In Search of Surrealism in Alex van Warmerdam’s Borgman

Painting of Alex van Warmerdam by Maurice Braspenning

A thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of 'MA Media Studies: Film Studies' from the University of Amsterdam in the 2016-2017 academic year, submitted on June 26th 2017.

Student number: 10276165 Master Thesis of student: Floor Wijers University of Amsterdam Thesis Supervisor: dr. M.A.M.B. Lous Baronian 26 June 2017 Second Reader: dr. B. Joret [email protected] Wordcount: 17660

ABSTRACT

In this thesis the work of Dutch contemporary filmmaker Alex van Warmerdam is being analysed into the light of Surrealism. By doing so, the aim is to use Surrealism as an instrument to analyse film. The main focus is to explore to what extent there is a correlation between Alex van Wamerdam’s work and Surrealism. Mainly his film Borgman is used as a case study. In this thesis, the link between Surrealism and Cinema is considered as specific ‘category of interpretation,’ to reveal the surrealistic aspects in Borgman. In addition to this, I discussed Borgman with the involvement of surrealistic concepts, like black humour and mad love, to argue that the surrealistic identity can still be represented in film culture.

Key words: Contemporary Dutch cinema, Alex van Warmerdam, Surrealism, disorientating cinema, black humour, mad love, Borgman (2013)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

There are some people I am grateful for and who deserve some extra attention. Without them I would not be able to write this thesis. First of all I want to thank Marie-Aude Baronian for her strict deadlines, critical feedback and great patience with me. Besides that, especially I want to thank Frietson Galis for her support, and taking the time to read through all of my work, give useful remarks and helping me to improve my English. Also my mom, dad and girlfriend deserve some respect for the sweet attention they gave me. Finally, I want to thank the in Leiden based Dutch artist Maurice Braspenning for his permission to use his artwork of Alex van Warmerdam, on the front cover of my thesis.

2 CONTENTS:

INTRODUCTION 5-7

CHAPTER 1. SURREALISM: ORIGINS, KEY IDEAS AND ART MOVEMENT AND THE CINEMATIC INVOLVEMENT 8-23

1.1– Surrealism: origins and characteristics 8-10 1.2– Surrealism: key ideas 10-15 1.3– Surrealism: the art movement 15-18 1.4– Surrealism and Cinema 19-23

CHAPTER 2. ALEX VAN WARMERDAM AS A DESIGNER 24-35

2.1– Artistic background 24-27 2.2– Alex van Warmerdam’s uncompromised attitude 28-31 2.3– Alex van Warmerdam’s creations 31-35

CHAPTER 3. THE DARK SURREALISTIC EVIDENCE IN VAN WARMERDAM’S BORGMAN 36-51

3.1– Greenaway, Lynch and van Warmerdam: Strange encounters 36-39 3.2– The devil is in the details 39-43 3.3– You want it darker? Black humour, mad love in Borgman 43-51

3 4. CONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSSION: EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED 52-56

5. SOURCES: 57-59

5.1– Bibliography 57-58 5.2– Filmography 59

4 INTRODUCTION:

The central object of study of this thesis will be the work of contemporary Dutch filmmaker Alex van Warmerdam. In the Dutch film culture, van Warmerdam is known for his unconventional approach of filmmaking. This attitude makes him very successful, as can be seen from the impressive record of national and international prizes.1 His films are one of a kind, and often his signature is immediately recognizable. On the one hand, the films of van Warmerdam give me a feeling of discomfort. They are often quite melodramatically, and there is a lot that goes wrong in the lives of his characters. On the other hand, I like that his films are highly unpredictable, containing a lot of unexpected twists and turns, and especially events are putted into a mysterious context. Besides, there is a lot of dry-comic humour included in his films. These contradictory aspects build up tension and a feeling of alienation.

Surrealism is an art movement, in which the unexpectedness plays an important role. It stimulates to reflect upon daily live, and reveals certain layers, which are usually hidden, like desires, anxieties, imagination and dreams. Also these characteristics cause an estranging feeling. The aim of this thesis is to explore the relationship between Surrealism and the films of van Warmerdam. In many critical reviews about the films of van Warmerdam the term surreal is often being used. Especially his feature film Borgman (2013) is often being linked to an understanding of surreality. A striking theme in Borgman is the dream state. In Borgman a strange encounter with an evil intruder disrupts the comfortable live of a middle class family. This results into strange circumstances, wherein dreams and reality are mixed up. I will discuss Borgman as a case study, but I will also refer to other films of his oeuvre and, additionally will discuss some of his theatre work. Since there are many significant indistinguishable characteristics in the work of van Warmerdam. To provide legitimacy to the assumption of

1 His first two feature films Abel (1986) and De Noorderlingen (1992) won Golden Calfs for best Dutch Film and best directing. De Jurk (1996) won the jury prize of Venice Film Festival. Borgman (2013) was selected at the official selection of Cannes Film Festival.

5 surrealism in his work, I will take a closer look at the conditions of the relationship between Surrealism and cinema. A much debated and controversial question in the field of Film studies is whether there is such a thing as a Surrealistic film? Recently, a lot of literature has emerged that offers contradictory findings about cinema and Surrealism. (Richardson’s Surrealism and Cinema, Harper and Stones The Unsilvered Screen, Everette’s “Screen as a Thresfold” and Moines “From Surrealist Cinema to Surrealism in Cinema.”) Therefore, it is important to find the right balance, between films that are made as belonging to the surrealist movement and films that contain surrealistic aspects. To determine if the oeuvre of van Warmerdam, and most of all the film Borgman, can be defined as surrealistic, I will first try to explain more about the discussion about Surrealism and cinema in the literature. Therefore, we have to first question whether surrealistic films do exist. Secondly, if there is indeed such a thing as a surrealistic film, can Borgman be defined as a surrealistic film? Or if there is not such a thing as the surrealistic film, is there any indication of the influence of Surrealism in the films of Alex van Warmerdam, and for the most part in Borgman? As a starting point I will try to make clear what Surrealism is, to get to the essence of the Surrealist movement. The main focus is at the beginning of the movement, and to its relevance in contemporary culture and cinema culture. First I will outline the ontology of the movement, which emerges from Dadaism. Then I will point out the key ideas that are presented in the Surrealist Manifesto of André Breton, which are closely related to the psychoanalytical Freudian theories. Lastly I will describe the involvement of Surrealism into cinema and the problems that occur, when Surrealism and cinema are being related with each other. In this chapter I will provide a framework, which allows investigation of the connection between van Warmerdam’s films and Surrealism. His continuous shifting between theatre and cinema plays an important role in his film style. Therefore, I begin with his background, which is deeply imbedded in the Dutch theatre culture. In the next part the uncompromising attitude of van Warmerdam is the point of focus. Most of all van Warmerdam tries to be in control of all facets of filmmaking. This results to films with a

6 specific nature. In the last part of this chapter I try to put into words what van Warmerdam’s cinematic world looks like. Before starting with analysing the film Borgman, make a comparison of van Warmerdam with David Lynch and Peter Greenaway, some of the most well known contemporary filmmakers who are also often linked to Surrealism. This comparison allows me to make the association between Surrealism and the work of van Warmerdam more convincing. To succeed in my plan to connect Surrealism with van Warmerdam’s films, I will closely analyse his film Borgman, from a surrealistic perspective. In the end, it is not my aim to just qualify Borgman and the oeuvre of van Warmerdam as surrealistic. My main intention is to investigate the surrealistic influence and by doing so, to add more substance in general to an understanding of the relationship between Surrealism and film. In this way, I hope to increase the knowledge about, on the one hand, Surrealism itself and, on the other hand, the work of Alex van Warmerdam.

Figure 1: Comic about Surrealism by Grant Snyder2

2 More comics can be find at: http://www.incidentalcomics.com/2012/02/art- of-living.html?m=1

7 CHAPTER 1. SURREALISM: ORIGINS, KEY IDEAS AND ART MOVEMENT, AND THE CINEMATIC INVOLVEMENT

“I believe in the future resolution of these two states, dream and reality, which are seemingly so contradictory, into a kind of absolute reality, a surreality, if one may so speak.”

- André Breton, Manifesto of Surrealism, 1924.

There are many expositions at the moment on Surrealism and abundant attention for Surrealism in the art world and in literature.3 Looking at the parallels between the current threats of the political situation and the interbellum of the 20th century, the revived interest in Surrealism is indeed understandable and highly relevant. The term ‘surreal’ is also still regularly used to describe specific creative activities in different categories. Mostly ‘surreal’ is used to define something as strange, or absurdist. In this chapter I want to discuss the essence of the theory of Surrealism, with the aim to show how widespread its influence still is.

§1.1 Surrealism: origins and characteristics

The starting point of Surrealism is found in the Dada movement. There is a lot of similarity between the Surrealism and Dadaism, in particular in the main thoughts that both movements shared about art. (Coombs, 15). The Dada movement started around 1915, during the First World War, in Zurich Switzerland. Dadaism is often seen as a reaction to the war, the members of dada where disillusioned by the political and cultural ruling parties. Dadaists had the feeling that the actions of the political and cultural establishment, were to a large extent responsible for the disasters of the war. In the eyes of Dadaist, making art could be a useful method to stimulate the people to think more critically. The creation of art had to be more in line with critical activism. The artistic elite was too much focussed on pleasing the bourgeoisie. Therefore Dadaism was critical

3 Earlier this year, from 15 October – 29 January, there used to be an exhibition in Museum Boijmans van Beuningen: Surrealism and Beyond. Also their most recent exhibition, from 11 February – 8 May 2017, is aimed on Surrealism: Crazy about Surrealism. And in January 2017 a new comic was publiced in the Netherlands of René Magritte’s work: Magritte ceci n’est pas un biographie.

8 about all artistic traditions and could be seen as a counter-movement, which organized meetings and conferences in which they presented their ideas with a mixture of musical performances and lectures. They created Dada café-clubs where they performed in provocative ways and in which interactions with the audience played an important part. “This challenge to (traditional) art expressed itself as a clear attack on the separation of art from daily life.” (Bonnett 72). The artistic creations where seen as anti-art, the main goal was to break with the conventions of the regular art galleries. A perfect example of Dada-art is the Fountain of Marcel Duchamp, it was a urinal turned upside down that was submitted to the Society of Independent Artists in 1917, under the pseudonym: R. Mutt. This piece of art can be considered as Dadaist ‘anti-art’ par excellence. Eventually the artwork was rejected by the Society of Independent Artists, nonetheless some art critics where enthusiastic about it. The commotion around the artwork changed the perspective of avant-garde art in general and the Fountain became one of the most influential artworks of the 20th century.4

One more reason that Surrealism and Dada are often considered to be similar is because some of the participants of the Dada movement later became surrealists. In addition, both movements were sceptical about the technological developments that had played a part in causing the war. Therefore they rejected modernity, were anti-war and against the dominant control of the bourgeoisie. Furthermore Dada and Surrealism shared their approach of making art, starting from the unconscious mind, also with as aim a break with the traditional standards. Instead of creating Dada anti-art, Surrealism was searching for a reorientation of life, with the goal to transform the world. (Fijalkowski and Richardson, 1). One of the most prominent differences between Dadaism and Surrealism are their goals. Dadaism was especially critical of the society and against the dominant system. Surrealists where more interested in the personal investigation of hidden and repressed thoughts. So Dadaism was mainly resisting and provocative to the dominant institutions and in contrast surrealists were focussed on the inner minds and unconscious realities.

