World's Largest Indie Film Studio To Be Created In Amsterdam, plus a bit of Harry's adventures in Rotterdam

Ya know... Sometimes time just breezes by and I forget to cover certain things, but Hell... No time like the present eh? First before I get into my Holland adventures, I'll let my dutch friend let you in on this fantastic announcement. Why is it fantastic? Well, first off one of the most important lessons I learned while I was in Holland was that there is literally a starving film community in Holland that wants to make, "Cool" films, but the government financed film industry only approves films of 'merit' to receive the alloted monies for film. As a result, these filmmakers gripe about the proliferation of ultra low budget films that are basically college age kids smoking pot, shooting heroin, etc. Or films about lotsa fucking.

Movies like CHARACTER are few and far between, and the main reason is that the budgets that the Government funded arts program has have been the same amounts of monies since way back when Verhoeven made his films, and because this government agency doesn't approve any real commercial films, the amount of money doesn't grow. I talked to one filmmaker in Amsterdam that was trying deperately to have this Romantic Comedy made, I wish I could remember his name (Contact me if it's you), but the commision would not hear of it because that's the kinda of movie the Americans make. He tried to argue back that the Dutch Romantic Comedy has not been made though... but they'd hear none of that. His idea was quite good, as was the computer graphics work he was doing in his tiny apartment in Amsterdam for a live-action computer animated film set with bugs that was quite stunning in the phase I saw it in. But enough of this... On to the news...

Well, you probably don't remember me at all, but I told you in Rotterdam a couple of months ago that I would send you an email. And here it is. Sorry for the delay, but I really wanted to give you a scoop on something. And well, Holland isn't precisely the movie capitol of the world, so I never had anything remotely important to say.

Looks like things might be changing.

I know this really isn't an "insider scoop" or anything, but when I heard this news, I thought you should know about it. Up until now, I still haven't read anything about this on either the Variety or the Hollywood-reporter-site, so here goes.....

Holland, nay Europe, is going to get a MAJOR boost in film-production if this little plan works out. Seems that, for over a year now, Dutch writer Leon De Winter and a buddy of his, Eric Pleskow (former president of United Artists) have been breeding on a scheme to turn Holland into a serious movie-producing nation.

The news broke this morning in Holland and it has now been officially announced that PlesWin (how's that for a silly name) Entertainment is going to be the world's largest independent movie-studio. At least eight feature films are to be produced and released by PlesWin every year. All of them are going to be English-spoken and should be, as De Winter puts it, "interesting commercially as well as artistically". The movies will be distributed worldwide.

Germany's biggest film distributor, Senator Film Berlin, will also participate in the joint venture. Which should make large-scale distribution less of a problem.

Currently, there are fifteen titles in the pipeline. Three of those films should be in production by the end of this year. Sorry, I can't give you any titles (simply because I don't know them....yet) but a movie adoptation of one of De Winter's books is bound to be one of PlesWin's first real deals. The budget for the first three movies lies somewhere around $30 mln. (which is a hell of a LOT, by Dutch or even European standards!)

De Winter says that "at least for the first few years, we want to work with big [American] names". But he didn't mention any. However, I think you can expect interest from Paul Verhoeven, Mike van Diem (Oscar winner for Character) and maybe Jan DeBont to join this band of rebels in some way. Verhoeven has always expressed interest in coming back to Holland, if the film-climate changed here. Maybe this is change enough for him. (yeah, back to Soldier of Orange you...)

Sometime next month, PlesWin will start business in their (cool) offices on the Stadhouderkade in Amsterdam. (not really an office, more of a mansion)

Why Amsterdam? Easy; because of the tax-climate here. Financing a movie here is fully tax-deductable for individuals. So every investor wants a piece of the action. That's why De Winter and Pleskow have such high hopes of releasing at least eight movies a year. Give investors some bait, and they will give you cash. A lot of it.

Well, that's it for the moment. You will probably read, hear or see about this in the regular media any time soon. (if you haven't allready) I'll visit the Stadhouderkade next month or so. See what's going on. If there's any news, I'll let you know.

Steven

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By the way, Harry. Us poor sobs here in Holland were waiting and waiting for that Rotterdam Film Festival Report you were going to put on your site. But it never happened......halas. To jog your memory a little bit; I'm one of the geeks who took you to Bram Ladage to eat your very first Friet met Mayo. (fries with mayo) And a piece of kroket. (you know, that crunchy thing with meat inside, I think you liked it) Then afterwards, we talked a bit about movies and stuff in The Fust. (a bar with, much to your amazement, candles on the table) We all (Jarno, Robbert, Beast etc.) had a great time those days. You were a really cool dude, as they say. And you were on Dutch tv. A lot. I wish you well, Harry, and I hope you haven't called Quint a "klootzak", as you said you would. It's a really dirty curseword here. Bye.

Harry here, and now, by special request of Steven and dedicated to all my Holland buddies I met whilst over there... Here's my long delayed report.

The festival was quite active and very busy. I was quite confused about the ticket process, so instead focused more upon hanging out with Dutch film fans and trying to get a grasp on this wondrous country I found myself in.

The two films I had really wanted to see were BULLET BALLET and LOLA RENNT (aka RUN LOLA RUN), but the first was sold out, and LOLA RENNT wasn't scheduled to show till the day after I left. So I was left a little frustrated, but luckily I was able to post up my hotel information, and I was getting messages from folks that wanted to hook up with me.

