Amsterdam Weekly, Vol 4 Issue 15: 12-18 April 2007

Volume 4, Issue 15

12 - 18 APRIL 2007 Vakblad voor Varieté en Verité

‘Walk like a zombie and go whaAAAaaa.’ page 3

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www.amsterdamweekly.nl

Max Beckmann: portrait of the artist as an Amsterdam barfly page 6

Legal drugs you may (not) want to try page 4 A forgotten slapstick genius page 4 / Church full of organs page 5 Public space curators page 19 ART: Making a dead frog dance p. 11 / MUSIC: East meets West traditions p. 15 / FILM: Ex Drummer explodes p. 23

Short List . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 Music/Clubs . . . . . . . . . .12 Gay & Lesbian . . . . . . . .16 Stage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17 Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17 Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20 Dining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21 Film . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22 Classifieds/Comics . . . .26

12-18 April 2007

Amsterdam Weekly

CITY SECOND BY PETER CLEUTJENS In this issue Life is a cabaret, complete with song, dance, slapstick and twitching frogs.

But alas, the circus—complete with grenade attacks and voices from beyond the grave—around the Willem Holleeder trial has come to an indefinite stop because the ‘top criminal’ has got leaking heart flaps. Does a life lesson lurk in there?

Meanwhile, it’s been announced that Amsterdam’s top volkzanger, the late and lamented André Hazes, is getting his very own musical, covering his life from performing straatschoffie to singing train wreck. So is there now hope that Holleeder, too, might be brought back to the land of the living?

Perhaps this is the message behind Saturday’s Zombie Walk which starts at Dam square at 9 p.m, before proceeding down Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal, Koningsplein and ending up on Leidseplein. The idea is to dress up, walk like a zombie and go ‘whaAAAAaaaaaaa!’

Apparently, this is a new global movement with previous editions occurring everywhere, from Rio to Pittsburgh.

Does this mean that life has become a stinking corpse of a cabaret? Not yet, old chum.

On the cover MAX BECKMAN, SELF PORTRAIT, 1944

Next week The Dining Issue

Letters Got an opinion? We want to hear it. inbox@amsterdamweekly.nl

Amsterdam Weekly BV De Ruyterkade 106, 1011 AB Amsterdam Tel: 020 522 5200 Fax: 020 620 1666 www.amsterdamweekly.nl General info: info@amsterdamweekly.nl Agenda listings: agenda@amsterdamweekly.nl Advertising: sales@amsterdamweekly.nl Classifieds: classifieds@amsterdamweekly.nl PUBLISHER Todd Savage EDITOR Steve Korver ASSISTANT EDITOR Kim Renfrew AGENDA EDITOR Steven McCarron FILM EDITOR Julie Phillips PROOFREADER Karina Hof EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Sarah Gehrke ART DIRECTOR Bas Morsch PRODUCTION MANAGER Vela Arbutina PRODUCTION DESIGNERS Mattijs Arts, Rogier Charles SALES ASSOCIATES Reed van Brunschot, Simone Klomp, Carolina Salazar OPERATIONS MANAGER Monique Gruter OPERATIONS ASSISTANT Desislava Pentcheva DISTRIBUTION COORDINATOR Patrick van der Klugt DISTRIBUTION/MARKETING INTERN Heini Suokari FINANCIAL ADVISER Kurt Schmidt (Veresis Consulting) PRINTER Corelio Printing Amsterdam Weekly is published every week on Wednesday and is available free at locations all over Amsterdam. Subscriptions are available for €60 per six months within the Netherlands and €90 per six months within Europe. Agenda submissions are welcome, at least two weeks in advance. New contributors are invited to visit Amsterdam Weekly’s website for contributor guidelines. Contents of Amsterdam Weekly (ISSN 1872-3268) are copyright 2007 Amsterdam Weekly BV. All rights reserved.

04/04/2007 - 12:17 - HOBBEMASTRAAT

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12-18 April 2007

AROUND TOWN Fun. Romance.

Scandal.

Filmmuseum rediscovers slapstick star Mabel Normand.

ANNA BOTERMAN

By Marinus de Ruiter

Legal Libations Until we ban the brain, drug use will continue.

By Mark Wedin Public service announcement: recently, a teenage tourist ate magic mushrooms, jumped off a bridge and died. This one incident is enough for the authorities to consider banning hallucinogens.

(Though there’s been no word yet on banning cars, which consistently cause more deaths in a single day.) In the wake of new restrictions against ever-decreasing coffeeshops, this may trigger a wave of paranoia among legal drug users. But rest easy: there still remain a slew of alternatives, all within the confines of the law. Dr Lukas Brouw, who works in the department of internal medicine at the Amphia Ziekenhuis, describes some popular natural highs.

Fast. Feels like: mushrooms, heroin, beer. Pros: cheap. Cons: long initial waiting period. ‘In the beginning, abstaining from food can actually be cocaine-like. You’re more alert. Your body starts eating its own fat supplies and losing tissue. After two or three days,

you get a brain-activity kick: extra endorphins, less gamma amino butyric acid. [In lay terms: you feel morphine-great and beer-uninhibited.] If you continue and literally starve, your body starts eating its own proteins. Then you might be hallucinating. But pure exhaustion kicks in later, which makes you feel horrible, actually.’

Hypovolemia Feels like: going insane. Pros: cheap. Cons: permanent side effects, including death. ‘Old people often come to the hospital because they’re not drinking enough water. You start seeing and hearing things. It can become a psychosis. You’ll hear voices telling you what to do and you’ll believe them, that sort of thing.’

Extreme sunbathing Feels like: mescaline. Pros: can be highly social.

Cons: peeling skin. ‘It’s not how long you sit in the sun, it’s how overheated your brain becomes. Overheating is the essence. Some people could overheat in fifteen minutes, while others need to drink beer for hours in the sun before any effects will become apparent. It’s not fair, I know. But eventually, you’ll get feverish hallucinations. These are especially visual at first.’

Eat reheated spinach Feels like: nothing. Pros: nourishing. Cons: not many. ‘I’m pretty sure this one’s rubbish.

Only scientists in the Netherlands push this. Every other country disagrees. The claim is that when you reheat spinach, nitrates come out and that’s poisonous—

Hugs not drugs.

especially bad for kids. You won’t hallucinate, as many believe. It may bring on a stomach ache. But the chances of that happening are one in ten thousand.’

Ingest long-forgotten Easter eggs. Feels like: vomiting. Pros: weight loss. Cons: leaves a bad aftertaste. ‘If they’re made of chocolate, this has natural preservatives. It takes a really long time before they go bad. Even then, the bacteria don’t really do anything. If they come from chickens, then it depends if they’re cooked or not. When cooked, eggs have a better protection. If raw, eggs have natural enzymes which destroy themselves. But as long as the shell is intact, this can take a long time.

Even then, the only thing that will happen is you’ll get very sick.’ (This sickness can be a step to the following drug, which would lead governments to label it a ‘gateway drug’.)

Get sick, then recover Feels like: heaven. Pros: positive vibes. Cons: short duration. ‘If you’re sitting by the toilet, vomiting all day, when you heal, this is one of the best kicks. If you have diarrhoea for a week and then it stops, your brain rewards you for not being sick anymore. When a hangover goes away, you feel great. Your brain is overloaded with chemical rewards. People often talk about feeling lighter than air, or walking on clouds.’

In addition to successfully reanimating long-lost classics from the silent era, this year the Filmmuseum Biennale hopes to revive the legacy of a forgotten comedienne from the early days of film. Mabel Normand has a cult following now, but she used to be the centre of Hollywood’s attention, as the star who helped the career of Charlie Chaplin, and who saw her own career decline after she was involved in an OJ Simpson-like murder scandal.

‘Currently, Mabel Normand’s name is resonating in film circles all around the world,’ says Jan van den Brink of the Filmmuseum. ‘There’s a club of people in the United States who are tracking down her films, and there have been several retrospectives in recent years.’ The restoration of a unique copy of the 1918 feature film The Floor Below, with Normand in a lead role, is the main reason for the Filmmuseum Biennale to highlight the silent film star’s career.

The Floor Below was lost until the museum discovered a relatively good copy in the collection of a Haarlem thrift shop owner. Another silent film from this inventory that was considered lost— Beyond the Rocks from 1922—was restored and achieved great success after its premiere at the previous edition of the biennale.

The new version of Beyond the Rocks was shown in large theatres all over the US, often accompanied by live music, and the DVD edition earned a spot in the 2006 Top 10 list of best discs, as selected by The New York Times. It contains an exclusive video introduction by Martin Scorsese.

The popularity of Beyond the Rocks depends on the reputation of two major celebrities from the silent era, Rudolph Valentino and Gloria Swanson. ‘They continue to have a great appeal to Americans, because these actors are part of their culture,’ says Van den Brink. The Floor Below relies on a star who is much less known now, although Mabel Normand used to be Hollywood royalty, even among legendary comedians like Charlie Chaplin, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.

‘She made an enormous number of films, but many of them are now lost,’ explains Filmmuseum programmer Martin de Ruiter, who compiled the Normand retrospective. ‘Also, her name is attached to slapstick, which could be another reason why she is forgotten.’ De Ruiter is

Amsterdam Weekly

referring to the time when slapstick films were pigeonholed as outdated and corny.

‘To be honest, I’m not a huge fan of slapstick myself,’ he says. ‘I’ve rarely selected comedies for the Filmmuseum, but looking at Mabel Normand I was captivated with her acting, which is very natural compared to the often cliché-ridden slapstick style.’

At the start of her career, Normand acted in a great many short films created

by Mack Sennett’s Keystone Studio, which is usually regarded as Hollywood’s most proficient assembly line for slapstick comedy. Although artistically his films often suffered from their tight production schedule, Sennett did have a fine nose for acting talent.

Charlie Chaplin got his big break at Keystone, debuting next to Normand in a few short films, for example Mabel at the Wheel. This little gem from 1914, which is showing at the Filmmuseum Biennale, has Normand co-directing and playing the lead role. Chaplin is introduced as villain, but is clearly outshined by Normand’s onscreen charm.

