Dutch Film Special (5): What we can learn from Hollywood

According to Yorick van Wageningen, Action Tomato is to blame. And David Fincher totally agrees with what Yorick learned from Karst Woudstra. But I am running too fast.

Actor Yorick van Wageningen, who shuttles between the Netherlands and America, was allowed to round off the first day of the National Film Conference at the Netherlands Film Festival. Van Wageningen (Oorlogswinter, De wederopstanding van een klootzak, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) did not have a mathematical model on offer, but he did have some clear views. On the difference between working on a film set in the Netherlands and in America. He is always asked that in interviews too, he noted. This is what he would like to advise Dutch makers:

1. Stop rehearsing that anyway

The big difference between here and there is a cultural difference. Here, on set, there is a group feeling, the feeling that you are all making something together. Van Wageningen sees the legacy of Action Tomato in that.

One consequence is endless rehearsal. In America, you put on a performance. "I have never rehearsed in America," says Van Wageningen. Here, he says, everything is rehearsed to death until there is nothing creative left.

In America, stand-ins are widely used to prepare the logistics of a scene, while the actor sits hunched over in his trailer. The first play is immediately filmed. New, fresh, exciting. That first take is golden.

At least that is how it was with David Fincher (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo). The latter agrees with playwright and director Karst Woudstra that a director is the bridge between actor and script and mainly makes adjustments. A director has to take away an actor's fear of merging with his character.

Van Wageningen also had good experiences with the mumbled directions of Terrence Malick (The New World) and, according to Van Wageningen, the crackpot Michael Mann (Blackhat), who also doesn't rehearse. Because: the first take is never perfect, and therefore it is perfect.

2. Not everything has to be intelligible

Subtitles give us the illusion that we understand all those American films perfectly, but that is not the case at all. According to Van Wageningen, it is typically Dutch that the sound recording has to be clear and intelligible. Not necessary at all. Mumbling can work very well.

Go to Pirate Bay, Van Wageningen advised, and look up the edited version of Mad Max Fury Road there. Black and white and all the dialogue thrown out. "Awesome!"