Cheap Character (DVD) (Jan Decleir, Pavlik Jansen op de Haar) (Mike van Diem) Price

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Customer Reviews of Character

Packs a Lot of Dramatic Punch
CHARACTER is all about tough love. Extremely tough. It is about family. In this instance, an extremely distant pair of parents and a young man seeking his identlty. It's also about great psychological drama, superior period design and unbelievably assured freshman filmmaking from director Mike Van Diem. It's also, as the title implies, about "building character." The father, Dreverhaven, has some unusual character building techniques, to put it mildly. He at one point tells the young man's mother that he will strangle 9/10s of the life out of son Jacob, but the remaining 1/10ths will make him strong. And just for good measure, he may take the last tenth as welll.
Jan Decleir, as Dreverhaven, is a revelation. He's built like Gerard Depardieu and is even more preposessing than that fine actor on screen. He would make a great Javert or Lear in some future production. Victor Löw, as Jacob's mentor and elder friend, De Gankeelar, is unlike anyone you will have seen on screen or stage. With an impossibly jutting jaw and unique mode of speech, he is the ultimate character actor. The entire cast is splendid. I'm not at all familiar with Dutch Cinema, and am not even entirely sure the term isn't an oxymoron. This film, however, can stand beside anything in contemporary cinema. Now I just have to dig up the novel by Ferdinand Borewijk, from which the movie was adapted. It's such a compelling story that I'm sure the novel will be excellent, as well.

Five Stars and counting.

BEK

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A Supercharged Drama
CHARACTER is all about tough love. Extremely tough. It is about family. In this instance, an extremely distant pair of parents and a young man seeking his identlty. It's also about great psychological drama, superior period design and unbelievably assured freshman filmmaking from director Mike Van Diem. It's also, as the title implies, about "building character." The father, Dreverhaven, has some unusual character building techniques, to put it mildly. He at one point tells the young man's mother that he will strangle 9/10s of the life out of son Jacob, but the remaining 1/10ths will make him strong. And just for good measure, he may take the last tenth as welll.

Jan Decleir, as Dreverhaven, is a revelation. He's built like Gerard Depardieu and is even more preposessing than that fine actor on screen. He would make a great Javert or Lear in some future production. Victor Löw, as Jacob's mentor and elder friend, De Gankeelar, is unlike anyone you will have seen on screen or stage. With an impossibly jutting jaw and unique mode of speech, he is the ultimate character actor. The entire cast is splendid. I'm not at all familiar with Dutch Cinema, and am not even entirely sure the term isn't an oxymoron. This film, however, can stand beside anything in contemporary cinema. Now I just have to dig up the novel by Ferdinand Borewijk, from which the movie was adapted. It's such a compelling story that I'm sure the novel will be excellent, as well.

Five Stars and counting.

BEK

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Consider this film as one the ten best of the nineties!
This film throws again to the ring to Neetherlands in the rank of great directors. This film deserved The best foreign film in 1997 ; but its inner values are far beyond this prize.
Imagine what the film talks about ; you must fight not onlñy with the elusive and challenging fate that day after day wait for us when we leave from home . Our main character has to prove to his own father he's a winner ; against all the obstacles he finds in the road.
His father is a hated human being ; a man without a bit of scruples. Since he was a child , was forced to fight , and always followed his bliss .
This film represents not only a personal challenge but also a life experience ; a no mercy story that disturbs the viewer .
The performances without exception are of first rate ; (loaded with the same essence we remind of that ancient concept from Italy in the forties titled neo realism - De Sica ,Roselini - , that really had its origen with Tony from Jean Renoir in 1934), but with a very twisted difference ; his epic commitment instead the bitter and hopeless endings , typical of those ancient classical films (Germanny anno zero , Roma cittä aperta, Paisa , The bycicles'thief and Umberto D) .
Mike van Diem made a unique film ; a jewel of countless carats. And to me , one of the one hundred best films in any age!
A must in you private collection!