Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Nonureva Really Surprised!

Grimossfer Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Numerootno A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

Turfseer 'Character' is a Dutch film which won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1998. The film begins as a young man, Jacob Katadreuffe, has been arrested on the suspicion of murdering Dreverhaven, a powerful and much feared bailiff in the city of Rotterdam. Katadreuffe is interrogated by the police and the recounting of his story forms a voice-over narration for the rest of the film.We flashback to the early 1920s as Katadreuffe relates that his mother, Joba, was Dreverhaven's housekeeper. They have a very brief affair but she decides to raise the child on her own since he is a cruel man who she cannot relate to. Nonetheless, Dreverhaven is persistent in trying to get Joba to change her mind. He sends an emissary laden with cash begging her to marry him but each time she rejects his entreaties.Finally Dreverhaven gives up and Joba is left to raise little Jacob on her own. Oddly, she has no fondness for the boy and throughout his childhood and adolescence she hardly says a word to him.'Character' has a few powerful scenes in its expository sequences. First we discover just how cruel a man Dreverhaven is. When he comes to evict a family who are behind on their rent, he finds an extremely sick woman inside the apartment and ends up dragging her out of bed and throws her out into the street. In another powerful scene, Katadreuffe is arrested with a group of other boys for stealing some bread and is almost raped by a pederast police officer inside a juvenile detention center.It should be noted that when Katadreuffe is detained, he tells the police that Dreverhaven is his father. But when questioned, Dreverhaven denies knowing the boy. Hence, at the outset, we wonder why the Dreverhaven rejects his son. Is he trying to get back at the mother who won't marry him? It's never really explained.Katadreuffe's 'call to adventure' begins when he finally becomes a young man. He's still living with his mother and decides that he must strike out on his own. He takes out a loan from a credit company and impulsively buys a cigar shop without checking the inventory. He soon discovers that the inventory, boxes of cigars, are filled with nothing but straw. One wonders why Katadreuffe didn't bother to inspect the inventory before purchasing the business. After this fiasco, Katadreuffe is forced to go back to live with his mother.Katadreuffe keeps pushing forward. He manages to land a job as an assistant to an attorney, Stroomkoning, at a law firm utilizing his English skills which he learned as a child studying an old encyclopedia. Soon after, Katadreuffe discovers that the credit company he borrowed the money from belongs to Dreverhaven. Katadreuffe is now in debt to his father who interestingly enough allows him to pay off his debts in installments. During the first go-round, he proves to his father that he's an honorable guy and pays off the debt as money is garnered from his pay check.Most of 'Act 2" of 'Character' deals with Katadreuffe attempt to better his position within the law firm. He's attracted to Stroomkoning's secretary, Miss Te George, but due to his bitterness over the poor relationship with his father, he never works up the courage to hook up with her. The film's B story doesn't seem to go anywhere when Te George eventually leaves the firm and nothing comes of their relationship.Katadreuffe is eventually offered the position of office manager within the firm. Inexplicably, he asks Dreverhaven for another loan which he uses for tutoring to become a full-fledged attorney. The loan has one proviso: Dreverhaven can call it in at anytime. He does so just as Katadreuffe is about to take his exams. To Katadreuffe's horror, it's revealed that he failed to pay an earlier debt consisting of his 15 guilder collection of old books (including the encyclopedia). Stroomkoning comes to his rescue, convincing the bankruptcy court that the debt was merely a gift.Meanwhile, Dreverhaven, the cruel, obsessed bailiff, has never given up hope that Joba will accept his proposition (why he still wants to marry her after all this time is never explained). He visits her again after all these years and she turns him down on cue. This fuels his monstrous rage and he's off evicting as many poor tenants he can find. He's so obsessed that he serves a notice of eviction to a Communist who's in the middle of firefight with the police.In her old age, Joba becomes a little more talkative and chides Katadreuffe for not going after Lorna Te George. Joba soon dies and Dreverhaven has a soft spot in his heart and attends her funeral.The climax of 'Character' is unsatisfying. We expect Dreverhaven to do something shattering that leads Katadreuffe to confront him in the final scene. But it's nothing more than his graduation from law school and acceptance into the firm that propels him to the final confrontation with his father (Katadreuffe remarks that he "knew all along" that his father had been "waiting" for him).Father and son are both bloodied as they duke it out at Dreverhaven's place of employment. Dreverhaven ends up dead but the police conclude that Dreverhaven committed suicide and let Katadreuffe go.'Character' is fairly absorbing until the Third Act Climax. The film is helped immensely by the brooding, noirish musical score. Although we never really find out what makes Dreverhaven tick, it's suggested that he was merely using 'tough love' as a means of building his son's character (Dreverhaven ends up ceding his entire estate to his son and signs his will "Father" to boot). "Character' is a melodrama with a nice look to it which will keep you engaged for most of its two hours. But the motivations of its 'characters' (especially Dreverhaven) are not always convincingly defined.