The day of my big speech, I basically wandered the streets of Rotterdam. As I began walking towards this gigantic facility that I'd be speaking at, I saw these three geeks approaching me. My first thought was that these were bandits out to kill me. They all had guilty looks in their eyes. This was, Jarno, Hooglander and the Beast. They really seemed to be quite cool, and a bit excited to meet me, which is always the wierdest thing in the world for me, because... I'm just a fat redhead that likes movies.

Now, how did they spot me? Well, in the United States, all the time I get messages saying someone saw me somewhere, when in fact it was someone else, but in Holland, I feel completely safe in saying that there are no fat people. The entire time I was there I never saw another fat person like me. Instead there were all these damn fit people. Really quite aggravating. Also, I didn't spot any redheads either. Lots of blondes and brunette types, but I didn't see any Redheads.

The Beast seemed to be sizing me up as if to challenge me for a wrestling match, whilst Jarno and Hooglander were talking non-stop about a dozen different things. Excited. Furiously excited they were. These three lived and breathed film. My type of fellows. I had to hurry into the building to prepare for my speech and asked if they wanted to hang out after the speech and perhaps go out drinking and do whatever it is those people in Rotterdam do. They eagerly agreed.

The critics symposium was quite a bit of fun for me really. There was a lot of belly-aching about the lot of the critic's life. And how they are basically helpless before the studios. And how there is no way to change the tide of mediocrity. And how all Hollywood makes are hamburgers, etc. I sat at the back of the room drinking a beer and listening to these speeches a bit disgusted.

To me, all this belly aching really serves no purpose. As a film journalist at a newspaper or with a website or on television, you don't need the studio publicity people, you just need to see the movies. You can strike up friendships with projectionists, theater managers, all variety of folks. If the studio wants to send you a pass to see a movie, fine... If not, contact the local radio station/television station that gives away passes for films and sweet talk your way into their lives, so they give you extra passes. The point is, there is a way to see movies if you really want to.

A film writer can write about film. If your editor doesn't approve an article of some sort, form an alliance with other film writers and put out your own publication. Small press to begin with, or just a web site. But as time goes on, and it may very well take 6 years or so, honest hard work and love for film and your craft will pay off. But you have to sacrifice. It's not the simple way with the automatic paycheck and medical care. But it's the only way to do it and not feel the pressure of a publicist's thumb upon the nape of your neck.

Basically that's a rough idea of my retort that I gave in my speech (which was much longer) and led to a heated discussion about everything from 'that's easy for me to say, I've made it' to out and out name calling. But, the applause always won out. Afterwards, I went out with Jarno, Hooglander and the Beast... as well as Steven and another fellow I believe.

We then went to this place sort of behind and to the side of the humungous PATHE' theater called Bram Ladage where they had me go up and say, "Patat Met."

I was giddy. Oh boy oh boy, here comes my Pulp Fiction moment. First they guy took this roll of paper and fashioned a cone and dished a ton of french fries in it. Then with a gigantic soup spoon he scooped up this obscene amount of mayonaisse and globbed it onto my fries. Then he handed it to me.

I believe it was Jarno that filmed me eating my Patat Met whilst quoting Pulp Fiction, something that I really got a goofy fan boy geeky thrill out of. As for Patat Met... How was it? Well... To put it mildly, Man, I drown my fries in that shit now. Their mayo is much more egg-y than ours, but has a bit of a bite to it, as if a tiny droplet of horse radish is added. However, Steven I believe ate his PATAT with not only mayo but a Satay sauce added too. So that was like eating french fries covered in Peanut butter and mayo. I tried a bit of that, and holy shit it was great.

After my adventures with french fries we resided to this small off the plaza bar called THE FUST that had these really cool looking candles on the tables, as well as lots of movie posters all about. At this point the groups geeky side really started coming into the light. Out came a lego catalogue with the Star Wars Lego pics (long before they hit the net) and they began asking about film in the United States, and I asked about sex, drugs and drinking in Holland.

I was fascinated by the openness of their culture. Surely there has to be a gigantic crime and violence problem (nope) and all kids must be addicts (nope) and every girl must be pregnant by the age of 13 (nope). In regards to hashish and marijuana... well everyone there had permissive parents and so they tried it very early on... even smoking with their parents, but they found this to be... uncool, so they pretty much stopped smoking except at social parties and gatherings.

They couldn't believe the uptight nature of the United States concerning the MPAA, a lack of a viable Health Care plan, polution, etc. And admittedly I agreed.

The next day Jarno, Hooglander, The Beast and I all walked Rotterdam to death. Going into bookstores, toy shops, cd shops, the market (fantastic) and comic shops. I discovered Joss Kleptseicher (I know I screwed that up) and his horny dog named Harry that screws anything and has a herniated anus. This character makes Robert Crumb and S Clay WIlson's work look like Archie comics. Dirty and disgusting just doesn't even begin to describe it.

My favorite bit was walking in the market area. You know the soundtrack to CITY OF LOST CHILDREN? Well there was this music wagon machine thing that was pumping out this loud hanting carnival-esque music that just seemed so otherworldly. I noticed couples bicycling side by side hand in hand. Flower sellers, food wagons.... Everywhere. It was grand. Tomorrow I'll go into AMSTERDAM, but only if I get contacted by the gentleman that took me there. As I can't seem to be able to find his card tonight, and I don't want to refer to him merely as "that guy" cause for a man that could do all the muppet voices so perfectly and was so talented... He deserves better. Hopefully I'll finish this up, tomorrow...