De Dick Maas Methode

If you're Dutch and born before 2010, you know filmmaker Dick Maas. On average, he may not have huge international succes. But in The Netherlands he's had multiple hit films, including the number one biggest boxoffice succes "Flodder".

This documentary shows his past and works its way forward to Dick Maas's most recent film "Prooi" which became an unexpected hit in China. All his films, his tv- series, and his own studio, come to pass along with some details that were never shared before. It also shows that if you're up for making bigger screen stories, The Netherlands isn't very welcoming or cooperative (Dutch director Paul Verhoeven didn't flee to Hollywood for the warm weather).

At the end of the film you have a good sense of what kind of man Dick Maas is, and his personal growth as a filmmaker.

I don't watch many documentaries about the people in the film industry I admire. Usually because the people I admire are not the kind of people documentaries are made of, but mostly because it largely ruins the magic about their personas, motivations and trademarks. I simply had to make an exception for this documentary about the Dutch writer/director (and pioneer!) Dick Maas, because I sincerely doubt if I would ever have become such a big horror/cult fanatic if it weren't for this man!

Maas' three most famous films were also crucial during my years as a horny and blood-crazed teenager. "De Lift" was the first commercially accessible horror movie in The Netherlands, and the Dutch-speaking part from Belgium where I'm from. It featured the first decapitation I ever saw (and still a mighty cool one), as well a thoroughly unsettling atmosphere, an oddly engaging plot, and great suspense. "Amsterdamned" is the only decent Giallo ever made in The Netherlands (although I wasn't yet familiar with the term or the sub-genre when I first saw it). And then there's "Flodder". Well, let's just say that every Dutch-speaking person knows the Flodder family, and every teenage boy who grew up in the 80s or early 90s is very familiar with one particular sequence involving the voluptuous blond daughter and her neighbor.

The documentary gives insightful information about Dick Maas' very first ventures into filmmaking, like his student films and music videos for the cool rock band Golden Earring. After his biggest successes (the aforementioned three titles), Maas apparently made a couple of bad business decisions, and the documentary - featuring interviews with Dick Maas himself - is brutally honest and transparent about this. In fact, the most praising comment I can give to "The Dick Maas Method" is that the entire production is honest. Many actors openly admit they found it difficult to work with the director, and some of the crew members even criticize the quality of his later films and nativity regarding special effects. Too often in this kind of portraits, you only hear compliments and sucking up.

All in all, the film accurately emphasizes the greatest characteristic of Dick Maas. He isn't a phony and pretentious artist, a wannabe intelligent storyteller or a cinematic diva who exclusively makes the movies he wants to make. He's a hard working and modest craftsman who makes entertaining movies for the masses. I didn't need to watch a documentary to tell me this, of course, but he deserve a little bit of recognition.