around four characters. The thief, Albert Spica (Michael Gambon), is a stout man with a broad and thick beard. Brute and boorish, he abuses people, including his aristocratic and reserved wife, Georgina (Helen Mirren). Enslaved and humbled, Georgina enters into a liaison relationship with a gentle bookseller, Michael (Alan Howard). They have intimacy between meals in the kitchen of her husband’s restaurant. When Albert gets to know about their affair, he and his men track down Georgina’s lover and kill him in his book store. Having found Michael’s dead body, Georgina plots her long-awaited vengeance. She brings the body to the restaurant’s chef, Richard (Richard Bohringer), and asks him to cook it. She then presents her lover’s roasted flesh to her vicious husband and suggests that he take a bite of it. Surrounded by Albert’s other victims, the wife shoots him as soon as he cuts a piece of the flesh.

Download: DivX iPod 

Soul Assassin

Action, Crime, Thriller, 2001

The future seems bright for Kevin Burke (Ulrich), a security expert for the large multi-national company Jorgensen Financial. He’s just been promoted and is about to propose marriage to his girlfriend Rosalind (Catherine Orr). But that all changes when Rosalind is murdered before his eyes by a professional hitman. While tracking down her killers Kevin finds himself chased by mob hit-woman Tessa (Kristy Swanson), his co-workers Junior (Antonie Kamerling) and Mr Ficks (Serge Henri Valcke) and the police (Thom Hoffman). Burke’s mentor and employer Karl Jorgensen (Derek de Lint), enigmatic though supportive, seems to hold the key to the mystery.

Download: DivX DVD PDA iPod 

Manderlay

Drama, 2005

In 1933, after leaving Dogville, while traveling with her father (Willem Dafoe) and his gangsters to the south of USA, Grace Margaret Mulligan (Bryce Dallas Howard) sees a slave ready to be punished in a property called Manderlay. The slavery had been abolished seventy years ago, and Grace becomes revolted with the attitude of the owners of Manderlay, keeping slaves in their cotton fields and following predetermined despicable rules called “Mam’s Law”. Grace decides to stay with some gangsters in Manderlay and give notions of democracy to the slaves and to the white family. When harvest time comes, Grace sees the social and economical reality of Manderlay.

Download: DivX DVD PDA iPod 

Deathline

Action, 1997

When a man is murdered in Moscow, experimental bionic research brings him back to life. He then sets out to find his murderers and money that was stolen during the crime.

Download: DivX DVD PDA