4 http://www.theartstory.org/artist-duchamp-marcel.htm

9 One of the most important figures of Surrealism is André Breton. His Manifesto of Surrealism (1924) is considered as the foundation of the surrealist movement. In this manifesto Breton reveals the ideals and intentions of the surrealistic approach. The spirit of Dadaism is clearly noticeable in the tone of voice; the manifesto contains a lot of provocations and much humour. Nonetheless there are some conspicuous differences, for example Breton emphasizes a strong interest in the imaginary world. To underline the principle of imagination, he refers a couple of times to the mind of children. He argues that children have the capacity to live unforced lives. (Breton, 4). Indeed, the manifesto of Breton can be seen as a love letter to the imagination and to dreams. In addition, he is critical about a forcefully realistic attitude. In his eyes, there is too much focus on the ratio and too little on the imagination.

§1.2 Surrealism: key ideas

In the first place the manifesto is inspired by Sigmund Freud’s5 theories about dreams. Breton argues that there must be more focus on the dream state. Indeed, Breton was convinced that the true essence of reality was hidden in the unconsciousness. According to him, dreams should receive the same amount of attention as the state of awakening, because in our lifetime the sum of dreaming moments is equal to that of the waking moments, in which our mind is fully aware. (Breton, 11). Breton gives four main reasons about the importance of the dream. First of all, the dream is always in a deeper layer of the conscious, such that the reproduction and rememorizing of dreams is difficult and limited and most of what we dream returns to our unconsciousness when we are awake. This means that our memory remembers only fractions of the dream, it selects only a series of dreams instead of the dream itself. It is even possible to continue dreaming about the dream of the night before. In this way we have to consider dream as an important layer to get signs from. (Breton, 11). The second reason why we should be more interested in the dream is because we can easily turn around the notion that dream interferes with the

5 Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was an Austrian psychiatrist specialised in Neuro- science. He is considered as the founding father of the psychoanalysis.

10 awareness. In this respect the waking state can also be seen as the interference of the dream state. In the waking state, when the mind is functioning normally, it is complicated to understand and interpret dreams. Although it is very hard to understand the sense of dreams, we should yet strive to find out the true meaning of dreams. (Breton, 12). The third reason is that the mind of someone who dreams is experiencing a full satisfaction. Everything that is happening to a dreamer is totally without prejudiced. The dream state creates a state of mind in which everything that happens is somehow accepted. (Breton, 13). In his fourth and last point, Breton suggests a methodology to make dreams more meaningful. Using this methodology allows us to close the gap between reality and dream and to create an absolute reality: surreality. (Breton 14). Literature and poetry were the perfect opportunity to succeed in creating more awareness of the dream state. The manifest is mainly aimed at writers and poets. Breton is critical of some well-known writers, like Fyodor Dostoevsky, who in his view are too much focused on logical reasoning. On the contrary, he pleads to take a distance from the fixed rules, which are proposed by absolute rationalism. To make his true intentions clear, Breton defines Surrealism as follows:

SURREALISM, n. Psychic automatism in its pure state, by which one proposes to express -- verbally, by means of the written word, or in any other manner -- the actual functioning of thought. Dictated by the thought, in the absence of any control exercised by reason, exempt from any aesthetic or moral concern.

ENCYCLOPEDIA. Philosophy. Surrealism is based on the belief in the superior reality of certain forms of previously neglected associations, in the omnipotence of dream, in the disinterested play of thought. It tends to ruin once and for all all other psychic mechanisms and to substitute itself for them in solving all the principal problems of life. (André Breton, Manifesto of Surrealism, 26).

The second main issue in Breton’s manifest is related to Freud’s concept of the unconsciousness. Freud divided the human personality into three components: the id, the super ego and the ego. (van Delft and Wijers 16). The three elements do not function independently, but they interact with each other. The id is the part in which the prime instincts are being kept. These basic

11 instincts can be seen as the inborn tendency and they reflect various needs, which are based on simple desires. The only objective of the id is to discharge and satisfy these desires. These desires of the id will lead to an emotional strain, because the id is filled with these basic instincts and it acts at a quite primitive level. This means that it does not take into account the norms and values of the outside world, while in contrast to the id, the human personality includes the super ego. The super ego will put a hold on the strong will of the id. It is driven by the social expectations of society and family life. So the super ego will serve as the moralist inside one’s personality and contains the ideal ego and your conscience as well. Inner conflicts will lead to a feeling of guilt, whereas good behaviour will lead to proudness. (17). The third component is the ego. The ego is considered as one’s consciousness and the awareness of the self. The ego is in control of the inner process of your body, the senses, movements and thoughts. So only the ego is able to turn the desires of the id into actions, but only if these are in agreement with the super ego. In contrast with the id, which only works with the principle of pleasure, the ego is aware of the principles of reality. This means that the ego is conscious of the outside world and real life. (18). In The Interpretation of Dreams (1899), Freud describes his concepts of the unconsciousness and the working of dreams, which became known as the personality theory. The intuitions and the basic instincts of the id are preserved in the unconsciousness. Sometimes an undesirable id impulse can be so strong; that it will try to find its way out by any means. There are, according to him, three possible ways to achieve an escape from the awareness of the ego. First of all when you accidentally say something out of context, this is called a Freudian slip of the tongue6. The second way in which repressed id impulses can be unloaded is with dreams. In dreams appear the thoughts, feelings and desires that are rejected by the consciousness of the ego. The third and last condition is with the help of defence mechanisms. For the surrealists, especially the last two categories are important methodologies for expression of the desires, out of the unconscious mind. (van Delft en Wijers, 19). When you speak directly from the unconscious there will be no influence of the ratio and dominant society.

6 http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160706-what-freudian-slips-really- reveal-about-your-mind

12 According to surrealists the truly deeper meaning has to be found by speaking out of the unconscious. Freud’s interpretations of dreams where seen as a useful approach to liberate the unconscious thought and as such. This comes close to the intentions of surrealists. The process of dreaming occurs during your sleep and throughout this time your conscious ego is less concentrated. This is the moment in which your repressed thoughts, feelings and desires encounter the opportunity to expose themselves in your dreams. The process in which the transition of suppressed thoughts into the consciousness takes place in dreams, Freud calls dream-work. Because your id is unfamiliar with the principles of reality, situations in your dreams can get quite bizarre and fantastical. To interpret dreams, it is important to take into account some contextual transformations. Dream images undergo very fast transitions and can be seen as a gathering of multiple images. In a dream a collection of thoughts comes together to create a dream. The correspondence of dream images is called condensation. For example, when you have a conflict at your work and have seen a movie that evening, in your dream these two elements can blend together in your dream. The dream is corresponding between various impressions of a day, which are mixed up as a whole. Furthermore the dream image contains a lot of symbols, as the unconscious and repressed thoughts don’t want to become known to the conscious mind, therefore, this is called the displacement of dreams. The symbols in dreams can be interpreted in various ways and may lead towards the repressed thoughts, fears, feelings or desires of the unconscious mind. In Freud’s theory those symbols in dreams are often related to hidden sexual desires. Oblong objects, like trees or pillars, are mostly referred to as symbolization of the male sex. (van Delf and Wijers). Lastly, there is a causal relation between the different dream images, which is called dramatization. This will lead towards a greater emotional association. There is a close connection between dream images that succeed each other. If objects in dreams suddenly change into something different, there is always a relation between the two objects.

13 The transitions in dream images are always related to each other, subjects and objects may change randomly, but are still coherent. This makes clear that there is a deeper layer of interpretation at the basis of dreams: the latent content. To give meaning to the deeper layer of the latent content of dreams, Freud comes up with the theory of free association. The method of free association is one of the most characterised conception of Freud’s psychoanalyse, wherein a patient is asked to speak directly from its unconsciousness, to become aware of the repressed Id-impulses. (44). For the surrealists this is one of the keys to open up the inside world of the unconscious mind and get closer towards the deeper layer of thought: the surreal mind. The third relevant way, in which repressed id impulses can unload from the Ego’s consciousness, is by means of the defence mechanism. The defence mechanism takes care of heavy feelings of fear or guilt, caused by id-impulses. Its general goal is to repress these thoughts, or to unload id desires without the repression of the ego. There are a couple of methods to find an opening towards repressed feelings and release some of the id-impulses in an implicit way. (24). The defence mechanisms are a productive way to get rid of some repressed thoughts and desires. One of the defence mechanisms is denial. Some circumstances or thoughts are too intense or threatening, such that the whole situation is being completely denied. Besides denial, a different way is by means of projection; unpleasant feelings, characteristics and personality are being reflected on someone else. Another way is the rationalisation of threatening behaviour, feelings or thoughts. In this way, people are distorting their true feelings with wrong argumentations to make it acceptable. However the most important mode of defence mechanisms, to link with Surrealism, is sublimation. With sublimation strongly repressed feelings are being turned into a way of expression using socially accepted terms. (29). You may think of many examples that use sublimation to unload inner desires, demons and fears. Art can be a functional practice to express our inner needs and repressed feelings; an important way to achieve this may be found in writing. The repressed feelings or desires of writers can be perfectly exchanged with their characters. The concept of sublimation can be linked to the main intentions of Breton’s manifest: writing out of the inner mind. The method he proposes is described in the first definition

14 of Surrealism; pure psychic writing. Although this approach was specifically aimed at the literary world and poetic writers, there was nonetheless a great influence on several other art forms, like painting, sculpture and cinema.

§1.3 Surrealism: the Art Movement

As mentioned above, Breton wrote his manifesto for writers and poets, but soon other art disciplines joined his movement and started to make art out of the unconscious and trying to visualize dream images. With the joining of members out of various other art disciplines, Surrealism took shape and turned from a literary movement into an art movement. From that moment more artists participated and became members of the collective. Surrealism could not only be practiced by writing from the unconscious mind, but could give visual shape to their unconscious dream worlds as well. Especially many of the painters became very famous for their interpretation of the Surrealistic dream image. Some of them where already active in the period of Dadaism, like Ernst Max and Man Ray. Others agreed with Breton’s ideas to create using one’s unconscious mind, like René Magritte and Salvador Dali.

As an art-movement surrealists developed two main styles. To begin with, they were concerned with automatism or ‘stream of consciousness’ poetry and drawing: creating art without the influence of reason or aesthetic dominance. This is, thus, an exploration of the unconscious mind. On the other hand they aimed for the ‘hyper-real representation of dream images.’ This is related to the representation of the ‘surreal’ and is mostly well known for its Surrealistic paintings. The ‘hyper-real’ goes beyond reality and visualizes a world in which reality and dreams melt together. Paintings replace the absence of writing and give representations of the dream worlds and imagery of the unconsciousness. These two practices represent, for the greatest part, the main intentions of the Surrealist movement: first, making art out of the unconscious mind and second, reveal what is hidden. By doing so the Surrealist artists are able to create images of a parallel dream universe and reach the essence of Surrealism,

15 transforming life itself and creating imaginary worlds. The movement was still as provocative as its predecessor the Dadaists, but in a different way, instead of just causing disorder, surrealists where aiming at a different way of seeing the world. Also the use of absurdist humour and paranoiac subjects can be seen as an influence of Dadaism, but in contrast to Dadaism, the Surrealist movement used these methods to aim for a bigger picture, a surreal way of life. The first artistic style is linked to pure psychic writing, which defines the true essence of thought. In the years before his manifesto, Breton was already experimenting with pure psychic writing. (Bauduin, “Automatism in Early Surrealism”, 2). The writing process had to be so fast to keep their self from rewriting passages. The characteristics of pure psychic writing, other than speed, are no directions of a start or an ending and the absence of a logical narrative or style. (Bauduin 6). He became aware of many pitfalls of this writing method, “During the writing process phrases and sentences sprung to their mind with such speed that the authors had to ‘resort to abbreviations’ in their notation.” (Bauduin 6). Key figures of the surrealist movement who exploited this way of writing were: André Breton, Louis Aragon, Paul Eluard, Robert Desnos, Federico Garcia Lorca and Max Ernst. Despite the fact that all of the writers had various backgrounds and different nationalities, they produced their works with a common goal.7 The surrealists arranged meetings to provoke inspiration and to come up with new ideas to improve their methodology of creating out of the unconscious. Especially the surrealist movement in Paris was interested in opening their minds to unpredictable emotions and events. (Bonnett 74). The function of these meetings was to elicit the spontaneous actions, which would lead towards new insights on the unconsciousness. In group-sessions the surrealists where coming together to get into a state of lucid dreaming. “More specifically, the aim was the manifestation of the dream as a creative product in itself “ (Bauduin 13). These sessions where called the ‘sleeping sessions’ and could be seen as an approach in which the two styles of the ‘hyper real’ and ‘pure psychic writing’ are coming

7 Paris could be seen as the central capital of artistic movements in the 20’s of the twentieth century. Much of the artists, with various backgrounds, gathered together in Paris.

