Fons Rademakers

[tryavna]

A Dutch friend who knows I'm interested in "old" movies has offered to forward one or two DVDs of Rademakers' films to me. I know absolutely nothing about Rademaker's work, though. Is it any good? Would it be worth the effort? And do any of his movies particularly stand out? (I know that The Assault won an Oscar, but the Dutch DVD of that particular film apparently doesn't have English subs.)

Any comments would be welcome, as it's a complete blank to me.

[Gregory]

I think the only one of his I´ve seen is Als Twee Druppels Water (Like Two Drops of Water or, as when I saw it, Spitting Image). It´s one of those cases when a film was prevented from being fully distributed and was briefly revived after it was restored decades later, which is when I saw it. That whole anecdote aside, it seemed a good take on the theme of a humble person being called to stand in for a strategically important doppelganger -- a theme surely more played out in cinema now than in the early ´60s. The setting was Holland under German occupation, and
a secret agent lands parachute and all near the home of the meek main character. The former drags the lookalike latter into the resistance. The philosophical depth probably shouldn´t be touted too much, as is sometimes done with any film that deals with some matter of self, but I thought it was certainly a very diverting espionage film with pretty nice black-and-white cinematography, well worth seeing at least once. I would like to revisit it at some point if a DVD ever crosses my path.

[Jack Phillips]

Max Havelaar (1976) is generally supposed his masterpiece.

[tryavna]

Thanks for the comments, Jack and Gregory. Unfortunately, Max Havelaar isn't available (no English subs), but Like Two Drops of Water is, so I might pick that one up. If I end up hating it, I guess I can always offer it to Gregory.

The Knife also sounds intriguing, based on the comments and summary on IMDb. I've always been a sucker for Oedipal-driven movies and stories. I guess it makes up for my own boring adolescence....

[kekid]

Several Rademakers DVDs with English subtitles available here

[tryavna]

I'll be darned. It would appear that Max Havelaar does have English subs. From my friend's comments, I was under the impression that it did not. Thanks for that link, kekid.

[Gregory]

There is even a DVD Beaver review of Max Havelaar that I had not noticed before. It´s worth noting that the review of the film at the top of the page, above the DVD review, is by a Dutch contributor to the site and is far more helpful and interesting than most of their counterparts at DVD Beaver (taken from TimeOut film guide or whatnot).
It looks like a worthwhile purchase.