Acting with feverish dedication, Normand even performed all of her stunts herself. Although her job was physically demanding, her off-screen life was even bumpier. She developed a drug addiction,

presumably to ease the pain of injuries inflicted on set. She was obsessively admired by men, which caused severe difficulties in her relationships.

In 1922, a prominent friend, Paramount director William Desmond Taylor, was murdered moments after Normand had visited his house. The case remains unsolved today. Disaster struck again in 1924, when her chauffeur shot and killed a man who had offended her.

Although she did attempt a comeback, Normand finally had to give up when she was diagnosed with tuberculosis. She died in 1930 at the age of 37.

Although celebrities and tabloids thrive on them now, scandals could seriously damage careers in the days of silent film. ‘I don’t think that it was her lifestyle that had made her popular,’ says De Ruiter about Normand. ‘I think her onscreen personality brought her fame.

She was able to be funny and romantic at the same time and this made her attractive to everyone.’

Filmmuseum Biennale, 11-15 April, Filmmuseum, Vondelpark 3, 589 1400, various prices, www.filmmuseum.nl

Unstable Mabel.

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A park for organs From Schubert to improv.

By Guy Livingston What the heck is an Orgelpark? For the last month or so I’ve been hearing rumours about this brand-spanking new venue, their plans for hundreds of concerts and a goal of bringing the image of the pipe organ into the 21st century. On the phone, I reach director Loek Dijkman, and he invites me to one of their first concerts: organ plus silent film. It sounds promising, so on a grim rainy night I trek over to the Overtoom side of Vondelpark, home to the ultra-chic new Orgelpark, and featuring three organs, two grand pianos and the odd harmonium. As if that’s not enough, a fourth pipe organ is on order.

The venue, formerly known as the Parkkerk, is as slick as an art museum, complete with ushers in colour-coordinated outfits which match the lighting fixtures. Chic, yes. Hip? No. A bell rings for the concert, and we leave the pristine bar (like something out of a Milan furniture showroom), climb the stairs, and marvel at the high-vaulted ceiling and the perfect acoustics of the concert hall. Big as they are, the organs actually look small in the vastness of the space.

The inside of the building has been lovingly restored in a Victorian colour scheme, with elegant lighting. Composers’ names are illuminated on the balcony overhead. Reading them absent-mindedly, I do a sudden double-take: instead of the Dead White Men listed on the Concertgebouw’s friezes, the Orgelpark features Cage, Ligeti, Messiaen (OK, they’re dead white guys, too), plus a host of other organ innovators like Dupré, Eben, Straube, Lemare and Distler, and avant-gardists who don’t normally get their names inscribed on walls. I decide that I like Dijkman’s sense of humour.

The atmosphere is great, too: Dijkman welcomes the people present, there is chatting among the audience, people are excited and eager to be there. It’s like stopping by Schubert’s house for a spot of chamber music. Then the lights dim, and the Sauer organ thunders out. It’s a marvellous performance, and all too short. We watch silent films from Georges Méliès, the movie magician (literally: he started his career as an illusionist) whose Voyage a travers l’impossible turns out to be one of the first science fiction films ever made.

Paper spaceships careen across the screen, bumping into stars and crescent moons.

Each film ends with an explosion, often several, and fireworks rain down on the actors and the cardboard monsters. The audience is entranced at the joyous anarchy and home-made animations of the film, not to mention the mellifluous sound of two different organs, delightfully played (not at the same time, I hasten to add) by Joost Langeveld, who has a real flair for film music.

JOYCE VAN DER FEESTEN

12-18 April 2007

Funding is obviously not an issue.

The Parkkerk is so perfectly restored that it’s hard to imagine its state 10 years ago: largely abandoned, and with no future anticipated, it served as rehearsal space for dance groups and community events. Herman Roering, a painter and the brother of former organist Johan, started a one-man campaign to save the organ his brother had performed on at the Parkkerk for many years. The building itself was in terrible shape, with boarded-up windows and damage from woodworm. And the organ was in even worse condition: totally unplayable.

Roering had assembled an impressive portfolio of international artistic and academic support for the organ. But if the Parkkerk organ was going to be restored, and if it was going to compete with Holland’s already rich offering of organs and churches, a visionary financial backer would be needed. Enter Loek Dijkman and his Stichting Utopa.

Sometimes, having a large budget can be a good thing, and clearly funding is not an issue for the Orgelpark. During the intermission between the two films, I spoke to Dijkman. He doesn’t want to talk about the money, but there’s clearly plenty, as the entire setting is understated and luxurious. He asks to remain as anonymous as possible, so I’ll just note that this is not his first large artistic project, and that he has a proven track record. His corporate past might make him seem out of place in the music world, but it certainly serves him well in terms of making this utopian project a solid success.

The goal of producing 125 concerts a year—something which would bankrupt many venues—is obviously not a problem here. And an initial lack of gezelligheid should not deter audiences, because the acoustics, music and programming are terrific. It’s a fun and eccentric mix: jazz one night, improv the next. Another week might feature a series of late soppy Victorian organ classics, while periodic film evenings delve into early modernism and silent comedy. Keep an eye on this venue: there just might be an organ in your future.

Stichting Het Orgelpark, Gerard Brandstraat 26, 515 8111, www.orgelpark.nl

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12-18 April 2007

All work and no cabaret makes Max a dull boy L

ast Friday, the Van Gogh Museum launched an exhibition of one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, Max Beckmann, the German painter who spent the years 1937 to 1947 in this very town.

Around the period of the First World War, Germany was home to a flourishing art scene. Influential artists at the time include Otto Dix, Paul Klee, Franz Marc and Emil Nolde. The prevailing movement was expressionism, and groups like Die Brücke and Der Blaue Reiter sought to challenge artistic and academic traditions with methods including abstraction and the distortion of reality, in order to achieve a direct expression of emotion.

While Beckmann was celebrated in the Weimar Republic, having his paintings exhibited at the Nationalgalerie in Berlin and holding a chair at Frankfurt’s Städel school of art, he fell into disgrace as the Nazi regime was gaining power. Accused of being a ‘cultural Bolshevik’ in a typically bizarre Nazi classification, Beckmann lost

Artist Max Beckmann fled Nazi Germany in 1937 after being labeled a ‘degenerate’. He came to Amsterdam where he spent the most productive decade of his life immersed in the city’s nightlife.

BY SARAH GEHRKE

his Frankfurt teaching position in 1933, and had to work under nearly impossible circumstances for the following five years.

Degenerate art By 1937, 22 of the artist’s paintings were on display at the exhibition for so-called ‘entartete Kunst’—or degenerate art—in Munich. The exhibition was a milestone in the regime’s moulding of things in their own image. Since the Nazis used culture as an important propaganda tool, they made many efforts to control the art scene and manipulate it for their own means.

Artists whose work didn’t fit the ideal

were first banned from working, and later had to fear prosecution. Art that the Nazis considered indecent, incomprehensible or an insult to the German Volksgeist was classified ‘degenerate’. In 1937, more than 5,000 such artworks were confiscated from all over the country; over 650 of them were exhibited in a show in Munich. As the ‘degenerate’ classification included virtually all modern art, this exhibition boasted nearly every artist from the time who has any significance. The pieces on show included Barlach, Chagall, Dix, Ernst, Kandinsky, Klee, Kokoschka, Mondriaan and Nolde. The exhibition itself

was held in a former university building that had been transformed into a makeshift gallery, and paintings were deliberately hung clumsily, and displayed alongside pictures of mentally and physically ill people to stress the supposed sickness of the artists and their work. In between the works, Nazi slogans were painted on the walls.

In the newly opened Haus der Deutschen Kunst a simultaneous exhibition of officially approved art was held.

This, however, attracted less than a third of the number of visitors that went to see the show of ‘degenerate’ art, which then went on to travel through Germany and Austria. After it was over, the paintings were burnt and the more valuable ones auctioned to the international market. A few of them, though, found another use: Göring and some other officials decided to keep a few paintings for themselves.

Triggers of expression On the eve of the exhibition’s opening, Hitler gave a speech about the evils of

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Soon Beckmann, cycling through the streets—often with his wife Quappi on the back of his bike— became a familiar sight in the city centre.

modern art, in which he publicly threatened the artists who produced it. Hearing this speech was the trigger for Beckmann’s decision to finally leave Germany. Interestingly, although Beckmann was lumped together with the expressionists by the Nazis—and though he is still often associated with the movement today—the artist himself actually rejected many of expressionism’s ideas. For one, the idea of abstract painting in the vein of Marc or Kandinsky didn’t appeal to Beckmann.

Whereas those painters tried to find ways of expressing the ‘inner side of nature’ through abstraction, Beckmann felt disinclined to abandon objectivity, rather attempting to find what’s hidden behind a perceived reality by means of examining its objects. Beckmann was not only a professionally trained painter but also highly educated and well read in philosophy and literature. This resulted in many of his paintings being very thought-out and referential, often inspired by Biblical or mythological scenes—a stance that sets him apart from the immediateness of

painting, which many expressionists used to convey emotion.

While Beckmann didn’t have to fear direct persecution by the Nazis, he couldn’t sell his work and had to rely on help from friends and benefactors. His stay in Amsterdam was originally intended as a transition period, but Beckmann ended up staying for 10 years. A planned move to France was made impossible by the outbreak of the war, and although he and his wife repeatedly applied for visas to the United States for years, they didn’t manage to acquire them until 1947. However, that decade was the most productive period of Beckmann’s life, during which he created almost a third of his entire oeuvre.

Home in Mokum After living on Oud-Zuid’s Beethovenstraat for a month, Beckmann and his wife moved to an apartment/studio on Rokin.

Living in the city centre suited him better, because after having spent long and lonely hours in his studio, the artist liked to go out and about. A lover of urban life, Beck-

mann had a need to be in a thriving environment, one which he would use for inspiration. ‘He was a real city person,’ says Beatrice von Bormann, guest curator at the Van Gogh Museum and the brains behind the current exhibition. ‘He wanted to live close to all the cafés, bars, and cabarets. And although his stay in Amsterdam was involuntary, he certainly made use of the city while he was here.’

Soon Beckmann, cycling through the streets—often with his wife Quappi on the back of his bike—became a familiar sight in the city centre. They frequented many cafés and bars on a near daily basis, and Mokum nightlife became a way of escaping the reality of war and life in exile, as well as being a huge source of inspiration for the artist.