16 together. “The sleeping sessions were a new line of surrealist experimentation with automatism, not intended to replace but developed in parallel to automatic writing.” (Bauduin 16).

Figure 2: Salvador Dali Persistence of Memory (1931).8

There are some essential characteristics, which portray the typical style of Surrealism. To make the ‘hyper real’ clear it is helpful to analyse some typical surrealist artworks, like paintings and sculptures. One of the paintings I want to discuss here is The Persistence of Memory (1931) by Salvador Dali. (Figure 2). This is one of Dali’s most symbolical works, and therefore provides many ways to be analysed. In this painting his suppressed thoughts are coming to the foreground in some striking ways. It is a classical example of putting real objects out of context, revealing the interplay of reality and dream. The melted watches can be interpreted as the time is standing still. In the real world, time is relative and so is our memory, but if time would stand still, it would change our perception of the world. The painting is a canonical example of the hyper-real representation, and it also relates to the exploration of the unconscious mind and our use of memory. Another key figure of surrealist paintings is René Magritte. His Hegel’s Holiday (1958) is another striking example of surrealistic

8 The Persistence of Memory is in the collection of the MoMa New York, more info on the painting: https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/1168-2

17 art, with a deep meaning. (Figure 3). The German philosopher Hegel is not portrayed in the painting, but it shows an umbrella with a glass of water on top of it. With the absence of Hegel, the painting is playing with the notion of the title that Hegel is on vacation, so this could be the reason why he is not presented. On the other hand there is another possible explanation, which reveals the surrealistic understandings of Hegel’s dialectic, as a process of communication. As Fjalkowski and Richardson put it: “The painting is also a reflection on an imaginative process.” (6). Instead of searching for inspiration out of the ratio, surrealistic painters where aiming on their imagination. As being pointed out in the examples, the artworks combine realistic images with fantasy worlds. By doing so, they create estranged and confusing constructions of a new reality, which mixes up real and imaginative elements. They put the audience constantly on the wrong track, by placing recognizable objects into a strange context.

Figure 3: René Magritte Hegel’s Holiday (1958).9

9 Hegel’s Holiday is in a private collection. For further reading on René Magritte: https://historyherstoryblog.wordpress.com/2012/11/21/rene-magritte-1898/

18 §1.4 Surrealism and Cinema

In the previous paragraphs I already pointed out the expansion of Surrealism, from its literary origins towards its artistic expression in paintings and the influence of psychoanalysis. In this last paragraph I will aim for the involvement of cinema in Surrealism. There is always a significant similarity between psychoanalysis and cinema. Both phenomena are being developed at the end of the 19th century and give attention to the imaginative. Besides that, they make the unseen visible, most of all by creating awareness about the dream state. Surrealists acknowledge the strength of principles of cinema and psychoanalysis:

They (Surrealists) were deeply influenced by Freud's theory of dreams and his concept of the unconscious. To them, the cinema, with its special techniques such as the dissolve, superimposition, and slow motion, correspond to the nature of dreaming. (Barbara Creed, Psychoanalysis and Cinema, 1998).

Cinema can be seen as the ideal medium to express the fast moving imagery of the dream, because cinema is a gathering of different expression methods. Surrealistic paintings show the purpose of the combination of real and imaginary representations. Yet, they are limited in the time-based narrative; paintings only show one fragment of a dream: the image. (Coombs 20). Also poems only show one aspect of the dream: language. Cinema can be seen as an ideal way to close the gap between the two surrealistic types of representation. In this respect, it is the perfect combination between the pure psychic writing and the hyper-real imaging. In surrealist film making the dream-like images of surrealist paintings were adopted, as well as the poetic means of surrealistic expression in writing. In this regard, cinema contains a chain of texts and images; additionally, films add motion to their images. Moreover the use of sound and music can play an important role in cinema. Sound enables the possibility to add an extra dimension to the dream image; it can accentuate feelings, or even can go against the grain and reinforces discomfort. Film, thus has an advantage, as it has more of an impact in means of expression. Despite of all the above-mentioned advantages of film as a way of expression of surrealism, there are some obvious complications in making a

19 truly surrealist film. In the introduction of Surrealism and Cinema Richardson points to several problems, which make it difficult to define surrealistic cinema. First of all Surrealism is lacking a characteristic style and specific set of basic theories. (3). Likewise as in surrealistic art, there are many different forms of films, which are linked to Surrealism. This leads to misunderstandings about Surrealism in very diverse ways, “but all of these misunderstandings are founded in the fact that they seek to reduce surrealism to a style or a thing in itself rather than being prepared to see it as an activity with broadening horizons.” (3). In the eye of Richardson Surrealism should most of all be seen as an activity, which is always associated with a surrealistic attitude. In this way, also the dark environment of going to the cinema should receive attention, as it enforces the dream-state of the audience. Therefore, watching film in the cinema can be seen as an ideal condition to underscore the surrealistic element of films. (6). Of course not every film we see in the cinema is a surrealist one. Besides that, there are surrealists making films, or involved with making films, and films can contain certain surrealistic elements, but there is not such a thing as the ‘surrealistic films’. It is not significant to approach some kind of films as ‘surrealistic film,’ but to consider particular films or filmmakers in relation to surrealism to clarify either surrealism or the films itself. (7). Furthermore there is an important aspect of the surrealistic collective being involved with Surrealism and cinema. This involvement is possible in three ways: direct, indirect and involuntary. (Richardson 10). In the first category there are very few films to be found. In her article “From Surrealist Cinema to Surrealism in Cinema,” Raphaëlle Moine explains that although surrealists acknowledged the strength of expression of film, paradoxically there are not many examples of truly surrealist films, made by group-members of the surrealist movement themselves. Meanwhile there are a lot of films that are qualified or being analysed and recognized as surrealist films. (Moine 104). The diversity of classifying a great amount of films with diverse surrealist characteristics makes it hard to define a clear genre of Surrealism in cinema. Instead of approaching Surrealism in cinema as a genre, Moine suggests to consider it as a category of interpretation. (105). On the one hand, this gives more room for analysing film in the light of Surrealism, but, on the other hand,

20 she points to the risk of over-classification of films as surrealist, this way. In some way this approach corresponds with the idea of Richardson in analysing Surrealism and film. Both of their statements match at the point that we should not just randomly see some films as surrealistic. Therefore it is important to set a strict guideline, which not only adds something to the films, but as well to the knowledge about Surrealism. To be able to set these standards it is important to take a closer look at the involvement of the surrealist movement in cinema. Until 1928 Surrealist artists were only interested in cinema as spectators. Seeing film in theatres was an ideal way to come close towards their admired dream-state. They where especially attracted by the comic silent films of Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd, because of their absurdity and the lack of rationalism (Harper and Stone, The Unsilvered Screen 3). The surrealist involvement in film became more pronounced when surrealist writers like Robert Desnos and Antonin Artaud started writing film scripts. Even these early examples of surrealist cooperation with cinema show the complexity of defining surrealist film. For instance the film Le coquille et le clergyman (1928) of Germaine Dulac, may be considered as the first Surrealist film. The film contains a lot of surrealistic characteristics, adopted from Artaud’s script. Still Artaud himself rejected it, because in his eyes the film was more aimed on the psychological storytelling. Above all it is therefore often seen as an Avant-garde film. (Richardson 11). In this respect there is one filmmaker who is without doubt associated with the surrealist movement: Luis Buñuel. His membership lasted only from 1928 till 1932 and his first two films Un chien andalou (1928) and L’Age d’or (1930) are without question the closest to illustrate surrealistic cinema. His debut film Un chien andalou, made together with Salvador Dali, had a big impact on the Surrealist movement, when it came out. In the film the dreams of Buñuel and Dali are collapsing: “The purpose of Un chien andalou is very clear, indeed: to use the logic of the unconscious to put into words dreams and fantasy.” (Moine 110). The film allowed both artists to become members of the Surrealist movement. Un chien andalou is one of the most analysed films in film studies, according to Richardson, in contrast to Buñuel’s second film: L’Age d’or.

21 Richardson argues that l’Age d’or is a project of the Surrealist movement and because of its many contributors harder to analyse. (Richardson 30). If only Buñuel’s first two films are clearly linked with Surrealism, what about his later films? Buñuel continued filmmaking until 1977. There are film critics who suggest that in all of his films the spirit of Surrealism is present. Especially his last three films, Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie (1972), Le fantôme de la liberté (1974) and Cet obscur objet du désir (1977), are often seen to belong to the tradition of Surrealism. These films are fascinating because of the many mysteries, explicit love and obsessions (Harper and Stone 5-6). In this respect Moine agrees with these notions about Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie. Not in the first place because of its anti-bourgeoisie aspect: “but Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie does not simply alternate between unfinished meals and disturbing events: it almost inextricably intertwines dream and reality in order to do so.” (Moine 113). Altogether, Surrealism and film show a lot of complicities, which make it hard to approach the essence of the surrealistic notion in film. Despite of that, there are some important aspects to indicate the surrealistic elements in film. Foremost there is a fundamental position for the dream, or at least the tension between the imagination and reality. Another thematic characteristic is the appearance of mysterious or strange events. Finally, the films contain often an arbitrary narrative, with significant interest for provocative love scenes, obsessions and desires. In the end we could wonder if there is something paradoxical about the Surrealistic movement. The ideas, which are described in the manifesto of Breton, are understandable and clear. In this circumstance it is easy for outsiders to participate and align with the surrealistic ideas. Nonetheless the movement was only open to a selected membership. Some artists, who can be classified as surrealists, were denied and rejected by the movement itself. So, on the one hand, there was a very clear outline of what Surrealism should mean, but on the other hand it was not simple to satisfy the wishes of the members of Surrealism. Mostly because Surrealism is more than an artistic movement, it is an attitude to change the world with art. Still, it is undeniable that Surrealism has a large influence on many present day artists and has left a trace for many years. The fact that there is a lot

22 of interest in Surrealism in art expositions, confirms that there is still the desire to escape into surreal dimensions. In the next chapter I will focus more on the work and the creative background of filmmaker Alex van Warmerdam. First of all, I will aim for his working process, attitude and side activities, like theatrical work and paintings. I will show where his creative film style comes from and outline some important reoccurring themes. For example, the presence of outsiders with a quest for desire, which is never really fulfilled. With the perspectives of Moine and Richardson in mind, it is not my intention to just classify the work of Alex van Warmerdam as surrealistic. Instead of that, I will research the influence of Surrealism in his work, by means of a strict guideline.

23 CHAPTER 2. ALEX VAN WARMERDAM AS A DESIGNER

Alex van Warmerdam takes a special position into the Dutch cinema culture. He is a filmmaker with an exceptionally strong character. He refuses to come to an agreement with the expectations of his audiences and foremost the general ideas about how to make films. Unexpected events occur continuously, and this often puts the spectator on the wrong foot. Because of this, his films contain a sort of alienating tension. First of all, I will try to sketch his artistic background, to figure out what the effect is on his work as a filmmaker. Afterwards, I will analyse the works of Alex van Warmerdam and discuss the characteristic aspects of his films.

