FILM OF THE WEEK
INTERVIEW | review: Tiramisu (Rotterdam 2008) |
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| Written by Boyd van Hoeij | |
| Monday, 04 February 2008 | |
 A nerdy bookkeeper tries to cope with a diva client but is then blinded by the glitz in Tiramisu, the latest film from Oscar-nominated Dutch writer-director Paula van der Oest (Zus & Zo). The feel-good drama – if that isn’t too much of an oxymoron – walks a fine line between feel-good clichés and true character development, though Van der Oest finally makes it all believable because of her direction of the actors. The film does not have the star power to draw the 1 million visitors of last year’s schmaltzy box-office champion Alles is liefde (Love is All), which had the local equivalent of the Ocean's Eleven cast, but Tiramisu could still do decent business upon its March release if marketed properly at home. Abroad, the film will fight an uphill battle for attention with similar fare, though TV and remake potential are a given. Tiramisu is interesting as a sly subversion of the values that the average Dutchman prides himself on: quiet success, careful with money, conformist. All of these characteristics are completely alien to aging theatre diva Anne (Anneke Blok, one of the three scheming sisters from Zus & Zo), whose career floats on adulation and extravagance even as she struggles to find the leading roles she craves (and thinks she still deserves at her age). Anne lives on a houseboat in Amsterdam, her most prized and bohemian possession in a life otherwise filled with Prada and Chablis – two things her new accountant Jacob (Jacob Derwig, the male lead from Zus & Zo) finds hard to stomach at first, though he is quick to understand the lure of luxury once this suburban husband of extraordinary ordinariness has had a taste of it. In an intelligent opening sequence, Van der Oest crosscuts between the diva taking her bow and enjoying her moment of glory during a thunder of applause and the nerdy bookkeeper trying to make sense of her accounts ("€545 for a pair of shoes in representational fees?"). The two are polar opposites and initially read as clichés in an opposites attract-type love story, though as the film wears on Van der Oest subtly subverts expectations. She is greatly aided by her actors, who create full-bodied characters rather than stereotypes from the at times overly conventional script. A subplot involving the bookkeeper’s wife Marieke (Rifka Lodeizen) trying to get pregnant early on in the film is too close to cliché and does not work – its wacky tone is too far removed from the rest of the material, which always keeps a serious glow underneath the chuckle-inducing antics. Derwig is delightful as the uptight, bourgeois accountant who needs to lighten up, while Blok appropriately takes over the screen in almost every one of her scenes (even if the English translation on the print at Rotterdam struggled to convey some of her well-aimed zingers). Blok is especially impressive in the brief excerpts in which she is shown at work on stage. Though the material is short, it is clear that the character Blok plays is an amazing actress with an indelible aura; it is a moment when actress and character clearly coincide. Two veterans complete the strong cast: Gijs Scholten van Aschat (Cloaca) plays Anne’s ex-husband and the father of her teenage daughter with dignity, while Olga Zuiderhoek is superb as Anne’s cleaning lady and confidante Nettie. A scene in which she makes a party speech in a drunken stupor is among the highlights of the film. Like Zus & Zo, Tiramisu does not eschew the drama that precedes the satisfying finale -- you have to have a funeral to go with your four weddings, if you will -- which makes the film more honest than most feel-good films. Browse for DVDs, soundtracks, books and more: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.fr, amazon.de, dvdGO.es, internetbookshop.it, nl.bol.com, allposters.com. |
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