Europe Endless - The Netherlands: Character (Dir Mike van Diem, 2h4m, 1997)
Another stop now on a lesser explored cinematic nation; the Dutch have an admittedly impressive three Best Foreign Language Film Oscars under their belt ( The Assault (1986) Antonia's Line (1995) and the focus of today's column, 1997's Character ( Karakter ), but the Netherlands is not generally known, unlike its immediate neighbours, as a cinematic nation. The most famous Dutch filmmaker, Paul Verhoeven, is as notable for his groundbreaking, and often sexually explicit and violent oeuvre in 80s and 90s Hollywood, as his works in his native Netherlands, including the (then) colossally budgeted Soldier of Orange (1977) and the erotic thriller The Fourth Man (1983). Like many nations, the Netherlands is not a single director. We must look beyond Verhoeven, as he looked beyond the Netherlands to work in cinema. Character is the most typical reflection of a nation's national character in film we have discussed so far. An adaptio...