2.1: Artistic background

Alex van Warmerdam grew up in a highly creative environment. In his younger years he was influenced by the creative activities of his father, Peter van Warmerdam, who was a stagehand in the theatre of Haarlem, North-Holland. Alex and his two younger brothers, Marc and Vincent lived above the theatre in Haarlem. Therefore, they were surrounded by theatre, plays, music and by the artful decors that his father made. His father was always being busy building decors for stage plays. It is no surprise that this had a big impact on Alex and his brothers and it can ever be seen as the foundation of his own creative mind. (Ramaer 6).

Later they moved to a new neighbourhood nearby Den Bosch, in the South of the Netherlands. His father was promoted to stage manager of the theatre Casino in Den Bosch. They lived in a small new district, just outside of Den Bosch. Here Alex never felt at home and during his puberty there, he came in conflict with the authority of his parents and teachers. Being displaced and the difficult relationships with all kinds of authority are themes, which often reoccur in his work. When his family moved back to the North of the Netherlands, to IJmuiden, he continued his unhappy puberty, but his creative spirit is better nourished. “IJmuiden was such a desolate and depressing place: blast industry and a bare

24 coast,” van Warmerdam said in an interview, “this period stimulated my creativity”. You have to do something to survive.” (Volkskrant Magazine 2 april 2016). In IJmuiden Peter van Warmerdam started working in the Velsen theatre. Alongside his regular job as a stage manager, he started with workshops for cabaret and traditional and experimental theatre, under the name of Witte Tejater 10(White Theatre). This initiative gives a further boost to the interest for theatre in a wide range. Witte Tejater organises meetings between amateurs, professionals and audience, in which everyone gets involved with discussions, repetitions and theatre plays. (Nas, 33). When the workshops become more popular, they even attract people from the Amsterdam school for drama. At this same time his artistic interest increased when Alex starts at the graphical school and later on is admitted to the Rietveld art academy.11 In this period he paints a lot, which triggers his wish to become a painter. His expectations were tremendously high about the Rietveld, but in the end he was disappointed by the lack of freedom:

When I went to the Rietveld I thought: It will just be a hell of a lot of drawing to reach the level of the average students and a lot of fucking, drinking and heated discussions about art. All of these presumptions did not happen at all! And the level of the students was shockingly low. (Alex van Warmerdam in Volkskrant Magazine 2 april 2016).

In contrast with the Rietveld, he finds at home the possibility to increase his freedom of expression. For Alex, the Witte Tejater workshops provides the perfect opportunities to get in touch with professional theatre makers and young talent. One of the groups taking part in the seminars, are the musicians of Hauser Kamer Orkest, with the brothers Dick (basguitar) and Rob Hauser (saxophone), Eddie Wahr (drums), Chris Bolczek (voice) and Thijs van der Poll (guitar). Together with Alex and his brothers, Marc and Vincent, they started Hauser Orkater12 in 1972, which is a mixture of pop music and theatre, in a highly

10 The White Theatre still exists and is now a regular theatre in Ijmuiden http://www.wittetheater.nl/contact/historie/ 11 At that moment and still one of the most well known art academies in the Netherlands: https://rietveldacademie.nl/en/ 12 Hauser Orkater is named after the brothers Rob and Dick Hauser and Orkater is a combination of Orchestra and Theatre.

25 innovative way. (Ramaer 9). Alex turns out to be a multitalented artist, as his activities for Hauser Orkater show. Every group member is appreciated for his own talents: “Whatever their background, they were attracted, individually and collectively, to a search for a theatrical form, starting from the abilities available within the group.” (Donker 26). Making theatre is the ideal method for Alex to expose a lot of his creative ideas. He writes, directs and acts in the plays, but most of all he is shaping the entire design of the project. His paintings are used for the theatre posters and the decors are very playful and full of surprising spectacle. He is especially playing with perspective and space, as for example, a room that seems small, which is in fact very big. Decors are always moveable and contain lots of hidden space. In the theatre play Zie de Mannen Vallen: “The wall hid from the spectators’ view a space where, if they were to believe the reports of the characters who climbed to observe, things were constantly changing.” (Donker 27). In combination with the live musical performances the shows of Hauser Orkater are very dynamic and ground breaking. The combination of many different theatrical aspects was unique for its time. Classical theatre, musicals, opera and acrobatic performances all contain one certain aspect, but never mix-up these elements. Despite their success they decide to quit with the theatre group, because of artistic disagreements, the Hauser band wants to focus more on music, in contrary to Alex who is more interested in theatre and writing. Yet their last show Zie de Mannen Vallen (1979)13 is one of the most celebrated plays of Hauser Orkater. In Zie de mannen vallen there is a perfect interaction between music, text and décor and most of all it puts the audience on the wrong foot. Especially the dialogues between the actors are very recognizable:

Peer: ‘Hoe heet jij jongen?’ ‘What’s your name boy?’ Alex: ‘Potter, meneer.’ ‘Potter, Sir.’ Peer: ‘Is een mooie naam, boy.’

13 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2391tm7qV5M This video shows the interplay between background, music and performance.

26 ‘Pretty name, boy.’ Peer: ‘Hé Anton! Ik dacht dat je dood was.’ ‘Hey Anton! I thought you were dead.’ Marc: ‘Ik heb een tijd op het randje geleefd.’ ‘I have been living on the edge for a while.’ Alex: ‘En kom je in tegenstelling tot vroeger dan ook eens naar beneden?’ ‘And in contrast with earlier days, are you coming downstairs too?’ (Dialogue of Zie de Mannen Vallen 1979 between Peer Manscini, Alex van Warmerdam and Marc van Warmerdam).

This dialogue is a symptomatic example of the direction van Warmerdam wants to take and reveals his nonsensical writing style. Therefore the first tracks of Alex’ later work is clearly present in the stage play Zie de Mannen Vallen. (Ramaer 12). After Zie de Mannen vallen, the collective is split into two different theatre groups. The brothers Hauser continue their music theatre with de Horde, which makes Alex van Warmerdam free to create whatever he likes with his new collective: de Mexicaanse Hond (The Mexican Dog). De Mexicaanse Hond and de Horde become part of one overlapping organisation, Stichting Orkater. Marc van Warmerdam becomes head of production. The main task of Marc is to take care of the financial part and to maintain the cultural fundings. With his brother Marc van Warmerdam as head of the production business Alex’ artistic plans are secured. With his new theatre company, De Mexicaanse Hond, and the important supporting role of his brother, Alex is able to continue his creative explorations. As the producer and director of Stichting Orkater, Marc is creating the ideal situation for Alex van Warmerdam to make whatever is on his mind. Also the desire to make a film is growing more and more.

27 §2.2: Alex van Warmerdam’s uncompromised attitude

“If it is obvious to let a person coming through the door on the right side, I am automatically preferred to open the left door. Or to let him enter through the window.” (Alex van Warmerdam Mens & Gevoelens 7 November 1991).

As a filmmaker Alex van Warmerdam does not have the barriers of the conventions from a film school. His self-taught experience in theatre makes him free of charge, from these restrictions. Besides, van Warmerdam has a very stubborn personality. Everything has to be done like the way he has planed, in his mind. With his working style he is in charge of almost all creative processes. He writes the scripts, he makes representations of the outcome with his storyboards, and he directs and even plays as an actor in his films. Working with family and a vast crew helps him to achieve with his plans. This guarantees that his ideas are executed in the way he has figured out. For van Warmerdam it is of a great importance that the image he has in mind is realized in the most striking way. Being on the same wavelength is therefore essential and this is only attainable when he is working with people that he trusts and who are faithful to him. The collaboration with family brings a couple of advantages: “I have great trust in Marc, we would never lift each other.” Alex suggests: “We can be very straightforward to each other, but friction will never escalate.” And he adds: “The relations are clear, there is no struggle for power and everything is for the best of the film.”14 Thus, working with family and a vast crew leads to a fruitful artistic situation.

This uncompromised attitude, leads to works that are in contrast with the expectations of the audience and the standards of filmmaking. Alex van Warmerdam’s debut feature film, Abel (1986), shows a couple of associations with his earlier theatre works, which I will return to in the next paragraph. Although he is still experimenting with the opportunities filmmaking has to offer him, his debut film is an instant success. Abel is laying the foundations for a great

14 ‘Making of’ the film Ober (2006), with an interview of Alex and Marc van Warmerdam.

28 future as a filmmaker for Alex van Warmerdam, as it attracts an audience of 400.000. (Ramaer 27). Abel tells the story of a thirty-year-old man, played by van Warmerdam, who still lives with his parents. Abel is dealing with a heavy mode of agoraphobia15 and does not want to leave the house. Van Warmerdam works towards a certain feeling of uneasiness, in which the audience is put to a test. Furthermore, there is no straightforward storyline in Abel and it seems like as if there is no direct goal. The associative way of filmmaking makes his films very unpredictable. There are a couple of random events, which give the films an absurdist aspect. This is manifested in Abel with the nervous tic of Abel, in which he tries to cut flies with a scissor. Or when his dad tries to spy on his mistress in a lunchroom, from out of a car, and his view is being blocked. He moves his car forwards and backwards over-again, to be able to look at her. These kinds of scenes are like slap slip -intermezzos. Altogether nothing goes without saying in the films of Alex van Warmerdam, which is why everything is aimed to keep the audience alert. This is being done in two possible ways. First of all, there are many unexpected twists and turnings. In one single moment, situations can be turned around and can collapse into a scrimmage. The possibility that situations escalate and become excessive clashes is always at hand. Apart from that, these escalations are often unreasonable, there is no motive detectible by some of the characters. For example, in van Warmerdam’s films there is often a character with a submissive role, without an own will. One of his films, Ober (2006), is even aimed on a waiter, played by Alex van Warmerdam himself, who is totally suppressed by everyone. His life is a total disaster, his wife is sick, he gets intimidated at work and his neighbours are terrorising him. The waiter, Edgar, is horribly treated in his restaurant. Especially, when a group of businessmen is coming for diner. The men are from the first moment looking down on Edgar:

Kees: “We hebben honger, wat kun je ons aanbevelen?” “We are hungry, what can you suggest us?” Edgar: “Heeft u al op de kaart gekeken?” “Have you looked at the menu?”

15 The anxiety to get out on the street.

29 Kees: “Ja, maar ik vraag wat kun je ons aanbevelen?” “Yes, but I ask you, if you can recommend something.” Edgar: “Gaan uw gedachte uit naar vlees of naar vis?” “Were you thinking of meat or fish?” Kees: “Mijn gedachte gaan nergens naar uit, ik vraag wat kan je ons aanbevelen?” “My thoughts are going nowhere, what could you recommend?”

The way Edgar is being treated by the businessmen is getting more aggressive and threatening. Although Edgar stays very calm, the situation escalates more and more. It becomes clear that there is no way possible, to come to an agreement with each other. “We are coming here to have a nice diner, but you are giving us the impression, as if that is not possible. Did you even got educated for this?” After this question one of the businessmen is getting physically violent and pushing Edgar against the table. While doing so, Edgar is forced to speak exactly the words he is saying. To conclude with the words: “Was it that hard?” What is striking about the attitude of Edgar is the lack of resistance. He does not object and is a victim without a will of his own. The next moment is crucial for the film. Edgar walks into the room of the film writer. Edgar asks the writer for a little more resistance and a counter argument. The next time the businessmen appear in the restaurant, the situation still mounts in a struggle, Edgar ends up in the aquarium. (Figure 4.) This example shows a typical example of van Warmerdam’s use of escalation, this lead to a situation, in which the audience is being put on the wrong foot. Edgar is asking for a resistance, so the next time the businessmen enter the restaurant, he is more self-assured. The expectation is being shaped that he will take care this time, but still it ends up all wrong for Edgar. In Alex van Warmerdam’s films everything is constantly putted out of context, which is called middle-of-the-road absurdism by Peter Verstraten. He explains middle-of-the-road absurdism as circumstances: “Whereby a relatively common and ordinary starting point is gradually deformed to increasingly bizarre ends.” (Verstraten 10). In the next paragraph I will focus on the outcome, to which van Warmerdam’s attitude leads.

