I saw this movie a long time ago (about 10 years) so I do not remember a lot, except for the true emotions in the movie, that may not be acknowledged by a modern audience. Philip de Wit loses his girl friend in a car crash, then meets a girl that looks exactly like her. The rest of the story is about these two people. I don't want to spoil the story by telling too much but it's one of my little favourites.
2 Reviews
Finding Eileen.
morrison-dylan-fan18 August 2019
Warning: Spoilers
Over the last few years, one of the main films close family friend Guy Morgan kept wanting to track down was one called Looking for Eileen. A few weeks before Guy suddenly died from a brain aneurysm at just age 46,I discovered the original Dutch title of the flick,and at last helped him to find Eileen.
The plot:
Waving goodbye to wife Marjan,Philip de Wit goes fishing as she drives away. At the same time Philip is pushed into the pond by kids, Marjan is killed in a car crash. Devastated, Philip isolates himself,and goes into running the bookshop Marjan owned. A year later with the pain still raw,Philip goes to greet a customer and is left frozen, due to the customer looking just like Marjan.
View on the film:
Offering a brief glimpse into the marriage before Marjan's death, co-writer/(with Leon de Winter) director Rudolf van den Berg adaptation of Winter's own novel displays a striking thoughtfulness in expressing the grief of Philip, by having it not be easily solved like in most films, but be a part which lingers in his heart for years. Encountering a familiar face, the writers take the Thriller genre themes of obsessing over a identical person of a dead loved one, and brilliantly twist them inside out, via Philip's dream-logic encounters with Eileen unveiling her obsession to remain in the shadows, which lights up a thrilling blast from the past for Philip,when a figure from Eileen's past appears, demanding Philip shows him the new pages in life Eileen has turned.
Backed by a oddly fitting smoothing synch score, director Berg & cinematographer Theo van de Sande layout the contrasting state of Philip's mind, at first being blissful, glossy overlapping images and dissolves over his marriage to Marjan, that crash down into wet, stilted shots of Philip being washed out on life. Filmed at the site of real crumbling buildings, Berg and Sande take Philip down a new dark path in excellent long tracking shots going pass the side streets of Amsterdam filled with thugs and the drugged homeless, into the rubble of the decayed underworld buildings Philip hopes to pull Eileen out from.
Losing all his pages in life, Thom Hoffman gives a great turn as Philip, thanks to Hofman keeping his grief intact,even as Philip enters the thrill of becoming obsessed with Eileen. Given a extra dreamy vibe by Marijke Veugelers dubbing her voice, Lysette Anthony gives a gripping, measured turn as Eileen, who Anthony balances between appearing openly heart felt, whilst keeping a close watch on how much info she gives out,which leads to everyone looking for Eileen.
The plot:
Waving goodbye to wife Marjan,Philip de Wit goes fishing as she drives away. At the same time Philip is pushed into the pond by kids, Marjan is killed in a car crash. Devastated, Philip isolates himself,and goes into running the bookshop Marjan owned. A year later with the pain still raw,Philip goes to greet a customer and is left frozen, due to the customer looking just like Marjan.
View on the film:
Offering a brief glimpse into the marriage before Marjan's death, co-writer/(with Leon de Winter) director Rudolf van den Berg adaptation of Winter's own novel displays a striking thoughtfulness in expressing the grief of Philip, by having it not be easily solved like in most films, but be a part which lingers in his heart for years. Encountering a familiar face, the writers take the Thriller genre themes of obsessing over a identical person of a dead loved one, and brilliantly twist them inside out, via Philip's dream-logic encounters with Eileen unveiling her obsession to remain in the shadows, which lights up a thrilling blast from the past for Philip,when a figure from Eileen's past appears, demanding Philip shows him the new pages in life Eileen has turned.
Backed by a oddly fitting smoothing synch score, director Berg & cinematographer Theo van de Sande layout the contrasting state of Philip's mind, at first being blissful, glossy overlapping images and dissolves over his marriage to Marjan, that crash down into wet, stilted shots of Philip being washed out on life. Filmed at the site of real crumbling buildings, Berg and Sande take Philip down a new dark path in excellent long tracking shots going pass the side streets of Amsterdam filled with thugs and the drugged homeless, into the rubble of the decayed underworld buildings Philip hopes to pull Eileen out from.
Losing all his pages in life, Thom Hoffman gives a great turn as Philip, thanks to Hofman keeping his grief intact,even as Philip enters the thrill of becoming obsessed with Eileen. Given a extra dreamy vibe by Marijke Veugelers dubbing her voice, Lysette Anthony gives a gripping, measured turn as Eileen, who Anthony balances between appearing openly heart felt, whilst keeping a close watch on how much info she gives out,which leads to everyone looking for Eileen.
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