‘After his arrival in Amsterdam, Beckmann painted twice as many figure paintings, often set in bars and varietés, than he had done before,’ Bormann says.

‘His painting became much more narrative once he was in exile. It was possibly a response to the times of crisis: he became

more interested humaine.’

in

the

condition

Out in Amsterdam Among the places that Beckmann frequented were Café Americain on Leidseplein and De Kroon on Rembrandtplein, both of which were meeting points for many intellectuals and artists at that time. The area around Rembrandtplein and Thorbeckeplein was the centre of nightlife, then as now, and the starting point for many an artist’s kroegentocht.

‘Going out during that time wasn’t too easy,’ says Joeri Teeuwisse of the Historisch Adviesbureau 30-45, a historical consultancy service that specialises in the first half of the 20th century. ‘Before and during the War, the bars had to close quite early—midnight at the latest. For anyone wanting to stay out, there were illegal bars at secret locations, often in basements or in somebody’s house—but of course they got closed down all the time, so each night you had to find out anew where you could go.’

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In the times of the Weimar Republic, Beckmann had developed a fascination for the cabaret of the era—paintings depicting scenes with cabaret and circus artists had formed an important part of his work, and continued to do so in his time in Amsterdam. There was more than enough opportunity for inspiration, as cabarets and varietés were an integral part of Amsterdam nightlife.

‘Going to the cabaret was pretty much a typical night out in those times,’ says Ernest de Vries from historical costumiers Gerritsen.’ One of the reasons for that was the fact that people didn’t have a lot of money—they couldn’t afford to just sit on a terrace or go to restaurants like we do nowadays. Most of the cabarets didn’t charge an entrance fee, so it was perfectly possible to get out and about, socialise, and see interesting things, all for the price of maybe een biertje en een kroket.

Most Amsterdam cabarets of that era could be found around Thorbeckeplein, Nes and De Wallen. ‘And there were lots and lots of them,’ De Vries notes. ‘In fact, every time you see a strip club nowadays, you can be almost sure that it used to be a cabaret.’

Amsterdam’s most famous cabaret, however, was more exclusive. Cabaret La

Amsterdam Weekly

Gaité was an upstairs room at the Tuschinski theatre. Before the beginning of the War, La Gaité regularly had cabaretiers who had emigrated from Germany performing, and during that time it was also regularly frequented by Beckmann. ‘La Gaité was more like a small nightclub,’ Teeuwisse recounts, ‘and very elite—almost like a private club. They had all the big stars of the time: Marlene Diet-

rich performed there, as well as Edith Piaf and Josephine Baker.’

A less glamorous, but equally enjoyed, variant was Spanish cabaret, with Bar Creola near the Amstel and Cabaret Caliente on Lijnbaansgracht being the most popular establishments of their kind. Numerous entries in Beckmann’s diary refer to Caliente, which had Latin music and a Mexican courtyard, a place where Beck-

12-18 April 2007

mann was regularly to be found. At the exhibition, Bormann points out a picture of a pretty girl in blue, smoking a cigarette, and explains that it is set there.

Many of Beckmann’s paintings show artists in their dressing rooms. For instance, ‘Acrobats’, one of his famous triptychs, depicts circus artists getting changed and waiting to go on stage. ‘That state of transition,’ Bormann explains, ‘is something he was very interested in, and it can be seen as an allegory on life in exile.’

In an essay Beckmann wrote in 1938, he explains how he was striving to find the ‘bridge to the invisible’ from the given present, and elaborates on his fascination with the ‘magic of reality’. Bormann explains Beckmann’s continuing fascination with the cabaret scene by means of the artist’s view of the world as a stage, or a theatre play. ‘He had this perception of life as a masquerade, with people playing different roles, and was convinced that there was another world behind the visible one. And he was constantly looking for that in his art.’

Max Beckmann in Amsterdam, 19371947, Van Gogh Museum, Paulus Potterstraat 7, 570 5200, until 19 August.

Bringing Beckmann’s world to life PHOTOS BY JUDITH JOCKEL

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still form an important part of the duo’s lthough most of Amsterdam’s repertoire. Ravissant, a classically trained cabarets have disappeared since pianist, says what fascinates him about Beckmann’s time, it’s still possible Weill is the way he combined modern clasto catch a performance in the style of that sical music with popular elements—the era. One duo much influenced by the profound with the entertaining. cabaret of the ’30s and ’40s are Fifi Another important influence are songs L’Amour and Rodolfo Ravissant. The Ausby LiLaLo, the Yiddish cabaret started in tralian actress and performer and her Amsterdam after the War had ended. ‘I love Dutch partner accompanying her on piano, them!’ L’Amour enthuses. ‘That kind of Yidhave regular slots at Casablanca and Paleis dish lament, but with a tongue in cheek. van de Weemoed. Although their proAlthough they were active in the Fifties, gramme is diverse, varying from classic they were very much cabaret to levenslied, in the spirit of the and from Brecht to German cabaret of Piaf, L’Amour sees the Twenties—that herself very much in dark, twisted sense of the tradition of ’30s humour.’ and ’40s cabaret.

The grotesque, ‘Good cabaret, as bizarre elements of opposed to simple cabaret fascinate her: varieté with its magi‘It emphasises the cians and dancers, original, as opposed was about much more to the commercial. I than easy entertainjust think that makes ment.

It always it so much more intercarried a political esting: the fact that message as well. In you don’t have to our performances, I look pretty. Nowatry to bring that days it’s all about across. Sometimes that. Everyone tries more, sometimes to look pretty, and in less—it depends on the end, they all end the audience, really— Life’s still a cabaret: up looking the same.’ but I’m a pretty Fifi L’Amour and Rodolfo Ravissant Nevertheless: opinionated person, ‘You always have to and even if I wanted, I modernise. I try to do that by establishing a probably couldn’t hold that back.’ She says connection between our classic repertoire that she strongly dislikes ‘sentimental and current stories. For example, at the schmaltz’. Adds L’Amour: ‘Of course, moment I’m transcribing Brecht’s Moritat there’s nothing to say against a good love vom Mackie Messer (or Mack the Knife) song, but it has to have a decent story. The into a version telling the Holleeder story. In French are usually good at that. They’ve that version, instead of a jack-knife, got the properly tragic stories.’

Macheath will be carrying a gebroken lepGerman music from the Weimar eltje!’ And L’Amour smiles. Tongue in Republic inspired her start as a cabaret cheek. performer, and songs by Brecht and Weill

D

been practising that a lot,’ he laughs. uring the Beckmann retrospec‘And we’re also painting my eyebrows— tive, music theatre group De one stronger than the other—in order to Veenfabriek is organising a speintensify that effect.’ cial Beckmann-themed performance at The music used is a mixture of songs the Van Gogh Museum every Friday that were popular at Beckmann’s time. night. On a little stage at the end of the ‘We know that he was into jazz, so we’ve exhibition space, visitors will be able to used two pieces of contemporary Dutch watch the performances directly after jazz bands that he might have been lisexiting the exhibition. tening to,’ Kuit explains. There are also The bulk of the night is taken up by a some pieces composed by Koek. ‘It’s performance of the world-renowned tap more sound effects than actual music,’ dancer Peter Kuit, directed by De VeenKoek says. ‘For fabriek’s artistic instance, I’ve been leader Paul Koek. using snatches of ‘We’ve been trying to German fascist prouse that theatrical, paganda songs and musical element of worked them into Beckmann’s art as a the piece as some starting point for the kind of echo, to performance,’ Koek depict the nightmarexplains. ‘And of ish memories course, the fact that Beckmann must Beckmann was have had about Nazi inspired so much by Germany.’ varieté life has Two other key played a role in features of Beckchoosing a tap dance mann’s self-portraits as the performance. that are being used But in the end, the in the performance varieté element is are his often very only a very small grim face and the part of the whole unnatural posture of thing.’

Tapping Beckmanns beat: his hands, at times Instead, Kuit will Peter Kuit and Paul Koek so contorted that it’s be taking up the role very hard to even of Beckmann and reimitate. enacting phases of his life—from his When Kuit climbs on stage and gets success in Weimar Germany through to into position, the effect is astounding. his persecution by the Nazis and his Although in reality Kuit bears little or no exile in Amsterdam. Kuit has based his resemblance to Beckmann, with the corfacial expression and his gestures on the ners of his mouth pulled down, his numerous self-portraits Beckmann eyebrow up and his hands twisted, Beckpainted. mann’s self-portraits are all of a sudden ‘For example, if you look at these perfectly recognisable. And then he self-portraits, you will notice that very starts to perform. often he raises one eyebrow. So, I’ve

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SOPHIE MÖRNER

SHORT LIST

Bunny Rabbit, Friday, GLU

THURSDAY12 APRIL

FRIDAY13 APRIL

Cabaret: Ute Lemper

Festival: Motel Mozaïque

Gutsy, she is. Glamorous, too. But what surprises these days about Ute Lemper is how versatile the gal has gotten. Launched as a revivalist of Weimar cabaret—anyone for Weill?—Lemper has since acted on stage and in films, composed music, done voices for Disney movies, even exhibited paintings, all while enlarging her repertory to include many of the more scenic corners of vernacular songcraft. Now on her first tour of the Netherlands in several years (she’ll be in Groningen tomorrow and Utrecht on Saturday), Lemper will lead a quartet through works by the predictable biggies: Sondhiem, Brel, Piazzolla—and Kurt, of course. But she’ll also favour us with Hungarian and Jewish folk tunes, a selection of originals and a ditty by none other than Nick Cave. All, to be sure, will be filtered through Lemper’s trademark throaty intensity, and all, to be sure, will be memorable. (Steve Schneider) Muziekgebouw, 20.30, €45-€50.