30

Figure 4: The waiter is thrown into the Aquarium [Ober ]16

§2.3: Alex van Warmerdam’s creations

His background as a designer shows his awareness about the way things are being exposed. Because of this, there is much importance for the locations and settings of his films. Most of the time, these locations are very minimalistic and simplistic, and situations are taking place in isolated environments. Besides, his interest in various artistic disciplines leads towards a remarkable style. There is a great attention for surroundings and the bigger picture. As Alex puts it: “Filmmaking is shaping. It is very important to create a plausible environment to clarify the movement of his characters.” 17 Most of all, the overall has to form a cohesive whole. In this respect, his filmmaking is often qualified as shaping worlds. Kees Driessen writes in Vrij Nederland: “Alex van Warmerdam is a God, because he is the creator of His world.” Like a painter, or theatre maker he is transforming the entire setting to create an own singular universe.

16 https://www.vpro.nl/cinema/lees/artikelen/nieuws/2007/Ober-en- Zwartboek-geselecteerd-voor-European-Film-Awards.html foto by 17 A good example of a consistent interview aimed on shaping film: https://www.vpro.nl/cinema/speel~POMS_VPRO_4912018~alex-van- warmerdam-over-ober~.html

31

Figure 5. setting in Abel

Especially his first feature film Abel can be seen as a transition from theatre towards film. The film Abel has a theatrical look; the setting is like a model sketch with a cardboard background of a city. (Figure 5). The shots are very static, which create an incisively entourage. The spectator is close on the actions, which therefore make greater impact, comparable to an audience of a stage play in the theatre. In Abel this is even being enforced, because of the oppressive sense and the closed environment. (Figure 6).

Figure 6. Oppressive environment [Abel]

Another very important element in his films is the setting and surrounding in

32 which his films take place. In “de wondere wereld van Alex van Warmerdam,” Loes Nas is pointing out that van Warmerdam’s locations are, without doubt, mysterious and, at the same time, are adding a meaningful element to the dimension of his films. (Nas 36). Locations of his films, and the way these environments are decorated, are very well considered and mostly conceived minimalistic18. Only the most essential elements are being showed and disrupting aspects are filtered. Not much extra’s are used; there is only focus on significant characters. In Ober, the restaurant is very quiet, a modest, concise atmosphere. Every detail in his films has significance and reinforces each other. Symptomatic is the dominant setting in his second feature film, de Noorderlingen (1992). The film is located at an unfinished street in a new building district. The community that lives here is totally isolated and dependent on each other. Therefore, all inhabitants keep a close eye at each other. There is no cosy atmosphere, everything in the area is pure functional and formal, a butchery, a school and houses, only the basic needs. The ambiance is very purposeless and it seems like nothing exciting is ever going to happen. In de Noorderlingen this environment weights heavily on the habitants, it is not a joyful community and there is a lot of envy towards each other.

On the one hand, these places are fulfilling each other, but on the other hand, there are always a lot of contradictions in the films of Alex van Warmerdam. The locations, which he uses, clarify the imagination and always contain oppositions between typical Dutch landscapes, like the polders and dunes, and more modern buildings. Nonetheless, places that look familiar are being put into an alienating condition. These contradictions often give his works a disturbing and alienating character. These settings feed the idea, that something is not feeling right. One of the films in which there is a constant threatening feeling is de Jurk (1996). De Jurk is based on the journey of a mysterious dress, which is doomed to make the lives of its owners miserable. The journey follows a lot of different locations, varying from open fields in the polder, to hidden forests. Nonetheless these places share all the same kind of

18 With minimalistic I am not referring to Minimalism as a cultural movement, but I consider the minimalistic state of mind, in which specific forms are being simplified, in other words: Less is More.

33 isolated feeling. The girls who are wearing the dress are obsessing a train conductor, played by Alex van Warmerdam. When a young girl is traveling by train, the train conductor is noticing her, because of her dress. He is chasing the girl towards her house. The location is a very remote house, in the middle of the polder countryside. The house is, on the one hand, perfect to keep a nice view. On the other hand, it shows a great vulnerability, because it lies in the middle of nowhere and it can be entered from all sides. The next morning, when her parents are leaving, suddenly the train conductor shows up. He makes up a story and afterwards he asks for a glass of water. He is asked by the girl to leave, because she is not allowed to let strangers in. The camera follows the man through all windows, filmed from out of the house. It seems like the man is leaving, but at one window, the man is suddenly disappeared. The tension, which already was high, becomes even more suspenseful. This fragment clearly shows in what way environment and settings can play an important role to create an alienating emotional strain. On the one hand, the dress is just a cinematic prop and is only part of the setting, but, on the other hand, it has a very significant role, in which it can be seen as character as well. Not only his settings are useful for Alex van Warmerdam to create alienation, the same applies to his characters. Characters in Alex van Warmerdam’s films are often outcasts, on the edge of crazy and normal behaviour. Van Warmerdam manipulates his characters like puppets. They are speaking solemnly and there is a lot paradoxical communication used in his films. There is one thing many of the characters desire for, namely a normal life. In De Noorderlingen, the butcher wants his wife to be normal, but he himself is frustrated as well. De Jurk shows the train conductor who is acting very unusual. Still he is convinced of his conventional behaviour: “I am normal.” As well the waiter in Ober leads a strange kind of life and has to deal with a lot of disappointments. As Peter Verstraten summarizes:

Every character acts as if it is a perfectly normal situation, and in fact it is. Nonetheless, in the midst of this normality, there are always some details in excess, which give the scene its specific acumen, for a principle conditional of the absurd is to confuse logic and the order of sense. (Humour and Irony in Dutch Post-War Fiction Film, 273).

34 Especially, the attention for sadness, melancholy and the playful oppositions are obvious present in the films of Alex van Warmerdam. His characters have certain desires, which seem within their reach; still they are constantly failing to fulfil their wishes. As an effect, the films of Alex van Warmerdam are very estranging, ridiculous, confusing and ambiguous. The melancholic situations seem very funny at the same time. Also violent acts are very overdone, and completely random, which makes them amusing to look at. Are these contradictions and aspects revealing the surrealistic principles? In the next chapter, I will aim at one film in particular, in which these aspects are explicitly represented. I want to connect some surrealistic concepts like black humour and mad love to the film Borgman.

35 CHAPTER 3. THE DARK SURREALISTIC EVIDENCE IN VAN WARMERDAM’S BORGMAN

In the previous chapter I discussed the work of Alex van Warmerdam. Some of the characteristics of his films are closely related to characteristics of films of Peter Greenaway and David Lynch. Greenaway and Lynch are seen by many film scholars as having a surrealistic style, albeit both in their own way. Before I start with the connection between van Warmerdam’s work and Surrealism, I will discuss the similarities and differences between van Warmerdam, Greenaway and Lynch. Where do they draw attention to in filmmaking? What do they emphasize with their films? And where can Alex van Warmerdam be positioned, in comparison to Greenaway and Lynch?

§3.1 Greenaway, Lynch and van Warmerdam: Strange encounters

In several ways there is some resemblance between van Warmerdam and Peter Greenaway. First of all, there is a close relationship between theatre and film in Greenaway’s work. Greenaway made some adaptations of classical stage plays in his films. One of his films, Prospero’s Books (Greenaway 1991), is a striking example that shows the influence of theatre. It is an adaptation of a play, The Tempest, which is written by Shakespeare.

Theatre meets with literature in this film about Prospero, the duke of Milano. When his brother exiles him to an island, Prospero prepares his return with the help of 24 books. As in his other films there is a lot of overlapping and mixture of locations and time periods. As is argued in a chapter of Lia Hotchkiss in the book Peter Greenaway’s Postmodern/ Post Structuarlist Cinema, Prospero’s Books mixes a couple of different visual styles and arts: “The displacement of theatre as a visual art appears in the inability of the film’s images to be replicated on stage: images from different locations and time periods overlay one another.”(“Theater, Ritual, and Materiality in Peter Greenaway’s The Baby of Mâcon.”).

36 Literature, theatre and film meet each other in this film, and in addition, the film also shows Greenaway’s fascination for renaissance artworks. The beginning of the film is even a mixture of these artistic styles all-together, which makes the overall kind of look like a collage artwork. This multi-disciplinary style and multitalented personality, matches that of van Warmerdam’s work style and attitude. Furthermore, there are a few links to the Netherlands in films of Greenaway. Ellen Lens, a Dutch artist specialized in creating historical film costumes, is in charge of the costume design in Prospero’s Book19. Her expertise, about social layers in the past, leads several of collaborations with Peter Greenaway, who also has great interest for Renaissance and 17th Century art. The link between Greenaway and the Netherlands is even more visible in an earlier film, A Zed and Two Noughts (1985), which has been shot in Blijdorp Rotterdam. The story is shaped around the twin brothers Oliver and Oswald Deuce. They are animal behaviourists in a zoo. Their lives are devastated, when they both lose their wives in a car-crash. To deal with their grief, the brothers focus on the woman who survived the accident, and make her and the loss a case study. The whole setting of the film is located in and around the zoo. “The zoo is, in effect, a microcosm of the city, a ‘city-within-a-city’; complete with food, shelter, and entertainment.” (Willoquet-Maricondi 57). Creating a whole new universe in the film is in closely resembling to van Warmerdam’s aim with settings. Like Greenaway, van Warmerdam’s attaches value to the importance of surroundings as well. Another filmmaker I want to discuss is David Lynch, who has been of a great influence for the cinema of the last decades. Between Lynch and van Warmerdam there are a number of similarities as well. Both filmmakers are from the same generation and the social circumstances in which they grew up in small towns, play an important role in their work. Their films are generally situated in small towns, or in isolated communities. In spite of the fact that Lynch started at a younger age to make films, there is still a link with theatre in his work. His second feature film is an adaptation of the Broadway stage-play The Elephant

19 Dutch Radio interview with Ellen Lens: https://www.vpro.nl/speel~RBX_VPRO_8430397~op-bezoek-in-het-atelier- van-kostuumontwerper-ellen-lens~.html

37 Man (Lynch 1980). He is mostly recognized for his challenging film style. Especially the narratives in Lynch’s films are remarkable. His films contain stories of multiple layers, which make them films-within-films. John Orr calls this a “labyrinthine narrative”. Orr refers to the diverging storylines, in which parallel worlds haunt each other. (“A Cinema of Parallel Worlds” 39). Due to the complexity and non-realistic components of the scenes, the characters in Lynch’s films are often put in a challenging position. In his article “Digital Modernism and the Unfinished Performance in David Lynch’s Inland Empire,” Anthony Paraskeva points out that his characters are split between real and imaginary events, they are dealing with a “paranoid-schizoid desire.” (4). In his film Blue Velvet (Lynch 1986) this becomes clear in a scene wherein Frank, the badguy who is played by Dennis Hopper, is threatening Jeffrey, the amateur investigator. Jeffrey is being asked to join Frank for a ride:

Frank: “Hey, You wanna go for a ride?” Jeffrey: “No, Thanks.” Frank: “No Thanks? What does that mean?” Jeffrey: “I don’t want to go.” Frank: “Go where?” Jeffrey: “For a ride.” Frank: “A ride! Now that is a good idea!”

This conversation is quite similar to those of the aggressive businessmen in van Warmerdam’s Ober. There is another similarity between these two films, namely the way they play with the idea of reality. Blue Velvet includes a couple of dream- like interventions. The same is happening in Ober, when the waiter escapes the film world and enters the room of the scriptwriter. In “Screen as threshold,” Everett points out that this kind of films lead towards a disorientating kind of cinema, because of its dream/film parallel. She uses the opening of Lynch’s Blue Velvet as an example, the images are “a little too bright,” which eventually give rise to a disturbing feeling of the audience. The same can be said about van Warmerdam’s films in which everything is so normal, that it does not feel right, and there is a continuous suspicion something strange will happen.

