Formerly considered three times nothing, today the paintings of water lilies and wisteria are the most famous canvases by French painter Claude Monet. We visited his gardens in Giverny and took a look through the eyes of the master. https://youtu.be/dfbUOdDe3Lk Mugs and socks When you think of the painter Claude Monet, the first thoughts probably go to his colourful...
'Nothing can make up for the past. But the real, enduring power of the past lies in how it affects our present and our future. What we can do is shape a future history in which we consciously and determinedly carry with us only the best of our past.' Not keep rooting, but cognitive behavioural therapy for the whole of Europe, you might...
For a moment, the envelope seems unopenable but then Minister Ingrid van Engelshoven conjures up the redeeming paper after all. 'The winner of the 2019 Gaudeamus Award is Kelley Sheehan!' The little American almost falls off her stool in amazement. Probably not entirely by chance, the new music organisation has positioned her right in the middle of her four fellow candidates. - She herself would...
Good news for anyone who has so far missed If you grow up later, Max Baggerman's double award-winning graduation film. This documentary look at working people, as poetic as it is socially critical, can be seen again on 1 August as part of New Lights. This evening is the second instalment of a new bi-monthly event that introduces us to...
'I think they understood.' Faustin Linyekula says it, very quietly, a little apologetically almost, to his fellow actor at the end of the performance Congo. A slightly relieved laugh can be heard in the main auditorium of Frascati, where Princess Beatrix is also seated. Shortly before, Daddy Moanda Kamono had erupted in an increasingly desperate tirade against our shared past....
If a Nobel Prize for brilliant innovative festival ideas is established, the first may be awarded to whoever came up with the solution to 'the festival conversation' yesterday. You know, that ever-necessary conversation with the important guest or guests. At a table. On chairs. On television, such a setting is already problematic, live in a theatre usually lethal. A currently anonymous...
I described here earlier that Dutch animation film is on the rise. And as I look around the animation festival in Annecy, France, this week, it seems nice to see how our animation filmmakers and producers are presenting themselves here. Especially since Annecy is considered the most important event worldwide in this sector. 'The Cannes of animation' I hear...
When it turned out she was in love with a girl, she fled her unhappy childhood with her strict religious adoptive parents. The book she wrote about it, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, made her world-famous overnight. But as an adult, she still got the bill. It was her cat that saved her from a self-chosen death. Seven life questions to...
Deadwood was one of the best television series ever. Despite its many awards, HBO pulled the plug after only three seasons. After the abrupt stop, HBO promised to end Deadwood in an appropriate way through two TV movies. However, despite fans' requests and actors' insistence, the promises never materialised. Until...
Agnès Varda, once one of the few female filmmakers of the Nouvelle Vague, always upheld that free creative spirit. On 29 March, she died in Paris. Her rich oeuvre is an ode to life.
That publishers and writers are struggling is not news. That something needs to change in connecting with readers too. But what? That is the big question no one has an answer to yet. Publishers have rapidly lost their prestige, their monopoly and often their canal houses. On the other hand, the phenomenon of...
How did the Hague prostitute Blonde Dolly make her millions? And why was her killer never caught, when it was abundantly clear who must have strangled her? That smells like a conspiracy, and conspiracies are like grist to writer Tomas Ross' mill. In Blonde Dolly, he tackles one of the oldest and most mysterious cold cases in the Netherlands. Until it...
The cinema industry presents its 2018 annual figures. Visits stable at 35.7 million, but Dutch film's market share dropped again, now to 11%. Half of the peak year of 2011.
We work out at the gym, diet like crazy and get screened for diseases as a precaution. Modern man does everything he can to get as old as possible. Wouldn't it be better to come to terms with the fact that we are mortal, American writer Barbara Ehrenreich wonders in her book...
IDFA 2018 is a great opportunity to take a look at what you can do with documentary in film education. Documentaries can resonate very well with children, is the experience of Meike Statema, head of education at IDFA.
The trans-drama Girl, Belgium's Oscar entry, is on a veritable victory lap. Filmmaker Lukas Dhont on the struggles of trans girl Lara, who is mostly an ordinary adolescent. On his personal struggle with stereotypes, and on his love of dance. "A place on the Oscar shortlist would already be very nice," he says.
The female composer, she continues to stir minds. My article following Mathilde Wantenaar's world premiere of Damocles unleashed a fierce discussion on Facebook. 'Why should women be given preferential treatment?" an angry man asked. 'All that matters to me is quality, not whether a piece of music was written by a man or a woman.' He got icky about the m/f discussion, which...
Would it happen after all? Would Liesbeth Coltof's dream really come true? For 36 years, she made theatre in which the age of the audience played no role. On Saturday 6 October, she received the Oeuvre Prize from the Association of Theatre Directors (VSCD) from the hands of Hedy d'Ancona. In doing so, she surpassed Ivo van Hove. The internationally breakthrough leader of the...
Dutch youth theatre has been awarded the Prize of the Dutch Critics this year. Quite rightly so. That youth theatre of ours is of superior quality, diverse, dares to tell stories and look outside its own navel. It is more than a pity that, as an adult without a child, you don't come into contact with that theatre so often. Many an adult would fervently...
1On 6 September 2018, Chokri Ben Chika left his sense of humour behind in Belgium. He trekked to the Amsterdam Stadsschouwburg with a filled jerry can and committed a criminal offence. He threatened a Rabo Hall filled to the brim with an indistinguishable fake weapon. He said he admired the anonymous Tunisian who, with his self-immolation ...
His short stories look deceptively simple, and every word is weighed as if on a gold scale. He therefore basically writes his very short stories from A to Z, without changing anything else. Portrait of writer A.L. Snijders. 'While my wife was dying, I unsuspectingly wrote a piece.' Elaborate You wouldn't expect it from...
Last week, while walking the dog, my neighbour Stefanie asked, "What is that anyway, this Holland Festival?", and I almost caught myself wearily going to explain that it was the most important performing arts festival the Netherlands and its environs and that everyone with a bit of education should know it. But I held back. And wondered: how...
The Film Academy presents the graduation films of the 2018 batch. Feature films and documentaries with many small, personal subjects. Awards for best documentary and feature film, for best screenplay and commercial, and for best film score. Frans Weisz appointed Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau.
The Association of Theatre and Concert Hall Directors and Festival de Nederlandse Dansdagen announce the annual nominations for the VSCD Dance Awards (the Swans). Nominated for the Swan 'most impressive dance production' are: Rule of Three, choreography: Jan Martens, by GRIP The hidden floor, choreography: Franck Chartier, by Nederlands Dans Theater We Are Nowhere Else But Here, choreography: Stephen Shropshire, by Stephen Shropshire Foundation,...
If you want to see a do-nothing dance programme, TWOOLS 18 by Scapino Ballet Rotterdam is the wrong place. If you want to see how young creators live their world, you're in the right place. TWOOLS the 18th edition TWOOLS is an occasional platform that offers young choreographers the chance to work with a top company. All the makers participating in the 18th edition of TWOOLS...
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