There are so many festivals in this land—possibly too many. But let’s be bold, because with Motel Mozaïque, Rotterdam has certainly organised the best. A four-day gathering with hospitality at the heart, it mixes diverse arrays of live music with contemporary art, performance and the ambition to always better the previous year’s. It’s not like going to just another concert: it’s like stepping into another world. Friday and Saturday form the core of the music programme, with acts like !!!, Akron/Family, Heavy Trash, Camera Obscura, Jesse Sykes, Deerhoof, Patrick Wolf and Zita Swoon. But it’s the other aspects that make the festival so special. Take a guided tour of the city and discover things the locals don’t even know; catch a film (a new addition this year); give in to the experience completely and sleep over—-this year, Perron Mozaïque draws on Rotterdam’s City of Architecture activities, taking over Station Hofplein, just along from Centraal Station, and turning it into a fantastic installation where sleepy festival-goers can lay their heads down. With the closure of regular venue Nighttown, it looked to be a tough year for the organisers, but instead, they’ve taken the opportunity to grow it out in new locations and take even more risks. (Steven McCarron) Various locations and times in Rotterdam, €26 day tickets, €47 festival pass, €20 sleep ticket. Also Saturday and Sunday.

Festival: DEAF07 This weekend, several organisations and companies have joined forces in Rotterdam to present the current state of affairs in electronic arts, with workshops, presentations, concerts and exhibitions. This year’s theme, ‘Interact or die!’, explores the relationship between humans and objects, and how digital technology can either enhance or disturb this. Last year’s Dutch Electronic Arts Festival (DEAF) was held in the monolithic Van Nelle factory—now it is fragmented all over the city centre. Electronic arts institute V2_, the driving force behind DEAF, celebrates its 25th anniversary with a concert on Saturday (20.00-01.00 at Staal), featuring computer music giants like Mouse on Mars and Ryoji Ikeda. Other festival nights are being curated by STEIM (Thursday, 22.00-02.00, Arminius) and TodaysArt (Friday, 22.00-02.00, Arminius). If you’re not visiting one of the numerous presentations during the day, you can visit the large exhibition at Las Palmas (11.00-20.00 this weekend, 11.00-18.00 after) with all kinds of interesting videos, engaging installations and hands-on interactive works. In keeping with the themes espoused and engendered by the whole affair, many of the events will be streamed live via their website, so there’s no excuse for not interacting.

See article on p. 11 and www.deaf07.nl for the full list of events. (Marinus de Ruiter) Various locations and times, Rotterdam, €7.50 per event, €30 day pass.

Lesbian: GLU #5 launch party Brigadoon. Wha’? Brigadoon: for just one day in every hundred years, lesbians get their moment of coolness. London had its turn last century with Pumpin’ Curls and Kitty Lips, and now it is the moment of Amsterdam and GLU. The magazine—and its attendant guerilla-style pop-up parties, like this one tonight—sloughs off the usual naff-ic Sapphic connotations to create a big lesbian pie that everyone wants a piece of. (‘Everyone’ in this case includes Wolfgang Tillmans, Richard Kern and Beth Ditto.) But this lot recognise that lesbian life isn’t just about sucking your cheeks in and leaning on a bar: it’s also about embracing our inglorious past (this month, expect a very retro womanual and dildos in space). Tonight’s party is as cutting-edge and we-got-therebefore-you-so-nyerr as ever: Bunny Rabbit pops in at midnight for a performance (her first in this country) before hopping off to Rotterdam for Motel Mozaïque tomorrow, and Sick Girls (one of whom played at ArtBeat on Museumnacht) from Berlin chunder up grime, booty and baile. (Kim Renfrew) Flex Bar, 11.00-05.00, €9.

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Amsterdam Weekly

12-18 April 2007

Hiphop: Grandmaster Flash What can one say about Grandmaster Flash that has yet to be said? To be honest, very little, so let’s just regurgitate the old praise of a man intrinsically important to hiphop, and indeed, to all music. Flash, the first hiphop artist to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, is one of the originators, a man who created a sound that was not only beyond his time, but also completely timeless. With all the garbage being paraded around as hiphop of late, returning to the work of Flash is refreshing, almost cathartic.

He’s a legend of the turntables, and early Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five records still do the job anytime you’re in the need of a pick-me-up or get-me-down.

Flash and the Furious Five went their separate ways a long time ago, though both elements are still separately treading the boards. Let’s hope the old-skool wizard puts on a better show than his ex-buddies’ rather baffling effort at the Melkweg last September. (Shain Shapiro) Paradiso, Grote Zaal, 23.59, €17.50 + membership.

SATURDAY14 APRIL Club: Easy Tune—The Resurrection Once upon a time—oh, about a decade ago—clubs were full of house music going bumpff bumpff bumpff. It was getting kinda boring and impersonal, unless you were on the right drugs. So some folks were inspired to bring the swinging living room to clubland, first upstairs at the RoXY and then all over town. Lounge was reborn under the moniker of ‘Easy Tune’ and the rest is history: one that is seen reflected in the smaller more intimate clubs that have popped up ever since. This evening reunites these polyester revolutionaries: Piet Popcorn, Easy Aloha’s, the Intuners, Aardvark (yes, he was there too) and Mr & Mrs Cameron providing the tunes and Nepco and Leptomania Vintage Video providing the visuals. Tonight also sees the release of the three-CD box Best of Arling & Cameron. So swingers, come on down and groove—but please respect the dress-code: soft gothic or easy zombie. (Steve Korver) Paradiso, Kleine Zaal, 23.00, €12.50.

SUNDAY15 APRIL Open Ateliers: Cultuurplekken Amsterdam Nu To ensure that out fair city remains bristling with life (rather than drowning in the constant stream of new rich people who do little beyond consuming), the many breeding places, live-work spaces, squats and studios of artistic and cultural residents are opening their doors today to remind everyone outside the scene just what’s slipping in under the mainstream’s radar. Step inside, talk to the creatively minded, and find out what they’re up to. With this event, the main goal is to push for clear, citywide policies which will support the ongoing existence of non-commercial cultural entities. It is, of course, a continual campaign. And for good reason: if they become too passive, the corporate beast will squash them completely out of relevance. Go and meet your local artist today. See www.cultuurplekkenamsterdam.nu. (Mark Wedin) Various locations, 14.00-17.00, free.

Classical: Murray Perahia There’s talk about Murray Perahia. Folks are saying that this stunning pianist has expanded his palette beyond the translucent touch and otherworldly lyricism that were his signature, and that have sustained his planet-spanning reputation over the past two decades. He’s now playing with a vigour and Horowitzian largesse that are new to him, and the results are said to be grand. (And all the more welcome in that they indicate Perahia has recouped from physical problems with his right hand.)

Tonight, the pianist has chosen a programme that lights up both ends of his expanded spectrum, ranging from a Bach partita to a set of Brahms miniatures, with stopovers for Beethoven’s ‘Pastorale’ sonata, two Chopin etudes and his third ballade. This should be a concert you’ll be thinking—and talking—about for quite some time.

(Steve Schneider) Concertgebouw, Grote Zaal, 20.15, €38.25/€45.

WEDNESDAY18 APRIL Opening: Nederlands Fotomuseum In the Dutch world of photography, the old Nederlands Fotomuseum in Rotterdam’s Witte de Withstraat never really managed to compete with Amsterdam’s own Foam. It had its moments, of course, but was restricted by its size, partly because so much space was needed for the national archives housed inside. But with Rotterdam in a perpetual state of regeneration, the museum was given the opportunity to relocate to the newly modernised Las Palmas cruise ship terminal in the Kop van Zuid, right next to the Erasmus Bridge.

Now the museum can look forward to much more exciting times ahead as part of Rotterdam’s arty—-and not just industrial—-harbour district. The larger space will be immediately tested by opening exhibition Dutch Eyes, which attempts to offer a rich overview of Dutch photography, touching on the themes that have most affected the nation since the 19th century. It’s the first time in 25 years that such a feat has been attempted, wiping away any previous staleness. (Steven McCarron) Nederlands Fotomuseum (Tues-Fri 10.00-17.00, Sat, Sun 11.00-17.00), Rotterdam. Until 26 August.

Send details and images for listing consideration at least two weeks in advance to agenda@amsterdamweekly.nl.

12-18 April 2007

Amsterdam Weekly

Media artist Garnet Hertz makes a dead frog dance. And so can you, thanks to a cable shoved in just the right place.

RIBBIT, REANIMATE ME, MY MASTER ART Experiments in Galvanism DEAF07, Rotterdam, until 29 April

By Mark Wedin

20 September 1786. Luigi Galvani touches the decapitated legs of long-dead frogs with curved pieces of metal. The legs twitch, providing the genesis of Galvani’s famous experiments, which prove that muscles and nerves will contract when triggered by an electric current.

His discoveries spawn a rapid outgrowth of discussion and research—practical, theoretical, even fantastical, as envisaged in Mary Shelley’s later fictional writing.

Today. Canadian media artist Garnet Hertz, over the phone from his home in California, explains: ‘New technologies produce a fairly consistent response of utopian/dystopian visions through diverse historical periods. In the late 1700s, electricity was viewed as a myste-

rious fluid of life capable of both resurrecting the dead and producing Frankenstein-type monsters. In a similar fashion, [today’s] discourse around internet-based technologies has—at least during the dotcom era—produced similar discourse.’

To illustrate his point, Hertz has updated Galvani’s original experiment with modern means. He splayed open a large frog and stuffed it with a miniature web server, a motor controller and two small motors. The entire contraption is then suspended in a small tank of mineral oil—which does not conduct electricity—and, through a blue ethernet cable, it can be controlled via the internet.

From a technical viewpoint, Hertz’s frog is different from Galvani’s mainly because he does not electrify the biology of the frog, but instead triggers the motors, which then cause a twitching of the frog’s legs. Hertz wasn’t interested in merely recreating what had already

been done.

‘The idea,’ he says, ‘was to compare and link two technologies and historical periods: electricity during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and the internet during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.

Producing an object—a galvanic-style frog with a combination of old and new technologies of wonder—is a way to revive memories of a historical period and to attempt to make a link to the present. In other words, it sees that our visions of a technologically enhanced future aren’t too different than the aspirations (and fears) that people had two hundred years ago.’

Like Galvani, Hertz is sparking a lot of excitement, travelling with frog in tow to electronic art festivals around the globe—which, he admits, has its inherent difficulties. ‘Transporting electronics, animal leather, bones, et cetera, is usually a headache across international borders.’