38 In a way, there are some clear similarities between Greenaway, Lynch and van Warmerdam. Yet, they differ in how they are giving shape to their films. Greenaway is more over the top, in an expressive and baroque way. His films are related to Baroque and have a classical outcome. In comparison to Greenaway, Lynch and van Warmerdam have a more modernistic style. However, the films of Lynch are more gothic and have some very dark elements. In the end, the films of Greenaway, Lynch and van Warmerdam share some essential qualities of disorientation, displacement and alienation. In this respect, these aspects can be linked to Surrealism. In the next paragraph I will attribute more surrealist characteristics to van Warmerdam’s Borgman.

§3.2 The Devil is in the Details - Borgman

A dog barks. A forest ward and a blacksmith prepare themselves for a hunt, led by a priest. A mysterious kind of vagabond is sheltered underneath the ground. When the three hunters have found his hiding place, the vagabond is able to escape through a tunnel. He warns his fellow companions and makes it out of the forest. The longhaired and bearded bushman refreshes in a toilet of a gas station on the edge of the woods. Afterwards he rings the bell at an old-fashioned villa. He asks if he would be allowed to take a bath, because he is dirty. The door is immediately slammed in his face. The second house has a very long driveway, which leads to a bunker-like modern house. This time a man, Richard, opens the door. “Good afternoon, you are mr. van Schendel? Could I perhaps just have a bath here?” When his simple request is denied, the stranger replies: “I know your wife.” The occupant becomes more suspicious. Once his wife comes along and sizes up the situation, Richard is running out of patience and is getting violent. He almost beats Borgman to death. A game starts between the intruder and the family, in which the family gets more and more under control of the compelling spell of Borgman.

With Borgman, van Warmerdam radically changes direction of his conventional work. Other than in his earlier films, Borgman has significantly a darker nature. Still, the film contains many of the typical aspects, which are recognizable for van

39 Warmerdam’s spectrum. Critics consider it as a dark comically, uncanny, mysteriously adult fairy-tale. Because of the horror elements, in Humour and Irony in Dutch Post-War Fiction Film Peter Verstraten calls it “a Black Horror- pastiche, macabre without losing its comic tone entirely.” (284). I am taking this notion further and argue that the film contains many of the surrealistic aspects that are discussed in the first chapter. As mentioned in the first chapter, surrealists have a strong fascination for the dream and dream-like situations. Part of their purpose was to gain more recognition to the dream state. With visual arts they discovered the possibilities to give shape to the dream-image. Surrealists were aware of the connection between dream images and cinema. George Sebbag states: “The dream, connective tissue of images and shots of a film, was the stronghold and perhaps the source of the imagination.” (Surrealism: Key Concepts 166). This supports the crucial role of dreams and the unconscious imagination for Surrealism. In Borgman, there is a significant role for dream images, as well. The whole film can even be seen as a dream, in which people are getting aware about the unconscious fear for danger and tragedy. In some way, the film is like a parable, wherein Borgman is standing for the demon. Therefore, it is very symbolic that he is coming from the dark forest, and even from the underground/underworld. In addition to this, there is an actual priest who is chasing him down, which gives another cue that Borgman can be seen as a dark devilish spirit. Apart from this, the film Borgman is playing with actual dreams images. After her husband, Richard, knocks out Borgman, Marina gets a feeling of guilt. Out of compassion, she secretly takes care of Borgman. The longer Borgman is in their house, the more he is demanding her for favours. The intruder is disordering her comfortable life. As an invader, Borgman enters their conscious mind and, and additionally, he gains access to the unconsciousness by manipulating the dreams of Marina, as well. Several times he is injecting her with nightmares, while she is asleep. These nightmares show the impact of the aggressive behavior of Richards. In the first dream scene, Richard’s violence is addressed at her and he hits her a few times. We see Borgman sitting naked on Marina (Figure 7), like in Henry Fuselli’s painting The Nightmare. (Verstraten 285). During the film this happens a number of times. By manipulating her

40 dream world and infusing her with nightmares his dark intensions become clear. He causes Marina and her husband, Richard, to drift apart.

Figure 7. The Nightmare in Borgman [Borgman 28.53 min.]

The more Marina is pushed away from Richard, the closer she gets to Borgman. When he insinuates that he is leaving the place, Marina even begs him to come back. “Anton! Why are you leaving?” “I am bored. I want to play.” “You can’t leave, can’t you come back in another shape?” “That’s possible, but it will have consequences.” [Borgman min. 30.22]. Borgman returns to the house as the gardener, in this role he is even more able to change things into his favor. The second time Marina has a bad dream, the actual dream is not being shown to the spectator, but again Borgman is sitting in de same pose on her bed. Marina awakes and is indignant towards Richard. “Why are you doing that to me? Do you hate me this much?” Richard does not know what she is talking about and tries to convince her that it is only a bad dream. [Borgman min. 1.04.46]. The last dream sequence is the most terrifying and abrupt. The dream starts with a love scene between Richard and Marina and for a spectator it is as if they are finally getting along well together. When, suddenly, we see Borgman sitting on Marina, and it turns out that it is just a dream. The situation changes direction, into a horrible frightening moment, when Richard all of a sudden grabs a stanley knife and cuts in the leg of Marina. At the moment when the flesh is being pulled of her leg, she wakes up. This is a breaking point between Richard and Marina, who get into a heavy argument. Marina is pulled out of bed and put under the shower, while Richard is screaming: “Bitch! Wake Up!” Richard takes his stuff and leaves the house, in the meanwhile Marina is going to Borgman and says: “He must die,

41 Camiel.” “Richard has to die.” The nightmares have a terrible effect on the lives of the couple, and as an effect, they shake up the their relationship. Marina is not able to separate the reality and imaginary, any more.

The blurred line between fantasy and the real world, is another important element of Surrealism, as is written in The Unsilvered Screen: “The visualization of dreams led towards new possibilities to close the gap between reality and imagination.” (13). In other words, for surrealists there is no boundary between the extraordinary and everyday life. “Surrealism promoted the idea of cinema inspired by daily life situation, which would radically contradict common perceptions, moral conventions and religious beliefs.”(18). The same holds for Borgman, wherein daily life is impregnated by distinctive uncanny feelings. Everyday life is repeatedly disrupted by strange events, which occur since the appearance of Borgman.

From the moment Borgman is being abused by Richard, there is an uneasy and anxious feeling noticeable. When Richard leaves the house in the evening, this feeling even more increases. Marina is looking through her kitchen window, the lights in the garage are flickering. This is a scene, which follows according to typical horror film conventions. She does not feel assured about what she saw, so she is going to take a look. While her husband, Richard, is driving away, she enters the garage. It looks like nothing is in there, which creates confusion and doubt. After she walks back to the kitchen, she gets surprised by Borgman’s voice, “I’m here.” Borgman is sitting in a small dark corner of the pantry.

Borgman is immediately being taken good care of, he gets a bath and supper (Figure 8). She offers him a bed in the shed and asks the nanny not to tell Richard, because it will upset him. The next day one of the children, Isolde, is not feeling well. While she is lying in bed, Borgman is standing in the doorway, even though he is not allowed to get into the house. Instead of shying away, Isolde says calmly to her parents “I saw a magician.” Upon Richard responds: “She is delirious.” Here the audience is being fooled, because you would expect a different kind of reaction of Isolde. The situation makes clear that Borgman has a

42 certain unforced authority over the family, definitely including the children. He is even seducing the children with bedtime stories.

Figure 8: Borgman is taken care off by Marina [Borgman min. 15:57]

The next delirious moments are when Marina is seeing dogs in her house. From out of the shed, she is looking through binoculars into the living room, when two dogs appear. The dogs are heading towards Borgman, who is just in the middle of revealing a fairytale to the children. Borgman is reprimanding the dogs: “You are too early, off with you!” [Borgman min. 27.44] The dogs can be seen as his evil underworld servants, but this is never being stretched out. Therefore, the scene looks, in a certain way, familiar and the situation is plausibly realistic, and yet Van Warmerdam is makes it very misleading for the public. This becomes definitely clear in the light of another scene when a dog appears and Marina thinks the dog is Borgman. “Camiel?” [Borgman min. 1.09.34]. The next moment, Borgman is walking in with the dog’s owner. This kind of uncertainty is maintained during the course of the film, due to a lack of clues in van Warmerdam’s storytelling. In his article about Borgman, Buffinga writes: “Very little is explained in the film; we never find out who the intruders are, where they come from and what their mission is.” (2). The only things we actually know is that their intentions are getting darker and more evil.

§3.3 You want it Darker? Black Humour and Mad Love in Borgman

43 Other than the above-mentioned surrealistic characteristics, there are a couple of concepts that are closely related to Surrealism. Some of these concepts have their origin in the work of writer and the founding father of Surrealism André Breton. One of the instruments surrealists use, is a special form of humour. Instead of using humour as a tool to amuse, surrealists tend to use humour in a slightly different way. As Richardson argues: “Surrealist humour is rarely comforting and often inclines towards a shadowy realm that Breton would theorize as humour noir (black humour).” (Surrealism Key Concepts 207). Black humour is very contradictory, on the one hand a situation is painful, taboo or uneasy, while on the other hand it is also causing a feeling of joy. Patrick O’Neill explains that there are three forms of humour, benign humour, derisive humour and black humour. Most of all they differ in what he calls the ‘mode of expression:’

Benign humour is warm, tolerant, sympathic, the humour of sensibility and sentiment, humour of unthreatened norms, while derisive humour is cold, intolerant, unsympathic, the humour of rejection, the humour of defended norms. (..) Black humour, on the other hand, contrasts with both of these in that it is the humour of lost norms, lost confidence, the humour of disorientation. (‘’The Comedy of Entropy: The Contexts of Black Humour“ 154).

Black humour is almost making you feel guilty, because it amuses you, but it is also on the edge of being awful and/or ridiculous and it also can be immoral. Therefore, it usually invokes discomfort. It has a powerful side as well, especially to deal with difficult moments in life. In this respect, it can be seen as reaction formation, a mode of the Freudian defence mechanism. With reaction formation repressive negative emotions are being replaced by the opposite feeling. For example, when people are laughing at a funeral, because they are having a hard time to find an appropriate attitude. This is in line with how surrealists see humour. “Humour in Surrealism is always founded in a refusal of given conditions and as a revolt against whatever is imposed upon us.” (Surrealism Key Concepts 207). Breton explains his ideas, about black humour, in his Anthologie de l’humour noir, which was published in 1940. Antology de l’humour noir was written in a period of looming threat of fascism and Nazism. With black humour

44 they adopted an attitude, in which existence is not being taken seriously and that helped them as a defence against the poor prospects.

