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Berlin

Berlin plays Tagfish, poetic documentary theatre about emptiness, and more emptiness

From today, the documentary performance Tagfish tours the Netherlands. The Belgian theatre collective Berlin has been making finely crafted theatre installations since 2004, playing on the border of documentary and fiction, television and theatre, current affairs and eternity. Tagfish is ostensibly about the perils surrounding the redevelopment of a piece of wasteland near Essen. Die Zeche Zollverein already had a monumental... 

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Vincent WJ Van Gerven Oei

Albania special (2). Vincent van Gerven Oei: 'This country is a better breeding ground than the Netherlands'

If anyone can give a good picture of cultural development in Albania, it is Vincent van Gerven Oei. This Dutch philosopher and artist has lived in the country for five years and, as an insider and outsider, therefore has a strong opinion. I meet him at café Bukowski in a hip entertainment district of Tirana. When the embassy told me about Van Gerven Oei... 

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The 5 performances you should definitely see at Theatre Festival Boulevard

From today, it is not Leeuwarden, Amsterdam, Utrecht or The Hague that is our country's cultural capital, but Den Bosch. For eleven days during Theatre Festival Boulevard, there will be more to see in that city than all to follow. Lots of new and unique work for Den Bosch, but also some performances that have already played in other places. Herewith our five recommendations. Have... 

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Greece Special (3): How is the film festival in Thessaloniki going?

  If all goes well, the 56th Thessaloniki International Film Festival will kick off on 6 November. Less well-known than Rotterdam, Berlin or Locarno, but the most important festival in southern Europe. And they have quirky and broad programming, where you can discover all kinds of new filmmakers. But is it going well? The first festival dated back to 1960 and was... 

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Todo lo que está a mi lado on Dam Square in Amsterdam (photo Wijbrand Schaap)

I shared the bed with an actress, and for a moment the world was quieter

A confession. There is no other way. So: yes. I was lying between immaculate white sheets in a comfortable bed with actress Lina Issa and it was beautiful. She whispered soft words in my ear, put a hand on my hand and it was very quiet around us. Thanks to that whispering, the noise of the big city fell away. Trams... 

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Jens Hillje of the Gorki Theatre Berlin (Photo Wijbrand Schaap)

Play 'Nibelungen' debunks modern Europe at Holland Festival

Berlin's Gorki Theatre won a prize this year: it was named the best theatre in the German language area by the German-language press. The company won the award partly because it employs many actors of immigrant origin. With its performance Der Untergang der Nibelungen, which can be seen in this year's Holland Festival, the group also thematises the... 

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La Re-sentida (Chile) reckons with leftist church in Holland Festival 2015

The 1970s have for some time been the target of what we shall conveniently call the up-and-coming generation. And so we are talking about the 1970s as the glory years of hippyism, the jubilant times of the left-wing church and everything else that, with the knowledge of today, is dirty and dirty. They were the years when... 

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Life is short - watch films, is the motto of Go Short short film festival

Short film lovers rush to Lux in Nijmegen for the seventh edition of Go Short (8 - 12 April). The annual short film festival with European and Dutch competition, alongside this year's surprising work from the Baltic states, a summer in the Balkans, an hour and a half of cat films, and much, much more. Short films offer creators much more freedom... 

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Encounters with Matisse at successful exhibition at Stedelijk

With 'The oasis of Matisse', the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam has put on a magnificent exhibition. Sixty years after there was last a major retrospective of Matisse in the Netherlands, his work is back on display in all its glory. So alongside 'Late Rembrandt' at the Rijksmuseum, there is another blockbuster in the capital. The thousands of visitors who attended the... 

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Ron Jagers

Amersfoort absurdist Ron Jagers seeks the limits of the everyday

Ron Jagers has been providing playful commentary on culture in Amersfoort and elsewhere for 45 years. His latest find is the 'Prince Bernhard Fanclub'. But the 63-year-old absurdist and multi-artist also made a gripping book about East Berlin before the fall of the wall. 'hop, two-three-four!' He walks along in the Silent Fanfare, an orchestra that marches forward with much fuss 

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Giya Kantsheli: 'I never wanted to compose Georgian music'

Georgian composer Giya Kantsjeli (Tbilisi, 1935) composes archaic-sounding, expressive works with slow progression, tremendous tension and heartbreaking melancholy. Characterised by fierce dynamic contrasts, his music often suddenly switches from an almost inaudible pianissimo to an oorsplitting fortissimo. On 23 February, Vredenburg's broadcasting series The Friday presents his monumental Styx for viola, choir and orchestra.... 

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Director Wolfson bids farewell to Film Festival Rotterdam - three puzzles in advance for successor

Today, the International Film Festival Rotterdam announced that director Rutger Wolfson is handing over the baton after the 2015 edition. About his decision, Wolfson says in the press release: "Eight years is a long time to lead an important film festival and with the 44th edition, which will be very strong, I have achieved everything I wanted to achieve. Together with my family, I have... 

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Amsterdam art is doing great. Unless you are a (young) artist.

Two corpses. Despairing bystanders. A blood-red photo. The cover of the Exploration, released by the Amsterdam Arts Council, makes one fear the worst. A massacre has been committed. Even if it is a scenic photo of a performance by Toneelgroep Amsterdam. Or is it all different? Are only two dead, and the rest live on? Something about shows that on must go?.... 