This week, among a hoard of interactive and artistic media, he’ll present his frog, entitled ‘Experiments in Galvanism’, at DEAF07 in Rotterdam (see Short List). There will be a monitor across the room, where visitors can trigger the frog’s legs and watch them both live and onscreen. If you’ve an aversion to people but love dead frogs, you can do the same, via Hertz’s website (www.conceptlab.com/frog), throughout the duration of the festival. For the geeks at home who’d like to fashion

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No Frankenstein Complex here at the point where pond life meets machine.

their own experiment, Hertz shares the specs: ‘The miniature web server is a PicoWeb server from Lightner Engineering, the motor controller is a Mini SSC II

by Scott Edwards Electronics, and the motors are Draganfly nine gram servos.’

Hertz—also known for organising a gathering of newly created robots entitled Dorkbot SoCal, as well as being a Fulbright Scholar—among a host of other achievements is highly reputed in the electronic art scene. Last year, he wowed patrons of the STRP festival in Eindhoven with his ‘Cockroach Controlled Mobile Robot’: a healthy giant Madagascan hissing cockroach harnessed to a trackball, which sat atop, and controlled, a small three-wheeled robot. Whichever direction the cockroach scurried on the trackball, the robot did the same. (Hertz’s roaches, by the way, are very well taken care of—far better than many of their brethren hiding in the walls of houses.) Hertz explains that finding just the right cockroaches to pilot the machine was a bit difficult—many are lazy—and he had to audition some 20 of them before selecting the best two fit for public display.

Selecting a frog, however, was much easier: it simply had to be dead. ‘Anything would have worked just as well,’ says Hertz. ‘A big frog, an old frog, a frog made of rubber, or someone’s shoe.’

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Amsterdam Weekly

12-18 April 2007

Daniel Johnston, see Saturday

MUSIC

Jazz: Scott Hamilton & Trio Rein de Graaff Featuring the famous swinging blasts of tenor sax from American Scott Hamilton. Bimhuis, 21.00, €16 Singer-songwriter: Charlotte Skovgard Folky pop.

Skek, 21.30, free

Send listing suggestions at least two weeks in advance to agenda@amsterdamweekly.nl.

Friday 13 April

Thursday 12 April

Festival: Motel Mozaïque Rotterdam’s magical multidisciplinary music and art party. See Short List.

Various locations and times, Rotterdam, €26 day tickets, €47 festival pass, €20 sleep ticket

Rock: Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter Part sweet-sounding Americana, part good ol’ riff rocker, this Seattle-based songwriter has just released her new album Like, Love, Lust and the Open Halls of the Soul. Paradiso, Kleine Zaal, 20.00, €9 + membership Pop: De Dijk Classic Nederpop from Huub van der Lubbe and the boys. Melkweg, The Max, 20.30, €20 + membership Rock: The Automatic What’s that coming over the hill? It’s GWAR! No, it’s more stomping indie rock that makes use of the ever popular ‘straight vocals’ backed by a screaming mentalist. Massive things are expected of the Welsh act this year, not least because their big ‘Monster’ hit perpetually creeps up in the most unlikely places. Patronaat, Haarlem, 20.30, €13

Singer-songwriter: Laura Veirs & The Saltbreakers Pacific Northwest-based songwriter known for her nouveau folk-country songs, heavy on introspection and clever wordplay. Her new album Saltbreakers is just out, and to promote it, she’s formed the rather noisier Saltbreaker live band. Paradiso, Kleine Zaal, 19.00, €10 + membership Classical: Auryn Quartet Germans play Schubert, Janácek and Beethoven. Concertgebouw, Kleine Zaal, 20.15, €32.50 Classical: Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Under American-Swedish conductor Herbert Blomstedt and Russian-Israeli pianist Russian-Israeli pianist, the RCO are playing it straight tonight with renditions of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.1 in C and Brahms’ Symphony No.4 in E. Concertgebouw, Grote Zaal, 20.15, €47.50 World: Romano Drom A master of Hungary’s oláh gypsy traditions, Drom, with ensemble, brings fresh contemporary elements to the old ways. KIT Tropentheater, 20.30, €18 Hiphop/R&B: Most Wanted—The Final Showcase The talent contest for locals in the urban music scene reaches the final stage. Acts competing include De Veelplegers, The Attic, Shedney, Urban, Jeremia, G.Supreme, Lara, Woordvoerders and Skitta & Sketch.

If that’s not enough, Jiggy Djé will perform an extra set so that no one gets bored while the judges debate on the winner. Melkweg, 21.00, €10

Ute Lemper Cabaret: Ute Lemper Chanteuse in the style of the Berlin interbellum. See Short List. Muziekgebouw, 20.30, €45-€50 Experimental: AUXXX Featuring a set from Cloudland Canyon, a transatlantic duo consisting of Kip Uhlhorn (New York) and Simon Wojan (Hamburg) who deal out classic psychedelia that’s filtered through modern technology. OT301, 21.00, €5 Hiphop: EL-P It was funny to consider the handful of Emerson, Lake & Palmer fans who got excited for a brief moment when this show was announced, though in fact, EL-P is one of the most interesting rappers on the 2007 block. He’s been around for ages, in Company Flow during the ’90s, while a solo career has seen him guesting with the likes of Aesop Rock and Prefuse 73. But now out promoting new album I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead, maybe the time has arrived for his experimental hiphop electronica to break out of the underground. Melkweg, Oude Zaal, 21.00, €14 + membership

Jazz: Sound Plaza Belgian pianist Kris Defoort has already made a name for himself as a composer, writing the opera The Woman Who Walked into Doors, as well as staging a dance tour for the production Passages. Tonight he’s sticking to just music, applying his raw jazz talents alongside fellow countryman Nic Thys and the Americans Mark Turner and Jim Black.

Bimhuis, 21.00, €14 Rock: Red Over Black Melancholic but melodic rock.

Skek, 21.30, free Experimental: Suicidal Birds, Ilse Lau, Lacasafantom A fascinating triple bill: Friesland’s Suicidal Birds play manic bluesy numbers from their new album.

Germany’s Ilse Lau deal out avant-garde math rock.

Schizophrenic noise trash gets generated by Norway’s Lacasafantom. OCCII, 21.30, €5 Rock: El Rio Trio Rockabilly. Maloe Melo, 22.00, €5 Rock: The Black Crowes session Ross Curry leads an assortment of local musos through the history of the American groove rockers. Café Pakhuis Wilhelmina, 22.00, €7.50 Soul/Hiphop: Aloe Blacc American soul singer from the Stones Throw stable. Tonight’s show is part of the J Dilla Appreciation Tour—for those not familiar with

Amsterdam Weekly

12-18 April 2007 the name, J Dilla was a hiphopper from Detroit who died in 2006 after illness. Paradiso, Kleine Zaal, 23.45, €13.50 + membership

Tango: Orquesta Vale Tango Young tango talents from Argentina, whose music was the backbone of the film Assasination Tango by Robert Duvall. KIT Tropentheater, 20.30, €20 Singer-songwriter: John Carrie CD release party.

Winston Kingdom, 21.00, €5 Jazz: Mario Pavone’s Deez Group Bassist and composer Pavone used to be the solid man in groups of Paul Bley, Bill Dixon and Thomas Chapin, but he’s best when solidly expressing personal desires and fronting his own avant-garde groups. Joining him on this tour are trumpeter Steven Bernstein, violinist Charles Burnham, pianist Peter Madsen and drummer Michael Sarin. Bimhuis, 21.00, €14

Grandmaster Flash Hiphop: Grandmaster Flash Six months after the Furious Five landed in town, it’s time for the Grandmaster.

See Short List. Paradiso, Grote Zaal, 23.59, €17.50 + membership

Saturday 14 April Festival: Motel Mozaïque See Short List. Various locations and times, Rotterdam, €26 day tickets, €47 festival pass, €20 sleep ticket Classical: To Be Sung Eastern works, performed by soprano Åsa Olsson, clarinettist Fie Schouten and cellist Eva van de Poll. See article on p. 15. Noorderkerk, 14.00, €10 Classical: Radio Filharmonisch Orkest A matinee performance that includes the world premiere of Ketting’s Symphony No.4, Strauss’s Vier letzte Lieder and Schubert’s Symphony No.9 in C; conducted by Jaap van Zweden. Concertgebouw, Grote Zaal, 14.15, €19/€26 Experimental: DFM Benefit Evening There’s a real sense of variety and musical chaos in this benefit collection for DFM, running from dinnertime right to pass-out time. Live bands include Gone Bald, Zea, Hoppa! Collective and Porcupine, plus there’s eclectic DJ sets ranging from drum & bass, dub and electro right through to Balkan beats. OT301, 16.00-03.00, €7

Pop/Rock: Rowwen Hèze This bunch are usually content taking their Limburgse mariachi party rock to numerous clubs and theatres throughout the country.

But embracing the notion of ‘if you book the venue, they will come’, they’ve got two nights at Heineken Music Hall this time around. Are they dreaming or will Zuidoost be bouncing to this bizarre musical mutation? Heineken Music Hall, 21.00, €27.50 Pop/Rock: Subbacultcha! A party in aid of melodic locals Check 1-2, who’re launching their new album tonight, and will hopefully be paying tribute to Craig McLachlan in the process. Also billed are garage rockers A Sonic Ensemble. Bitterzoet, 21.00, €6 Blues: Marcel Scherpenzeel & Band Electric blues.

Maloe Melo, 22.00, €5

Sunday 15 April Classical: Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (See Friday) Concertgebouw, Grote Zaal, 14.15, €47.50 Classical: Arcato Lingua Classical music meets poetry, featuring songs by Breval, Boccherini, Bach, Schubert, Previn and Baird. English Reformed Church, 15.15, €10 Salsa: Cuarto Ocho Salsa orchestra in 10 pieces.