The concept of black humour or dark comedy is also being reflected in the work of Alex van Warmerdam. For example, the dreadful fate all the people in de Jurk are going through. Something terrible happens to all of the characters, after they have come into contact with the dress. Yet, these moments especially provide amusement, rather than it is experienced as something darkly dramatic. The same applies to his film Borgman, in which one after the other horrific situation occurs, but still there is some kind of comic undertone. “Their fate is depicted in such a trivializing manner that a laugh is closer at hand, than a shocking response. ” (Verstraten 286). The role of the dress in the Jurk, this time is being played by a mysterious character, Borgman. Right from the beginning of the film, particularly violent acts are shown in Borgman. It starts with the hunt for Borgman. As we can see, there runs lot of bad blood through the veins of the hunters. They prepare themselves to take out their enemy, armed with a gun and a hound dog and a spear point is being sharpened. However, when they arrive at the hiding spot, all seriousness is being thrown overboard. First we see the shelter of Borgman, under the ground. The next moment we see what the spear is being used for, as it is stabbed into the ground. Although the spear would be able to cause serious damage, the spear misses its target and hits an egg carton, and afterwards a jerry can of water. Suddenly the brave hunters seem clumsy, which is funny to watch. Considering the fact that there are three men who try to catch him, it is reasonable to suggest that Borgman did something terrible. Yet, there is a feeling of relief, when Borgman gets away in time and unharmed. The next traces of black humour are found in the cold-blooded and pragmatic approach of Borgman to eliminate his targets. The gardener is his first victim. After Marina has asked him to come back in another form, he asks Marina, if she has a close connection with the gardener. When her answer is no, Borgman undertakes a series of actions, to get rid of the gardener. First, he calls two of his associates, to take the first measures. The way they discuss the cruel plan, is done in a very remote, distant way, which makes it seem quite natural to

45 them. In the next scene, a poisoned arrow hits the gardener. Borgman is acting as if he has compassion with the suffering man: “Jesus man, what is the matter with you?” Borgman is pretending to help the gardener and he takes him home to his wife. Borgman tells the gardener’s wife that he has been poisoned and that a doctor is on its way. The so-called doctor is played by one of his collaborators. On this occasion we are witnessing, Borgman as a ruthless killer, for the first time. He puts more poison into a glass of water and gives it to the gardener: “Drinking a lot always helps.” The communication is paradoxical by these conflicting actions, which makes everything strange and at the same time comic. One of the most striking examples of black humour is when he hits the gardener unconscious, and laconically tells his wife: “He has just lost consciousness.” [Borgman min. 39.04]. The situation becomes even more shocking, when they kill his wife as well. To dispose of the bodies, their heads are first put into a bucket, which is filled with concrete. The bodies with their heads down in the bucket, are then thrown into a lake, where they form a harmonious unity with the environment, like aquatic plants. (Figure 9). Even though the behaviour of Borgman’s crew is extremely evil, there are constantly absurdist twists, which give the events a darkly comical twist.

Figure 9: Dead bodies as aquatic plants [Borgman min. 46.06]

The second concept I would like to mention is Mad Love, or as André Breton called it l’ Amour fou. Mad love is an obsessive form of being in love and it could be defined as an estranging situation, in which persons are losing their selves into a love relationship. The only thing someone can think of is the love

46 for another person, which leads to neglecting themselves and their environment. Breton came up with the concept of Mad Love because of a love affair of himself, which almost led him to madness. L’Amour fou was published in 1937 and is a personal description of a romance, consisting of poems for his lover and his child. In the “Retrospection and Prophecy in the Structure of Mad Love” Roger Bellin states that: “Breton’s “love” is a careful attempt at compromise between hindsight and foresight, fulfilment and prophecy, retrospection and futurity.” (Bellin 6). In combination with two earlier works of Breton, Nadja (1928) and Communitcating Vessels (1932), l’Amour fou can be seen as the conclusion of a trilogy about love. A real amorous romance, with Jacqueline Lamba, lies at the basis of the book. The book lacks a chronological narrative, it contains different chapters with a fragmented structure. According to this, it is a complex text to analyse, because of its self-interpretative and retrospective character. “The text is emphatic enough about its distance from fictional, romantic, or idealist notions of love that it occasionally appears defensive in the Freudian mode of denial.” (7). Again this is one of the modes of a Freudian defence mechanism. When you are unhappy in a marriage and the relationship becomes unsatisfactory, denial can help to repress this situation and the unhappy feeling. Repressing the dissatisfied feeling, makes room for a different attitude. This is what happens with the example in Breton’s Mad Love. Breton gives an optimistic impression of his mad love affair. According to Bellin, Breton even sees a playful element of mad love: “The spirit of play, the gamesmanship of language, is a key part of the surplus which Breton attributes to love, a surplus which is accessible only through an anticipation, a conjecture of the future in which he will be free to pursue it.” (Bellin 9). In contrast, there can also be another, more negative, side of mad love, for instance in the films of Luis Buñuel: “For Buñuel, as for all Surrealists, love is an irresistible force, but one that invariably makes fools of lovers” (Unsilvered Screen 39). The idea of Breton, to see mad love as a form of play is unrealistically innocent. Generally the consequences of mad love affairs are more disastrous, at least in films or literature, mad love affairs often result in fatally dangerous situations.

In Borgman, the idea of a mad love relationship is present as well.

47 Borgman and his mysterious appearances immediately have a strong effect on Marina. From the moment that Borgman joins the family as a gardener, Marina’s attraction to him becomes more obvious. The element of play that Breton is pointing to is also present in their relationship albeit it is here portrayed as a playful, intriguing, but dark game. A scene, in which the element of play is being emphasized, is when Borgman is working in the garden. Marina comes to him with sandwiches and tries to start a conversation, but Borgman does not feel like having a small talk. He says that he has a task to fulfil. Marina argues that he wanted to play. Borgman: “I am playing, I play being a gardener.” This scene shows that Marina is desperately looking for Borgman’s attention, and it also shows that they differ in the way they see their relation to each other: Marina tries to have a close contact with Borgman, without succeeding in doing so. This is followed by subsequent events of attracting and repelling, in which Marina can be seen as a victim, and Borgman is controlling her.

The dominant position of Borgman, helps him to drag her away from her family tasks and to disturb her relationship with Richard. The distance between her and her family is in agreement with Guattari’s notion of mad love in Badlands (Terence Malick, 1973). In this film, a young criminal boyfriend takes a girl away from her father. By making her more and more depended of him, he gains total control of her. “Madness coincides with the schizo journey, with amour fou. From the moment he sees the girl, a machine of amour fou is triggered.” (Guattari 253). The young boyfriend risks everything to maintain his position of power with the girl, even if this means that he has to kill the people who are in his way. The same can be said about Borgman, who also eliminates all bystanders who might cause problems. In this way, he creates a similar situation, in which Marina is totally dependent of Borgman and his gang. Another consequence is that she is more and more distracted from carrying out her job in her family. She is handing this job to the nanny, but even the henchmen of Borgman, and Borgman himself, are more responsible for the children, than marina: Borgman’s henchmen bring the children to school, and Borgman is telling them bedtime stories. (Figure 10).

48 Figure 10: Exciting stories are being told to the children [Borgman min. 103.37]

Borgman constantly keeps her in the delusional state of mind that they could eventually be together. Her attraction to Borgman, leads to the destruction of her family and herself. In the end, she discovers that they cannot be together in the way she has in mind. This is made clear in a conversation between Marina and Borgman, after they have poisoned Richard:

Marina: ‘Richard ligt daar nog, onder de vleugel.’ ‘Richard is still lying there, under the piano.’ Borgman: ‘Ik zag het.’ ‘So I noticed.’ Marina: ‘Moet hij daar niet weg?’ ‘Shouldn’t he be removed?’ Borgman: ‘Waarom?’ ‘Why?’ Marina: ‘Waarom die mensen hier? Ik wil met jou zijn.’ ‘Why all these people? I want to be with you.’ Borgman: ‘Je bent toch met mij?’ ‘You are with me, aren’t you?’

This dialogue shows their different expectations and intentions they have. It shows that Marina is unhappy with the new situation. In the end, it becomes clear that Marina is only being used by Borgman and caught in his spider web of evil. When Marina is not needed anymore, after a last kiss of death, Borgman poisons her as well. The last characteristic of Surrealism that I would like to associate with the film Borgman, is the quality of transformation. Surrealists were not only thinking and writing about the imaginary and unconscious state of mind. The aim of

49 surrealists was also to create a new entity, they wanted to transform the world. This new world goes beyond reality and mixes up reality with dream and the imaginary. Transformation aims at the idea that turns the world, based on reality, into a world that is arising out of the unconsciousness. In the first chapter I already argued that cinema is a perfect way to achieve this. As Wendy Everett argues in “Screen as threshold: the disorientating topographies of surrealist film”:

Film’s unique position as both ideal vehicle or means of transporting us into the passionate adventure that Surrealism is and, at the same time, privileged creator of the very landscapes we discover on that journey: cinema as movement locus within the process of Surrealism. (Everett 142).

Surrealists create landscapes that are often disorientating. There are two prime instincts, out of which our unconsciousness is driven. The first instinct is embedded in the need to create, which reflects the desire to live. The second instinct is related to the desire for death, and the will to destruct.

Figure 11: Transformation of the Garden [Borgman min. 1.02.36]

Setting and environment are very important for the atmosphere in Borgman, as in many of van Warmerdam’s other films. In Borgman, the latter instinct is being expressed, the intruder can be seen in the light of the dark desire for deconstruction. He moves from out of the dark forest to a modern villa. As Buffinga states: “the evil or the irrational of the forest can erupt at any time, even in the meticulously maintained façade of modern civilization where people live

50 under the illusion of being safe.” (1). Slowly the family acknowledges this frightening danger. In one scene Marina speaks out about her fear: “Sometimes everything seems unreal to me,” and “There is something that surrounds us, something that is outside us, but slips in now and then.” [Borgman min. 43.11]. This conversation just takes place after Marina has asked Borgman to come back. She becomes more and more aware of the darkness that sneaks into their perfect lives. It shows that she is very insecure about the outcome and the way Borgman will transform their lives. Although Marina and Richard fear for the transformation of their situation, they both don’t take any action against Borgman’s activities in the garden. The whole garden becomes an ominous landscape, trees are cut down, the pond is getting destroyed and the garden becomes one big mess. (Figure 11). Yet, nobody puts a stop to him, despite the fact that the garden is being totally destroyed. The transformation of the carefully designed garden into a barren wasteland, is in this case an example, in how van Warmerdam portrays the unconscious desire of deconstruction, the dark sense of Surrealism.

51 4. CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION: EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED

The main goal of my thesis is to point out if there is a connection between Surrealism and the films of the Dutch contemporary filmmaker Alex van Warmerdam. In many critical reviews and articles van Warmerdam’s films are often considered in close relation to Surrealism. I have investigated if these assumptions can be justified and in which way the Surrealist theory can be used to analyse the work of van Warmerdam.