jonathanruano Karakter is one of those films that if you don't understand it, you will never learn to appreciate it. Essentially, it is about Jacob Katadreuffe (Fedja van Huet) who was forsaken by his formidable father Dreverhaven (Jan Decleir) when he was only a baby and used his own talents and hard work to attain a higher station in life. But it is about much more than that. It is about real human beings who struggle with themselves and with each other in order to make sense out of their own lives and to find their place in dynamic, puritan universe that is Holland.Dreverhaven hates his son Jacob, because the latter reminds him of the one great sin he committed in his life -- namely, having an affair with a woman who was not his wife. This may seem surprising, because Dreverhaven had a fearsome reputation for physically throwing out tenants who could not pay their rent and taking to court those who defaulted on his loans. Yet, Dreverhaven lived in a puritanical world where making wealth by hard work, discipline and sheer ruthlessness was considered a virtue, while having children out of wedlock was not. Since he succeeded in that world more than most other people, he was changed by it in a more profound way. But Dreverhaven was also capable of changing more positive ways. He develops a respect for Jacob, when his son triumphantly overcomes the challenges he puts before him. Dreverhaven's respect for his son conflicts with his hatred of him and he never seems able to reconcile the two emotional impulses.Then we have Jacob Katadreuffe who knows what grinding poverty feels like, especially when his mother (Tamar van den Dop) decides the time has come for him to move out. As it turns out, his mother was on the right track. Jacob was cleverer than his peers. He learnt the English language simply by reading books he found in his new house. Informed by a friend that the Communists were gaining new members, Jacob observed that unemployment was up as well -- he obviously knew that most people would leave the Communist party once they found jobs that paid the rent and other living expenses. After a business reversal (which taught him how businessmen cheat each other), Jacob Katadreuffer finally begins his meteoric rise to prominence only to come into conflict -- by a strange and unexpected twist of fate -- with his father Dreverhaven.Finally, we have a murder mystery. Dreverhaven was found in the basement of his wear house with a knife lodged in his stomach and his estranged son, Jacob Katadreuffe, was the last person known to have seen him.Over the course of the film, director Max van Diem brilliantly interweaves these three strands together. He is assisted by a very capable group of actors. Jan Decleir is absolutely brilliant as Dreverhaven, who is a special kind of villain, because he has depth, a soul and inspires a certain degree of sympathy. Dreverhaven is probably one of the hardest roles to play, but Jan Decleir pulls it off without a hitch. Fedja van Huet is also impressive as Jacob Katadreuffe, a man so consumed with ambition that he makes no room for any real personal life. Towards the end, one feels he may become the same man his father was. Van den Dop also gives a fine performance as the reserved and quiet mother to Jacob. Finally, Paleis van Boem's riveting score really contributes to the plot and the general atmosphere of the film. These days, it is rare to see a film about real people trying to work out their own internal and external conflicts. They do so without special effects, without explosions and for the most part without violence. This is one of the most interesting and intense films I have seen in recent times and it is tragic that Hollywood does not make more films like this one.