Badcuyp, Bovenzaal, 15.30, €5 Pop: 3FM Awards With a strong reputation for promoting bad music throughout the daytime, the radio station is deciding to roll in their own dirt with short performances due from the likes of Krezip, Within Temptation, Ilse DeLange and Di-Rect. Paradiso, Grote Zaal, 16.00, €12.50

Reggae: DutchSka Reggae, dancehall and bouncy ska from the likes of Beef, Rude Rich & The High Notes, Antwerp Gipsy Ska Orkestra and Mala Vita. Melkweg, Oude Zaal, 17.00, €15 + membership

Singer-songwriter: Gruff Rhys The frontman of Wales’ Super Furry Animals, in town promoting his second solo album Candylion. Paradiso, Kleine Zaal, 18.00, €9 + membership

Singer-songwriter: Daniel Johnston It’s no secret the mental health of this American songwriter is fragile, and likewise, that numerous tours have been pulled at the last minute for that very reason. But it’s looking like this current run of shows is all systems go, which is sure to please the hoards of fans who’ve snapped up all the tickets. Paradiso, Kleine Zaal, 19.30, sold out

Classical: Abbie de Quant A blend of Russian and Dutch flute music, with renowned flautist De Quant backed by pianist Elizabeth van Malde. Concertgebouw, Kleine Zaal, 20.15, €20

Rock: Van der Graaf Generator Lessons in prog rock from these old English masters led by Peter Hammill.

Of course, they’ve been going so long, their sound is primarily retrospective rather than progressive, but when has that ever scared off fans from the ’70s? Paradiso, Grote Zaal, 19.30, €25 + membership Classical: De Stemming With the choir performing works by Max Reger, Petrus Cornelius, Joseph Kuhnau, Antonio Lotti and Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa.

Dominicuskerk, 20.15, free Classical: Nederlands Philharmonisch Orkest Violist Janos Konrad and cellist Trey Lee are in town to help get your Don Quixote on, by way of Strauss. To warm you up for a Spanish adventure, the orchestra will also perform Brahms’ Symphony No.3 in F; conducted by Jun Märkl. Concertgebouw, Grote Zaal, 20.15, €30

Classical: Murray Perahia This modern American great is something of a Bach specialist, but tonight he limits that to just Partita No.2, along with crowdpleasers by Beethoven, Brahms and Chopin. See Short List. Concertgebouw, Grote Zaal, 20.15, €38.25/€45 Classical: Opening concert Week van de Kamermuziek Conservatorium van Amsterdam lays out a programme for lovers of Italian classics as the opening event of the Week of Chamber Music.

Muziekgebouw, 20.30, €15 Tango: Bajofondo Tango Club Kinda taking off from where the Gotan Project lose interest in trying, this outfit featuring members from Argentina and Uruguay mix contemporary electronica with the classic Latin styles that are so prominent and evocative. Melkweg, Oude Zaal, 21.00, €22 + membership Pop: Gabriel Rios Previewing material from new album Angelhead. Patronaat, Haarlem, 21.00, €11 Soul: Lefties Soul Connection Raw funk, soul, breaks and beats as these dance-lovin’ Amsterdammers aim to set Sugar Factory alight with their new material.

Sugar Factory, 21.00, €8.50 Pop/Rock: Rowwen Hèze (See Saturday) Heineken Music Hall, 21.00, €27.50

Hexnut Contemporary: Karnatic Lab Festival 2007 A celebration of contemporary, jazz and world music, this festival’s eighth edition is spread over two events (including a Bimhuis show next week). Tonight three ensembles will be rocking it hard with wild improvisations and high spirits: Hexnut, Ensemble Klang and the Spinifex Orchestra. As if that weren’t enough, an LED lightshow by Pablo Fontdevila will underpin the programme. Muziekgebouw, 20.30, €15

Camera Obscura Pop/Rock: Camera Obscura It took long enough, but in 2006, this band from Glasgow finally stepped out of the shadow of Belle and Sebastian, wowing twee pop fans internationally with their ’60s-inspired collection Let’s Get Out of This Country. Paradiso, Kleine Zaal, 21.30, €6 + membership

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Amsterdam Weekly

Monday 16 April Classical: Memoires A performance by saxophonist Arno Bornkamp, pianist Marcel Worms and harpist Ernestine Stoop. Uilenburger Synagogue, 20.15, €15 Classical: Nederlands Philharmonisch Orkest (See Saturday) Concertgebouw, Grote Zaal, 20.15, €30 Rock: Bromheads Jacket More of that fast-paced jaunty Britrock thing that’s so prevalent at the moment. Hailing from Sheffield and fronted by Tim Hampton, you can expect plenty of bouncy tunes with lyrics detailing the experience of being young and British. Melkweg, Oude Zaal, 20.30, €10 + membership Singer-songwriter: Joan Armatrading The first of two nights at Paradiso from the rich-voiced star in promotion of her new bluesy CD Into The Blues. Paradiso, Grote Zaal, 21.00, €25 + membership Experimental: DNK-Amsterdam Electro-acoustic live sets, tonight featuring Los Glissandinos and The Air Between. OT301, 21.30, €4 Experimental: Larkin Grimm Dreamy psychedelic folk performer from the US. Paradiso, Kleine Zaal, 22.00, €6 + membership

12-18 April 2007 Jazz: Blood Pianist Paul Bley, one of the most influential musicians in modern jazz has himself composed only incidentally. Fortunately, he has had relationships with composers Carla Bley and Annette Peacock, both of whom wrote for him. It’s these pieces that Michael Moore, Oskar Aichinger and John Edwards—musicians of a younger generation—are attracted to as a starting point for new musical creations. Clarinettist Jimmy Giuffre, one of Bley’s most loyal partners, also throws several compositions into the melting pot.

Bimhuis, 21.00, €14 Reggae: Jam Session Led by Ghettowish. Musicians and vocalists welcome. Volta, 21.00, free Jazz: TryTone Festival Contemporary jazz experiments and projects featuring sets from Miako Klein & The Storeroom II; Hilary Jeffery; and Trio Austbø, Hoogland, Kweksilber. Zaal 100, 21.00, €5 Pop/Rock: Club 3voor12 Live radio and TV session featuring sets from Moke, Silence is Sexy and Check 12. Desmet Studios, 22.00, free, tickets: www.3voor12.nl Rock: Obojeni Program Guitar grooves and electro soundscapes from the long-running Serbian experimentalists. Paradiso, Kleine Zaal, 22.00, €7.50 + membership

CLUBS Thursday 12 April Electrorated! With DJs Dax & Clockwork, Jef, Daniel Sanchez and Edu de Leau. Winston Kingdom, 21.0003.00, €5 De Dixo Eclectic tunes with the bonus of a bluesy rock set from Raincheck. Club Meander, 22.00-03.00, €4 Hercules

Tuesday 17 April

Vice Magazine Party An exploration of musical vices

by Chromeo (Canada), X Vectors (UK), Wix, Salah Edin, Intifada Soundsystem, Parra, 100% Vooraan, Peer Vos, My Little Underground and more secret special guests.

Studio 80, 22.00-late, tickets: www.viceland.nl

Opera: Hercules What’s an opera without jealousy?

Fortunately, Handel’s interpretation of the Hercules myth has it in bucket loads, not least drawing on the confused emotions of his wife Dejanira. Performed by De Nederlandse Opera. Het Muziektheater, 19.30, €20-€100

Flex YourSpace Kid Goesting presents live sets from Jack Beauregard and Timid Tiger. Flex Bar, 22.00late2, €5

Punk: Lagwagon Comedic punk rockers from California. Melkweg, The Max, 20.00, €16 + membership

Franchise With DJs Lucien Foort and Lin. Escape, 23.00-late, €10

Classical: Nederlands Philharmonisch Orkest (See Saturday) Concertgebouw, Grote Zaal, 20.15, €30

Poptrash Three decades’ worth of rock, electro and hiphop with The Punchout DJs. Melkweg, The Max, 23.00-late, €5

Singer-songwriter: Joan Armatrading (See Monday) Paradiso, Grote Zaal, 21.00, €25 + membership Pop/Rock: Mr Hudson & The Library Experimental pop influenced by hiphop, dubstep, acoustic pop and jazz. Paradiso, Kleine Zaal, 22.00, €7.50 + membership

Wednesday 18 April Classical: Lunch Concert Featuring contrabassist Szymon Marciniak and pianist Nageeb Gardizi. Concertgebouw, Kleine Zaal, 12.30, free Heavy: Zeni Geva Extreme noise from the Japanese riffers. Paradiso, Kleine Zaal, 19.00, €10 + membership Contemporary: Orkest de Volharding Performing world premieres by Cynthie van Eijden, David Satian and Willem Boogman, plus extras by Klas Torstensson. Felix Meritis, 20.15, €20.50 Classical: Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra A vocal programme performed with help from Nederlands Kamerkoor. Featured are Mozart’s Vesperae solennes de confessore; Mass in C; and Haydn’s Symphony No.104. Conducted by Ton Koopman. Concertgebouw, Grote Zaal, 20.15, €55 Heavy: GWAR What’s that coming out of your oversized rubber penis and spraying over the audience?

Do we really want to know? It’s easy to forget that alongside the grotesque costumes and stage show, GWAR have been making actual music for more than 20 years. But then again, it’s probably for the best to forget. Patronaat, Haarlem, 20.30, €15

Vreemd Outlandish electro and live performances.

Sugar Factory, 23.00-05.00, €8

¿Que Pasa? Latin-crossover night with reggae, folk, ska, punk and mestizo. Melkweg, Oude Zaal, 23.00late, €7

Friday 13 April Discocult: Mr and Mrs Cameron A freestylin’ mix of melodic electronica in a bold combination with funky electro house, electro breaks, electro hiphop, disco, hard-edge club-pop, post punk and wicked big beat.

Following on from the Arling & Cameron set earlier in the night, it’s the turn of Karin & Richard Cameron to DJ as special guests. Sugar Factory, 01.00-05.00, €10 System Reload Drum & bass with a difference. Can you spot it? Club 8, 22.00-04.00, €14 40UP An opportunity for oldies to stay up beyond their usual bedtime in this party for those 40+. Music from the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s will be par for the course (the only surprise is that the venue is not the Oude Zaal). Melkweg, The Max, 22.00-late, €17.50 Rauw Joost van Bellen’s baby boasts a special lineup tonight: Motor (US/UK/F), Felix da Housecat and Jonty Skrufff. 11, 22.30-04.00, €20 Discocult: Arling & Cameron Long-running Dutch duo. Even if you think you’ve never heard them, you have. Simple as that. Sugar Factory, 23.00-01.00, €10 Club Nouveau Commercial sounds from William Shagspeare, Hitmeister D, Baggi Begovic, Melly Mel and Miss Bunty. The Powerzone, 23.00-05.00, €15

Rock: The Horrors Wild organ rockers known for their blazing live shows. Paradiso, Grote Zaal, 20.30, €13 + membership

EAT Concrete Eclectic experimental electronica from the EAT Concrete team, plus special guests like Spindokter Ries and Aardvarck vs Steven de Peven.