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IDFA 2014: Do women look at the world differently? 9 sides of a documentary puzzle

Film-making used to be a man's business. Men made films about men watching women - something like that. In 1975, film scholar Laura Mulvey launched the famous notion of 'The Male Gaze'. Last year, it resurfaced in the heated debate surrounding La vie d'Adèle, that wonderful film by Abdellatif Kechiche (male) about a lesbian love affair. So how about before? This year, IDFA has... 

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Carceri, Peter Zuur

Visual artist Peter Zuur: sieges in a bird's eye view

,,I put discomfort in my artworks. I get that feeling when I walk through the city and see all those big buildings. The postmodern architecture with its megalomaniac mentality, and its decay, those depress me." From 29 November to 4 January, visual artist Peter Zuur is one of the exhibitors at the Pulchri Graphic Biennial, The Hague. Notably, his works... 

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'Immersive reality' shows fierce future for visual journalism on #IDFA

So I spent five minutes in singer-songwriter Patrick Watson's studio. He played a bit. Put his phone in the ashtray. Said something to his labrador. And I could look around quietly while he played. Behind me, in front of me. Below and above. Nothing like sitting at an artist's home while he plays. And he wasn't bothered... 

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The Eastern Bloc Book. An indispensable travel book for a vanished empire

So it really does exist. A high road through the mountains of Romania. Completed in 1974. Viewed by my father in the same year, while his 'guide' told him not to walk too close to the edge, because he would not be the first to crash over the edge. After which his 'guide', the secret agent that every western journalist... 

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Grindr experiment in Berlin discontinued. Artist meets boundaries 'theatre of experience'

Forty roofless hotel rooms, and then hearing your own story back as you see yourself reflected in the distant ceiling. Or: walking behind a guide through the Lombok district of Utrecht, while being provided with an overload of extra information on your headphones. About your guide. Or not. About yourself. Welcome to the universe of Dries Verhoeven, since a small... 

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2600 visitors for Supernova, couldn't be better? A tough issue in 7 scenes

Scene 1 - Expectations The main hall of film theatre 't Hoogt was filled with people from the film sector on Wednesday afternoon at the invitation of the Film Fund. The subject of the meeting is the chronically low attendance of more artistic Dutch films. This has been the case for a long time, by the way, and not only in the Netherlands. Should new avenues be explored? Should expectations be... 

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'Grandiose' opening Theatre Festival doesn't quite take away the pain

"Grand opening, right?" Jeffrey Meulman, the man who as director of the ailing Theatre Festival gave the word "inspired" a new dimension, was delighted. It was Thursday night, September 4, 2014. Shortly before, I had seriously considered jumping from the 1st balcony of the Stadsschouwburg, rather than applauding Tauerbach, the opening performance of The Theatre Festival. It is... 

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'Are all priests gay?" and six more questions to the director of In The Name Of

Deze week in de bioscoop: In the Name of, een ouderwets stevig Pools drama over een priester die door het celibaat tevergeefs aan zijn homoseksualiteit probeert te ontsnappen. Hij werkt in een dorpje in de provincie met moeilijk opvoedbare tieners. “Ik zou al die jongens wel willen neuken”, roept hij

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Woman, man, film - does Cannes have something to make up for?

Vanavond opent de 67ste editie van het filmfestival van Cannes met Grace of Monaco, een biopic met een grote hoofdrol voor Nicole Kidman. Juryvoorzitter van ’s werelds belangrijkste filmevenement is de Nieuw-Zeelandse filmmaakster Jane Campion. Ook drie van de overige zes juryleden zijn vrouwen. Heeft Cannes iets goed te maken?

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World premiere in Berlin of Dutch 3D experiment Above Us All by Eugenie Jansen

In tegenstelling tot wat sommigen een paar jaar geleden verwachtten is 3D in de artistieke film nog steeds een zeldzaamheid. Dus als er dan in deze hoek weer eens iets opduikt maakt dat direct nieuwsgierig. En dan bedoel ik dus niet Cathedrals of Culture, het 3D-filmproject van Wim Wenders en vijf andere filmmakers met gebouwen in de hoofdrol. Dat Wenders een 3D-gelover is wisten we al.

Ik bedoel die andere 3D-première op het Berlijnse festival: Above Us All van de Nederlandse

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Nymphomaniac Vol. I in Berlin: half an hour longer, still the same film, still just as good

Lars von Trier is present at the Berlinale, wearing a T-shirt with the Cannes logo and the text 'persona non grata'. This refers to the riot at Cannes after his failed joke about Hitler. Since then, he has said nothing to the press. So we see on the monitor in the press room on Sunday afternoon

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64th Berlin Film Festival opens with Wes Anderson's eccentric tragicomedy Grand Budapest Hotel

Stel je een ouderwets gedistingeerde komedie voor, maar dan gefilmd met moderne vaart, in de kleurrijke en barokke stijl van een rijk gedetailleerd stripverhaal vol complotten en ontsnappingen, afgerond met een parfum van melancholie. Dan kom je in de buurt van The Grand Budapest Hotel, de nieuwe film van

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