Het Mes (1961)

Watched it again tonight and adjusted my rating upwards.

Reitze van der Linden played very well.

Strange that he didn't continue as an actor.

The jazzy score by Pim Jacobs struck me positively again.

Truly a film with a special atmosphere and nice locations.

Translated from Dutch · View original

Not a breathtaking film by Fons Rademakers, but one that plays out almost unnoticed in a long flashback, in which a thirteen-year-old realizes that a chapter in his life has been closed due to an important parental decision.

Thomas strives for his own personality, but along the way he encounters his youthful drive and thoughtlessness. Sexual development is also his part, which plunges him even more into insecurity and in addition, his relationship with his mother and her bossy boyfriend is very unstable.

In any case, the film keeps you in a certain tension, partly because of the question about the role of the knife and on the other hand there are some beautiful scenes such as the car ride to the boarding school and the meeting with soldier Ratte, an example of decisiveness that Thomas still looks up to.

Neat performances, especially from Ellen Vogel and especially from Paul Cammermans as the hypocritical partner and stepfather

Translated from Dutch · View original

Beginning teenager Toni [Reitze van der Linden] struggles with puberty, with all kinds of questions about the meaning of his life (including the meaning or nonsense of religion), the death of his father and the fact that his mother [Ellen Vogel] is a has a relationship with Oscar [Paul Cammermans]. Throw a nice girl [Marie-Louise Videc] into the mix and you have all the ingredients for a nice coming-of-age drama that, however, is not sufficiently convincing due to the poor acting of the two young protagonists.

Translated from Dutch · View original