The way this documentary nowadays is called is 'docudrama'. It means that it contains fiction and non fiction, interviews and kind of theatrical play and I must say I don't like that part of this film. Thom Hoffmann, the director is at the same time an actor who tried his first steps in the movie making. Most of rolls he played in the beginning of his career are a kind of existentialistic ones. Also the roll he played in the movie from Adriaan Ditvoorst, the director who handles the film about, is one of a troubled man addicted to morphine.
I saw all films of this director and this film is one of the better ones he made later on. The director started with some films what were very appreciated on
international festivals like Locarno (for example Bertoluci appreciated his first film(s) very much. It were the early sixties and the existentialism took a high flight. Unfortunately the 'public' were less enthusiastic and from this movie on the director more and more had difficulties with getting money to make his films. In Holland there was and probably still is not the good environment for making experimental movies. Anyway the documentary continues with interviews with
people who saw close by the down fall of the director. It shows a man who
wanted to make movies, but had to fight critics, producers, film boards and in the end he started to fight against himself what resulted in the suicide of the man. What I like about the 'docudrama' is the dedication Thom shows for the director. He show honestly how he also had many problems with the character of the
director, but also the faith he had in his films. It's a sad story and he does nothing about it to hide that. That's okay, because almost nobody wants to hear sad stories nowadays so Thom stuck his neck out to make this film.
The thing I didn't like so much were the 'played' parts in the film. Not the way it was played, but rather the choices he made what parts of his life were played. The nice result of the film was that the director Ditvoorst again came back in the picture and the movies he made were back in the cinema's and I was able to
see them on the screen. Before it was impossible to find any movie of the
director.
