Cinema of The Netherlands - Dutch Filmmakers and Actors Abroad

Dutch Filmmakers and Actors Abroad

Both Black Book and Alles is Liefde starred Carice van Houten (Valkyrie film) who subsequently made the transition to Hollywood, following in the footsteps of several actors, the most successful being Rutger Hauer (Blade Runner), Jeroen Krabbé (The Fugitive) and Famke Janssen (X-Men). Filmmakers besides Paul Verhoeven who successfully began a career in Hollywood include Jan de Bont (who started as cinematographer before directing big budget action movies like Speed and Twister), screenwriter-turned-director Menno Meyjes (credits include The Color Purple and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) and producer Pieter Jan Brugge ( Glory, Consenting Adults, The Pelican Brief, Bullworth, The Insider, Miami Vice, Defiance, Love and Other Drugs. Brugge produced and directed The Clearing. After directing an English-language thriller in Holland, director Roel Reiné moved to Hollywood where he became an influential director-producer of DVD Premiere films, including the Steven Seagal-vehicle Pistol Whipped (2008). Ate de Jong made a couple of low profile American films in the early nineties, and directed an episode of Miami Vice. He began a partnership with Jeroen Krabbé and Edwin de Vries, which led to three English language productions starring international actors, including Isabella Rossellini, Luke Perry and Stephen Fry.

While many other Dutch actors and actresses have tried to break through in Hollywood, few have had the success of Hauer and Krabbé. Contemporaries Monique van de Ven, Derek de Lint, Renée Soutendijk and Huub Stapel all returned to making Dutch films when their Hollywood-efforts proved disappointing. Celebrated actress Van de Ven of Turkish Delight-fame moved to the US with her then-husband Jan de Bont and appeared in a number of small American films, to no significant success, and only in supporting parts. De Lint's American résumé is more impressive, with guest appearances in various TV-shows, including NYPD Blue and The L Word, and a number of supporting roles in theatrical movies, of which the most prominent was The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988). Soutendijk scored the female lead as a cyborg in Eve of Destruction (1991) opposite Gregory Hines. Finally, Huub Stapel, star of all of Dick Maas' box office hits, had a large supporting role in a 1988 TV-movie about Anne Frank.

More recently, a domestic favorite, Antonie Kamerling, was one of the Dutch actors involved in the American independent film Five Fingers in which, ironically, American actor Ryan Philippe plays the leading Dutch character. Kamerling also had a supporting part in Exorcist: The Beginning (as well as its alternative version). Thekla Reuten, star of Oscar-nominated Twin Sisters, has made her US-debut with Highlander: The Source and is set to appear in the DVD premiere film Fire Bay. She had a short stint as a supporting character in Sleeper Cell and made an appearance in a 2008 Lost episode, as a German spy.

Lastly, actor Yorick van Wageningen made a name for himself by appearing in Beyond Borders (2003), The Chronicles of Riddick (2004) and The New World (2005). This series was to be preceded by a supporting role in Steven Spielberg's Minority Report, but due to problems with his visa, he was unable to work on that movie. Contrary to most other Dutch actors successful in Hollywood (with the notable exception of Famke Janssen), Van Wageningen was not a major star in his own country before playing in American films, and instead is using his new status as internationally experienced film actor to get major roles in upcoming Dutch films, beginning with 2008's Oorlogswinter. Likewise, Saskia Mulder (sister to model Karen Mulder), made her debut abroad, appearing in French and English films and television series before making guest appearances in Dutch soap-operas. Her most famous film to date is Neil Marshall's The Descent. She was also a regular in the short lived Scottish sitcom The Book Group. Dutch photographer Anton Corbijn made his film debut directing the British biopic Control about Joy Division lead singer Ian Curtis.

Behind the scenes, cameraman Theo van de Sande, born in Tilburg, has made an impressive CV filming big budget films, having shot films such as Cruel Intentions and Blade, after he previously had a worthy career in his native country. Lesser known Dutch individuals with international credits include Hollywood sound designer Charles Deenen; Oscar-winning director Marleen Gorris who made a number of international productions including the 1997 adaptation of Mrs Dalloway and currently works on several British productions; DJ and composer Junkie XL who wrote additional music for Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven and scored the action film DOA: Dead or Alive; Sylvia Kristel, most famous for her role as Emmanuelle in a series of softcore movies, also appeared in a large number of lesser known American (TV-)movies, of which The Nude Bomb, a feature film adaptation of the TV-series Get Smart is probably the most notable. Kristel briefly apepars as Agent 34; an established cinematographer in the alternative film scene, Curaçao-born Robby Müller has repeatedly worked with Wim Wenders, Lars von Trier and Jim Jarmusch; a director at the start of his career, Kees van Oostrum has moved to US to become a prolific cinematographer on various TV-movies and miniseries; two-time Academy Awards nominated production designer Jan Roelfs, who worked with Andrew Niccol and Oliver Stone; George Sluizer, who made an American remake of his popular culthit Spoorloos and currently works mostly on pan-European co-productions, will make a US-comeback with the Rob Schneider-comedy The Chosen One (2009); cameraman Rogier Stoffers, who shot a number of US box office hits in the 2000s, most notably Disturbia; tall man Carel Struycken, whose physique landed him the parts of Lurch in Barry Sonnenfeld's The Addams Family films and The Giant in Twin Peaks; Jany Temime was costume designer on the last three Harry Potter films, In Bruges and Children of Men; Arjen Tuiten, a special make-up effects artist working for the Stan Winston Studio, with El Laberinto del fauno as one of his prominent credits; Dutch born costume designer Elsa Zamparelli, who received an Oscar nomination for Dances with Wolves.