Studio 80, 23.00-late, €7.50

Rock: The Rakes Yet more Britrock from an outfit who took their name after experimenting with garden rakes to style their hair. Melkweg, Oude Zaal, 20.30, €12 + membership

Club Rascal Indie hipsters shake their collective tush to guitar and dance hits while pretending to be rascals like The Kaiser Chiefs. Melkweg, Oude Zaal, 23.59-late, €6 + membership

Amsterdam Weekly

15

SANSTITRE

12-18 April 2007

Eastern meets Western traditions in a series at the Noorderkerk, erecting an acoustic-rich Tower of Babel.

THE CLASSICAL MUSIC WORLD OVER MUSIC Eastern Traditions in Contemporary Music Noorderkerk, 14, 21, 28 April, 14.00

By David Lee

On successive Saturdays this month, the Noorderkerk is hosting a series of concerts highlighting the rich and varied ways in which Eastern and Western musical sensibilities have merged. Disparate influences from across the globe combine in surprising and beautiful ways, enriching the church’s traditional classical music programme and providing the opportunity to enjoy the aural results of infinite diversity in infinite combinations.

On 14 April, ‘To Be Sung’ features the soprano voice of Åsa Olsson, accompanied by Fie Schouten (bass clarinet) and Eva van de Poll (piano). New, original compositions will be performed in several Eastern languages including Javanese, Ambonese, Tibetan, Turkish

and Russian; music by Sinta Wullur, Jonathan Harvey, Timuçin Sahin, Felix Yanov/Yanowsky, Arvo Pärt and Gijs Levelt will also be played.

On the following Saturday, IranianAmerican Reza Vali, Professor of Composition at Carnegie Mellon University, will make his first visit to the Netherlands. Composer David Stock has called Reza Vali ‘the most brilliantly successful composer since Bartok to combine ethnic folk music and Western classical music in a unique way that is as appealing as it is original.’ The Cuarteto Latinoamericano—the world’s foremost interpreters of Latin American music for string quartets—will perform a selection of Vali’s work, to be followed by an interview (in English) with musicologist and Het Parool journalist Saskia Törnqvist. This concert is dedicated to Bart Vonk, who died last year and who, as editor of Concertzender’s ‘Wereldmuziek’ programme, first brought Vali to Dutch ears.

Snuggling up through composition.

A week later, Theo Loevendie and the Ziggurat Ensemble will present music from their ‘operina’—a modern variant of the traditional opera—Babylon, which is scheduled to open at the Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ this October. A wide range of remarkable instruments, from Chinese violins to Arab zithers and Armenian oboes, will be used to perform Loevendie’s music from the operina, as well as some jazz, modern Chinese compositions and a Scarlatti sonata.

Jurriaan Röntgen, organiser of the Noorderkerk concert series, comments that so long as they relate to classical Western music in some way, he is ‘always looking for new repertoire and musical styles.’ He adds: ‘Another important consideration is the acoustical effect, which I expect to be great with this kind of music and these instruments. In general, contemporary music works wonderfully in the Noorderkerk, because “sound” is such an important factor in the music of today, especially in Reza Vali’s music.’

During these days of sabre-rattling and brinksmanship, it’s comforting to know that there are still people out there dedicating their lives to celebrating not only diversity, but its creative combinations. www.noorderkerkconcerten.nl

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Saturday 14 April Plan West Twisted eclectism that’s perfect for members of the grunge generation who now take their main inspiration from Fleetwood Mac. Club 8, 22.00-04.00, €6 Pret! Modern hits and old favourites. Plus a live set from Soul or Nothing who, as you might gather from the name, do a bit of that soul dance groove thang. Club Meander, 22.00-04.00, €4 Sneakerz With Erick E, Funkerman, Youri Donatz, Groovenatics, William Shagspeare and more.

Panama, 22.00-04.00, €15 Teleskope invites Innervisions Featuring Âme and Dixon from Germany’s Innervisions, plus Edo Salgado and Olaf. 11, 22.00-04.00, €10 Nope Is Dope Urban noise from tons of Amsterdam regulars like Benny Rodrigues, Laidback Luke and Victor Coral. The Powerzone, 22.00 -06.00, €15

Amsterdam Weekly Beat Dimensions A Rush Hour Soundsystem performance featuring Benji B, SassyJ, Jay Scarlett and Cinnaman. Flex Bar, 22.00-late, €8.50 Syndicate of Happy Party People Progressive versus electro versus trance delirium. Blijburg, 22.00-late, €10 Versch The latest developments in electronic music, new media and performance. As always, the evening begins with an audio-visual art programme, but after midnight it’s all about the beats, with sets from Phonetique_X, Le Chien Perdu, Cupatec and Steijn. Sugar Factory, 22.30-05.00, €10 Molotov & The DirtyDirtyDirty Raw electro and urban sounds from the likes of Terry Toner, Philip Young, Victor Coral, The Flexican and Kubus & $imon.

Hotel Arena, 23.00-04.00, €15 Welcome to the Future Though, it may have past by the time you read this. Studio 80, 23.00-late, €10 LaZiz Arabic pop music combined with R&B, disco and funk. Paradiso, Grote Zaal, 23.30-late, €10

Gemengd Zwemmen Two rooms of noise. In the Max, expect a mix of indie, pop, rock and dance tunes; in the Oude Zaal, freak out to classic soul and ska. Melkweg, 23.59-late, €8

Sunday 15 April Prog as a Frog More brain-tangled madness from the psychedelic trance lovers. Café Pakhuis Wilhelmina, 16.00-01.00, €7 T-Dansant Featuring Jocelyn Brown, Ron Carroll and Seamus Haji. Westergasfabriek, 17.00-00.00, €29 E.N.D. Electronation’s weekly Sunday night slot.

Tonight’s party features sets from Mason, Terry Toner, Phillip Young and Kitty Got Sued. Bitterzoet, 21.0003.00, €5/€8 WickedJazzSounds Jazz, hiphop, broken beats, nujazz, funk and Afro sounds, as classic vinyl collides with live musicians. Sugar Factory, 23.00-05.00, €8.50

12-18 April 2007

Monday 16 April Cheeky Monday Jungle and drum & bass night. Winston Kingdom, 22.00-03.00, €6

Tuesday 17 April HipHopClub With live sets from VaderlozeTroepe and El.Rod, plus DJs Switch, Vic, Abstract, Lovesupreme and Rachid Larouz. Studio 80, 21.00-late, €5, free before 22.00 Bass Culture Reggae and dancehall night. Bitterzoet, 21.30-03.00, €5

GAY& LESBIAN Friday 13 April Vrouwenavond With a holiday weekend just gone and spring lingering in the air, the gay girlies and their friends should be jamming in at the weekly women’s night with DJ Starring Jasmine. But check out the lesbo competition tonight... Café Sappho, 22.00, free Flirtation Goes to Hollywood Although it’s a wellknown fact that there isn’t a single lesbian in Hollywood, Flirtatation strides womanfully on with a celebration of all things Tinseltown. Feel like a star walking up the red carpet, be bombarded by paparazzi. Tonights DJs are Marysol, Miss Nine, Ginger and Covergirl Sunny. MC is Lex Empress, VJ DNerve and there’s dancing by Entertainment Matters.

Panama, 23.00-04.00, sold out GLU #5 launch party Grit and glamour girls’ magazine celebrates five issues with a guerilla party. See Short List. Flex Bar, 23.00-05.00, €9

Saturday 14 April

Disco Hospital Disco Hospital The sterling underground party crew Spellbound mount a night of electro, techno, acid, minimal and wave, with DJs Trashling, Martijn & Toon and a performance by ReveRso in the main room.

Upstairs in the Chill Out Zone there’s DJs Kaseta, Dorthe & Adri. Visuals by AlexEtJeremy and Excessive Machine. OCCII, 23.00-late, €7

Sunday 15 April Transgender Café Transgender collective Noodles (www.n00dles.nl) organise a monthly café at Saarein for people with transgender feelings and their friends and admirers. Saarein, 17.00-00.00, free Furball café Intimate, friendly and justifiably busy night for furry men and their friends. PRIK, 19.00-01.00, free Easy Sunday Ease gently out of the weekend with with live jazz & soul music. Soho, 20.30-02.00, free

Tuesday 17 April Bingo Evening Kimberly Clark & Miss Dela Vita (or Dolly Bellefleur) bring you a smutty evening of bingo.

Eyes down for first prize: a dildo. Let’s hope it’s a different one every week. Queen's Head, 16.00-01.00 Movie Night This week’s offering is Transamerica, Duncan Tucker’s surprise transgender blockbuster.