To evaluate the link between van Warmerdam and Surrealism legitimate, I first discussed in this thesis the origins of Surrealism in the early 20’s of the 20th century. I have aimed for to understand the foundation of the surrealist movement, which arose from the Manifesto of Surrealism from André Breton, in 1924. In his manifesto, the key ideas of Surrealism were written down. The main intention of Breton was to provide more awareness of the dream state. To get a hold on this, he was deeply concerned with Freud’s theories of dreaming. Especially Freud’s concept of the unconsciousness plays an important part. Surrealists tend to create out of the unconscious mind, without the influence of the ratio. Surrealists are opposed to rationalism and wanted to create a new form of reality, this will lead towards a closer connection between dreams and reality, “into a kind of absolute reality, a surreality.” (Breton 14). According to this, it is not only their intention to generate attention for dreams and the unconscious, apart from that, surrealists are aiming for a method to transform reality. Initially, the manifesto was aimed at poetry and literature. Eventually, painters like Dali and Magritte, joined the movement to give shape to dream images. In art, there are two ways to express the surreal perspective, ‘pure psychic writing’ and ‘hyper-real representation of dream images’. With their contribution to Surrealism, the group developed itself into an influential and well-known movement. In the end, cinema was also embraced as means of expression, by surrealists. In the last paragraph of the first chapter, I have focused on the question whether there is such a thing as surrealistic film. Although cinema offers a lot of

52 advantages to express Surrealism, because of the possible use of different forms, like language in combination with moving images and sound. I conclude that it remains difficult to consider cinema as a pure means of surrealistic expression. In contrast to paintings, there are not many examples of truly surrealistic films. Only the first two films of Luis Buñuel Un chien andalou, in association with Salvador Dali, and L’age d’or are considered as fully surrealistic. It follows from this, that cinema, apparently is inadequate for being a complete expression of surrealism. Giving shape to dream images and using the unconscious is difficult to achieve for filmmakers, because they have to be aware of all different expressions of films. All these different ways of expression should fulfill the requirements of Surrealism, whereas at the same time they have a great and easily too great impact on the outcome of the storyline. Another problem in deciding whether films can be surrealistic is that for surrealistic cinema a ‘clear set of principles or attitudes,’ has not been, as Richardson states in Surrealism and Cinema. (3). Therefore I suggested, instead of seeing surrealistic cinema as a genre or film style, it is more appropriate to make use of it as a tool to analyze films and identify surrealistic aspects. This approach is similar to the idea of Raphaëlle Moine, who proposes to see the relation between Surrealism and Cinema as a ‘category of interpretation.’ (Moine 105). To do this, I have set up a strict guideline of surrealistic characteristics, whereby it is possible to trace back surrealistic elements in films. To compose reliable standards, I have matched the characteristics with the key ideas of Surrealism and reoccurring themes in surrealistic films, like Un chien andalou. The main aspect in Un chien andalou is to visualize dreams and imaginative images. As Moine puts it: “The purpose of Un chien andalou is very clear, indeed: to use the logic of the unconscious to put into words dreams and fantasy.” (110). In addition to this, there are some themes of Surrealism often used in cinema. For instance, in films with surrealistic qualities, there is often a tension between real and imaginary. One way of expressing this is by the use of mysterious and strange events, in combination with realistic daily life situations. Furthermore, films with surrealistic aspects often deal with obsessions, desires, unconventional love and interest for an uncanny athmosphere. With the help of

53 categorization, I have analysed the surrealistic aspects and influence in the Alex van Warmerdam’s Borgman. Before I started my analyses of the case study Borgman, I drew attention to the background of van Warmerdam as a filmmaker. As we have seen, as a filmmaker he was deeply influenced by the artistic environment he grew up in. Starting as a theatre maker, I have argued that the theatrical principles are clearly recognizable in van Warmerdam’s films. Especially, his debut feature film Abel can be seen as a crossover between film and theatre. Another interpretation I gave, is his exceptionally uncompromising attitude, which is revealed in the way van Warmerdam tries to take control of almost all aspects of the production process. In a certain way, he is more like a designer, who has a strong will to create and shape entire new dimensions. Film critic Kees Driessen even says: “Alex van Warmerdam is a God, because he is the creator of His world.” (Vrij Nederland). Every detail is necessary for the bigger picture, without losing focus on what is significant. Despite the fact that he gives much attention to detail, this is often been done in a minimalistic way, which means that there is less room for distraction. I have pointed out that his uncompromising attitude leads to unconventional films that contain many events that people don't expect and this unexpectedness creates a certain tension. In the same vein, there is much aim on the background and setting in his films, which are often prominently presented. Like the setting in De Noorderlingen, wherein the environment is almost more dominant, than the inhabitants and characters who live in the isolated town. Locations play an important role to create a mysterious atmosphere, van Warmerdam is playing with a lot of contradictions, which give his films unexpected dimensions. The environment in his films is helping to ensure that his characters are completely losing control. Peter Verstraten defined van Warmerdam’s films as ‘middle-of- the-road absurdism’, in which “a relatively common and ordinary starting point is gradually deformed to increasingly bizarre ends.” (Verstraten 10). This supports that the films of van Warmerdam contain some contradictions, which makes them unpredictable, because of the strange events. This is similar to the alienating quality of surrealistic art. Yet, there is one film, Borgman, which goes

54 even further with these notions. Because of this, I have used Borgman as my main case study, to underline the surrealistic aspects and to justify using the concepts of Surrealism as a tool for film analysing. To put the work of van Warmerdam in a broader context, I have compared his filmmaking with prominent film auteurs such as Peter Greenaway and David Lynch. The work of Greenaway and Lynch is often associated with Surrealism. I conclude that the most striking resemblance, between van Warmerdam, Greenaway and Lynch, is that their films generally contain a kind of disorientation. In this regard, reality and imaginary events are blending together and everyday life is totally being disturbed by strange situations. The same applies to van Warmerdam’s Borgman. With Borgman I have investigated to what extent surrealistic aspects can be traced back into film. I conclude that he definitely uses specific surrealistic themes, and at the same time, it is possible to use surrealistic concepts to analyse this film. One of the main surrealistic aspects in Borgman is the dream state. Borgman trespasses both their conscious and unconscious world, and, by doing so, taking a dominant position in the centre of the defenceless family. Besides dreams there is a continuously tension between reality and imaginary events, which is another surrealistic aspect. To complete my research for the surrealistic identity in Borgman, I have analysed the film in the light of the concepts black humour, mad love, and the main goal, transformation. First of all, I conclude that there is most definitely a clear expression of black humour in Borgman. “Humour in Surrealism is always founded in a refusal of given conditions and as a revolt against whatever is imposed upon us.” (Surrealism Key Concepts 207). The same applies to the very horrific events take place. In Borgman violent acts are very over the top, this contradicts the passive attitude of the characters, which give it dry-comic effect. The second concept is amour fou, or mad love. The relationship between Marina and Borgman is one big example of mad love. A definition of mad love is given in the article of Peter William Evans: “For Bunuel, as for all Surrealists, love is an irresistible force, but one that invariably makes fools of lovers” (Unsilvered Screen 39). The attraction of Marina to Borgman is almost as if she is under a spell. Marina is losing the control of her life and her love for Borgman leads

55 towards the demolition of the whole family. The last surrealistic concept I have connected to Borgman is transformation, which corresponds with the notions of the strange world surrealists try to shape. Real life is transformed into surroundings of imaginary entities, coming out of the unconsciousness, desires and anxieties. The way Borgman is deconstructing the garden into one big mess, is in a way highly similar to the dark intentions of Surrealism. It is his way in which van Warmerdam makes a dark unconscious fear visible in a film.

Altogether, I come to the conclusion that it remains difficult to define Borgman as a surrealistic film. Even though some clear surrealistic aspects are present in Borgman, the film is too straightforward in its storytelling to be called surrealistic. In comparison to Un chien andalou, for example, in which the storytelling is more like an associative dreamtelling. Nevertheless, with my analysis I have demonstrated that Surrealism can offer some very helpful concepts to analyse contemporary film. In doing so, I was able to detect the traces and clear elements of Surrealism in Borgman. So, I argue that Surrealism still continue to be an influential cultural movement and that the surrealistic identity is still alive in many films and other cultural events.

56 5. SOURCES

5.1 Bibliography:

Albano, Lucilla. “Cinema and Psychoanalysis: Across the Dispositifs” American Imago 70.2 (Summer 2013): 191-224. Bauduin, Tessel M. "The ‘Continuing Misfortune’ of Automatism in Early Surrealism." Communication +1 4.10 (2010): 1-7. Bellin, Roger. “Retrospection and Prophecy in the Structure of Mad Love.” Journal of Modern Literature 30.2 (winter 2007): 1-16. Breton, André. Manifestoes of Surrealism. Translated by Richard Seaver and Helen Lane. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1969. Buffinga, John O. “Alex van Warmerdam’s Borgman (2013) as a Study in Visual.”Can. J. of Netherlandic Studies/Rev. can. d’études néerlandaises 36.1 (2015): 1-20. Coombs, Neil. Studying Surrealist And Fantasy Cinema. Leighton Buzzard: Auteur Publishing, 2007. Deleyto, Celestino. “A Review of Being Naked Playing Dead: The Art of Peter Greenaway by Alan Woods.” Contemporary Theatre Review 7:3 (1998): 121-122. Driessen, Kees. Interview met Alex van Warmerdam, de God van Nederland. Vrij Nederland. August 20, 2013. March 2017. Donker, Janny. “Hauser Orkater and Its Offspring: The Herd and the Mexican Hound.” The Drama Review 27.1 (Spring 1983): 25-39. Everett, Wendy. “Screen as threshold: the disorientating topographies of surrealist film.” Screen 39.2 (Summer 1998): 141-152. Fijalkowski, Krzysztof and Michael Richardson eds. Surrealism: Key Concepts. Abingdon: Routledge, 2016. Guattari, Felix. “Cinema Fou”. Soft Subversions. Ed. Sylvere Lotringer. New York: Semiotext(e): 247-256. Harper, Graeme and Rob Stone eds. The Unsilvered Screen: Surrealism on Film. London: Wallflower Press, 2007. Hotchkiss Lia M. “Theater, Ritual, and Materiality in Peter Greenaway’s The Baby

57 of Mâcon.” Peter Greenaway’s Postmodernism/ Poststructuralist Cinema. Eds. Paula Willoquert-Mariconeli and Mary Alemany-Galway. Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2008. Johnson, William. “Netherlands Highs.” Film Comment 34.3 (May 1998): 83-84. Matthews, J.H. “Fifty Years Laters: The Manifesto of Surrealism.” Twentieth Century Literature 21.1 (February 1975): p. 1-9. Moine, Raphaëlle. “From Surrealist Cinema to Surrealism in Cinema: Does a Surrealist Genre Exist in Film?” Yale French Studies 109 (1 January 2006): 98-114. Nas, Loes. “De wondere wereld van Alex van Warmerdam: absurdisme in de eigentijdse Nederlandse film.” Literator 20.1 (April 1999): 31-50.

O’Neill, Patrick. ‘’The Comedy of Entropy: The Contexts of Black Humour.“ Canadian Review of Comparative Literature (June 1983): 145-166.

Orr, John. “A Cinema of Parallel Worlds.” Film International. 7.1 (January 2009): 28-34. Paraskeva, Anthony. “Digital Modernism and the Unfinished Performance in David Lynch’s Inland Empire.” Film Critism 37.1 (2012): 2-18.

Ramaer, Joost. Afgemeten en uitgebeend: leven en werk van Alex van Warmerdam. Amsterdam: Boekmanstudies, 2010.

Richardson, Michael. Surrealism and Cinema. New York: Berg Publishing, 2006.

Van Delft, Fee and Gertjan Wijers. Agogisch begeleiden vanuit therapeutische modellen. Den Haag: Boom Lemma uitgevers, 2013 (10th version). Verstraten, Peter. Humour and Irony in Dutch Post-War Fiction Film. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2016.

Verstraten, Peter. “Middle of the Road Absurdism: the Cinema of Dutch Director Alex van Warmerdam.” Sense of Cinema. 2014. February 2017.

58 FILMOGRAPHY:

A Zed and Two Noughts. Dir. Peter Greenaway. British Film Institute. 1985. Badlands. Dir. Terrence Malick. Warner Bros. 1973. Blue Velvet. Dir. David Lynch. 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. 1986. Borgman. Dir. Alex van Warmerdam. Cinéart. 2013. Cet obscur objet du désir. Dir. Luis Buñuel. The Criterion Collection. 1977. De Jurk. Dir. Alex van Warmerdam. A-Film Home Entertainment. 1996 De Noorderlingen. Dir. Alex van Warmerdam. United International Pictures (UIP). 1992. The Elephant Man. Dir. David Lynch. Paramount Pictures. 1980. Inland Empire. Dir. David Lynch. A-Film Home Entertainment. 2006. La charme discret de la bourgeoisie. Dir. Luis Buñuel. 20th Century Fox. 1972. La fantôme de la liberté. Luis Buñuel. The Criterion Collection. 1974. L’Age d’or. Dir. Luis Buñuel. Kino International. 1930. Le coquille et le clergyman. Dir. Germaine Dulac. Image Entertainment. 1928. Ober. Dir. Alex van Warmerdam. A-Film Home Entertainment. 2006. Prospero’s Books. Dir. Peter Greenaway. Miramax Films. 1991 Un chien andalou. Dirs. Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali. Homescreen. 1928.

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