freed This is a movie that grips right away. While it has a dark setting, sparse but classic, the characters are rich. The love and care that Mike van Diem and the actors put in this film is visible. Thanks to significant contributions from both Dutch and Belgian TV stations, this movie is a rare treat, which is for once not spoiled by overly commercial requirements from demanding advertisers... As i understand, the film company First Floor Features had this film for decade(s?) in the planning, and it is a happy coincidence that it was realized the way you can enjoy it now. It has thus become a monument honoring the fabulous writer F. Bordewijk, the Dutch life and mind of the beginning 1900's, the craftsmanship of a dedicated cast, and a generous producer. Jan Declair as the stony-hearted usher Dreverhaven is a character you won't forget for a long time. His softer side is time and again rejected by taciturn Joba, his former housekeeper who became pregnant in one lonely weak moment of them both. For several years, he offers her to marry her, or at least to contribute for the upbringing of his illegitimate son Kattedreuffe. She as many times rejects: 'We do not need anything.' On a precarious occasion, Dreverhaven denounces Jacob Kattadreuffe nevertheless, and from that moment on, father and son have a harsh relation as well. -Masterfully, fate intertwines their lives, as the story unfolds. Real gems are present everywhere, the scenery is breathtakingly picturesque, partly filmed in Rotterdam harbor, and in other places like Poland. The movie constantly plays with time, but in a plausible way. As an example, when Kattedreuffe has an appointment at a bailiff's office after being framed into bankruptcy, the name plate blinks at once with his own name on it. And indeed, he starts a career in this very office that same day. For a while, the lives of father and son seem only occasionally to coincide, but it is a silence before the storm. Every picture draws to the dramatic end which was glimpsed as the opening scene: Did Kattadreuffe murder Dreverhaven? Many instances shown would allow this conclusion, as the two fatally attract each other to fulfill their inner tragedy. Dreverhaven as this hard and desperate 'keeper of the law' who can not express love, and Kattadreuffe as the one who had to fight his whole life to arrive in a higher position, and then stands empty-handed, his love unreturned through his own stupidity (even his mother sees that Lorna Te George / Tamar van den Dop was an exquisite relation missed). To kill (!) each other would suddenly seem like the best possibility and a liberation in such a dark hour, but the end has a surprise. The last minute smooths all the giant waves, and allows for a satisfying and ingenuous end scene. - Maybe you have to see this movie more than once to uncover the many hidden treasures, i strongly recommend to get it for yourself on DVD. The music of 'Paleis van Boem' enhances perfectly the impressive scenery. It is an artwork that has more than earned the Oscar it has got as best foreign film in 1998, along with several other awards.And i am proud to have been asked to participate with calligraphy and handwritten material, although it is only clearly visible in the last half minute when (my) hand writes the last words of the testament, undersigning with - (see for yourself!).

eyeseehot Watching this sludgy, portentous tripe was torture. Any relation between these characters and real human beings is purely coincidental. Example: the main character is supposedly in love with a woman who works in the office, though he's been too shy to do anything about it. At the beach with friends, he meets her by chance. She invites him to her cabana, where, shockingly, there's another man, never seen before. She introduces them. Lover boy is so angry he leaves, and then won't speak to her at the office. He never asks about the other man, she never tells him anything, and the other man is never seen again. Later she marries someone else. His mother says, "you let her get away, you're an ass." Best line in the film.The film at least sparked a good discussion afterwards. We came to see that it's a pro-capitalist, or anti-welfare state, allegory. Both the father and the mother, in their ways, torment the son, and in the end we learn it was all done out of love, tough love: to make him tough. Only then can he inherit the money. The father is a monstrously unbending bailiff, charged with defending property rights by repossession and eviction of those deadbeat lower classes. The kid shows grit and ambition by pursuing legal studies and paying off all his debts. One slight softening: he learns, one time, to accept a gift. Otherwise it's straight Ayn Rand: capitalism is tough to keep society tough. Rely on yourself, don't get soft, climb the ladder and pay your debts, and you'll reap your reward.The style is copied from Steven Spielberg. Same kinds of shots, rhythm, shoving the obvious in your face, lack of interest in real character. Standard Hollywood period piece photography: subdued hazy brown-gray-blue. Excuse me, I have to run to the video store to rent an Eric Rohmer.