PRIK, 19.00, free Gay Prize Bridge Weekly gay bridge night using the Butler score. De Looier, 19.00-23.00, €5

Wednesday 18 April Bückstück.brutale Musik. Join Bückstück on a journey into the vaults of thought-provoking music. PRIK, 21.00-24.00, free

Amsterdam Weekly

12-18 April 2007

Iets met paradijs, see Ongoing

STAGE Opening Dance: Shrimps A performance by Simon Rowe and Dorit Weintal. Two people arrive in a deserted area full of waste and empty industrial buildings. Imagining themselves to have been sent there by supernatural powers, they embark on a mission, which turns out to be non-existent in the end. Melkweg Theater, (ThurSun 20.30), €8 Performance: Placebo A theatresport event. In Dutch. Crea Theater, (Fri 20.30), €6 Dance: Squirrels on the Loose Performed by Darija Dozdor and Ognjen Vucinic. OT301, (Fri 21.00), €5 Theatre: Schuur Second in Dood Paard’s series of plays about contemporary Holland is Schuur. A yuppie couple escaping from Amsterdam’s Grachtengordel attempt to start afresh on a small island—but they carry a dark secret with them. In Dutch. Frascati, (Tues, Wed 20.30), €12 Theatre: Maria Stuart Schiller’s drama in a production by Theatergroep Aluin, with Gabby Bakker in a double role as both Maria Stuart and her adversary, Queen Elizabeth. In Dutch. Theater Bellevue, (Tues, Wed 20.30), €15 Theatre: De Pelikaan One of August Strindberg’s four ‘chamber plays’ this is a family drama with expressionist and absurdist elements. In Dutch. De Brakke Grond, (Tues, Wed 20.30), €14 Music/Theatre: Woyzeck The unconventional Icelandic theatre company present this contemporary reinterpretation of Georg Büchner’s tragedy of the common man. Mixing dramatic brain-quaking music by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis with breathtaking acrobatics and oodles of suspense, Vesturport Theatre have already proven to live up to international hype and now intend to bamboozle Amsterdam. In English. Het Muziektheater, (Wed 20.15), €15-€40 Music/Theatre: Diamonds and Pearls Music theatre group Het Groot Niet Te Vermijden trample through music history, defying the borders between art and kitsch, purity and persiflage. Performing for 20 years, they now celebrate their anniversary with a gleeful show that presents the highlights of their repertoire.

De Kleine Komedie, (Wed 20.15), €15.50- €19.50 Theatre: Tweede Toneelschrijflente Theatrical surprises in the opening of the spring series. De Balie, (Mon 17.00), free

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Job Koelewijn, see Opening

Ongoing Cabaret: Open Podium For talents and wannabes of all kinds. Crea Muziekzaal, (Thur 21.00), free Theatre: ECO Dood Paard presents a series of three plays that all deal, in one way or another, with the state of the nation. Starting point is ECO, a play about the Dutch’s love for debates and business meetings, illustrated by the planning of a gigantic entertainment centre made entirely from natural materials. The people involved are enthusiastic at first, but tension grows until nobody is able to distinguish personal issues from business. In English and Dutch. Frascati, (ThurSat 20.30), €12 Theatre: Tragedie Written for a selection of actors from Toneelgroep Amsterdam, this new play by Gerardjan Rijnders is a montage of quotes, original texts and separate monologues, featuring a Greek chorus who watch with indifference as tragedies take place the world over. In Dutch. Compagnietheater, (Thur-Sat 20.30), €18 Theatre: Judas Now that Easter is over, theatre collective Mam decides to shift the attention away from Jesus and finally give Judas a chance to speak up after more than 2,000 years. In a one-man-performance, Han Kerckhoffs, attempts to present Judas’ deceit in a more human light, musing over the obvious themes of betrayal, guilt and repentance. In Dutch. De Brakke Grond, (Thur-Sat 20.30), €12 Theatre: Iets met paradijs With a funeral for a backdrop, four actors in the roles of diverse characters (including corpses and ghosts) deal with loss. In Dutch. Frascati, (Thur-Sat 21.00), €12 Festival: Amsterdams Kleinkunstfestival 2007 The AKF and the Wim Sonneveld Award are here to be won. Both have been an important stepping stone in many an artist’s career, so there may be some nerves on display during tonight’s final. In Dutch. De Kleine Komedie, (Mon 20.15), €12-€16 Improphecy Improv stand-up theatre. Club Meander, (Tues 20.30), €4 Dance: In Good Company The Movement Network presents three works: Vertu by Jennifer Hanna; Padam

by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa; and a new work by Celia Grannum. Podium Mozaïek, (Wed,Thur), 20.15, €12 Comedy: easyLaughs Comedy improv in English.

Two different shows every Friday night. Crea Muziekzaal, (Fri 20.30, 22.30), €10, €5 (late night) Theatre: Maeterlinck Marthaler’s new piece is inspired by Belgian writer Maurice Maeterlinck’s fairy tale De blauwe vogel (The Blue Bird), around which he creates a dreamlike universe filled with music. In Dutch. Stadsschouwburg, (Fri, Sat, Mon, Wed 20.15, Sun 16.00), €11.50-€25

ART Opening 25 Uitvergrote Stills Uit De Nooijer-films Alongside the exhibition of Nooijer film stills, the video installation ‘100 Years of Beauty’ is on display. Matching this are photographs of 100 people born between 1902 and 2002, illustrating the human circle of life. Filmmuseum (Mon-Fri 09.00-22.15, Sat, Sun one hour prior to show-22.15), opens Thursday, until 13 May Erotix: Red Threads of Passion Homoerotic artworks from Danish artists Knud Odde, Jens Birkemose and Peter Skovgaard. Galerie Jos Art (Tues-Sun 11.0017.30), opens Friday, until 30 May Polska Seven artists present a contemporary vision of Poland through photography, video and music. WM Gallery (Thur-Sat 14.00-18.00), opens Friday, until 26 May Primavera 2007 A group exhibition featuring 10 contemporary artists from Italy, the UK and the Netherlands. The themes of renewal and ‘first truth’ have inspired a range of works in diverse disciplines and media, from artefacts and painting to photography, sound and digital projection. Punt WG (Fri, Sat 15.00-19.00, Sun 14.00-18.00), opens Friday, until 29 April

John Lurie: All-Stars of Voodoo Voodoo-inspired paintings by the American all-rounder. Galerie Gabriel Rolt (Wed-Sat 12.00-18.00), opens Saturday, until 13 May Modern Solitude A group exhibition dealing with various facets of the modern individual’s solitary existence. These include the urge to inject meaning into life via spirituality, sexuality and physicality. Participants include Eylem Aladogan, Natalia Benedetti, Job Koelewijn, Gabriel Lester, Renzo Martens, Shana Moulton and Berend Strik. Galerie Fons Welters (TuesSat 13.00-18.00), opens Saturday, until 19 May Voorbijsnellend Ogenblik By placing two images next to each other that are seemingly similar, but which are in fact polar opposites, photographer Lucienne van der Mijle tells her own story of Japan and its contrasts between tradition and modernity. Melkweg Galerie (Wed-Sun 13.00-20.00), opens Saturday, until 6 May UitZicht An ArtWalk Amsterdam presentation that will guide you through a selection of studios, homes and gardens in the Westerpark area. Curated by Guda Koster and Matthijs Muller, the tour incorporates artists such as Hamid El Kanbouhi, Aam Solleveld, Jans Muskee, Linda Molenaar, Wim Bosch, Jan Theun van Rees, Frank Mandersloot, Paul de Reus, among others. To see route or download the accompanying audio tour see www.artwalkamsterdam.nl. Van Hallstraat 51 (Daily), opens Sunday, until 17 June

SIZE matters! Images of buildings and constructions from 1955 to 1985, illustrating Amsterdam’s unique urban development. Zuiderkerk (Mon-Fri 09.00-16.00, Sat 12.00-16.00), opens Friday, until 16 May Telcosystems: Meta_Epics II Unique audio-visual computer art from international trio Telcosystems.

With self-developed software, these systems allow computers to generate and compose image and sound, meaning the artists use almost no source material that stems from outside the machines. TAG Den Haag (Wed-Sat 12.00-17.00), Den Haag, opens Friday, until 5 May Genesis An examination of the similarities between art and science. While the two fields may have entirely different objectives, the results of their work on information look remarkably alike. Participating artists and scientists include Ad Dekkers, Mark Dion, Edo Dooijes, Erwin Driessens & Maria Verstappen, Charles & Ray Eames, Ed Emschwiller and George Gessert, amongst others.

Centraal Museum (Tues-Thur, Sat, Sun 12.00-17.00, Fri 12.00-21.00), Utrecht, opens Saturday, until 12 August Ingo Meller New works by the conceptual German painter. Slewe Gallery (Tues-Sat 14.00-17.00), opens Saturday, until 19 May

Dutch Eyes Dutch Eyes The relocated photography museum reopens with a broad overview of Dutch photography.

See Short List. Nederlands Fotomuseum (Tues-Fri 10.00-17.00, Sat, Sun 11.00-17.00), Rotterdam, opens Wednesday, until 26 August

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Amsterdam Weekly

Museums Istanbul From Byzantium to the Ottomans, from Constantinople to Istanbul: the exhibition focuses on Ottoman heritage, displaying nearly 300 treasures of the sultans, including exhibits from Topkapi Palace Museum. Nieuwe Kerk (Thur 10.00-22.00, Fri-Wed 10.00-18.00), closing Sunday Het Schaduwkabinet: Parts I & II In The Ghost of James Lee Byars Calling, the Berlin-based American artist Erik Smith fuses work by conceptual performance artist James Lee Byars with imagery from the black and death metal scenes to reflect Byars’ preoccupation with his own death. Route A1 is a playful project exploring the tension between uniqueness and reproduction through 10 artists’ creations of A1 posters. De Appel (Tues-Sun 11.00-18.00), closing Sunday Steven Shearer The motifs for many of this Canadian artist’s colourful canvases come from the obscure, suburban subculture of the American heavy metal scene and its various Scandinavian offshoots. Not something you’d typically find in a gallery, the satanic imagery and scenes of violence are nevertheless fascinating. De Appel (Tues-Sun 11.00-18.00), closing Sunday

12-18 April 2007 feel of cities. Nederlands Architectuurinstituut (TuesSat 10.00-17.00. Sun 11.00-17.00), Rotterdam, until 6 May Behind the Curtains Fifteen innovative architectural designs by Willem Jan Neutelings and Michiel Riedijk, whose expressive buildings are icons within cities, appreciated equally by tenants and passers-by. Museum Hilversum (Tues-Sat 11.00-17.00, Sun 12.00-17.00), Hilversum, until 6 May Che! An analysis of the posterboy for the revolution, whose starting point is Korda’s 1960 portrait. Tropenmuseum (Daily 10.00-17.00), until 6 May Vergessene Fahnen (Forgotten Flags) German artist Florian Thalhofer presents an interactive road movie and photos as he gives an account of fellow countrymen who, months after the World Cup football in 2006, are still displaying the national flag proudly— an act previously feared for its association with right-wing nationalism. Also enjoy specially imported Bavarian beer and learn how to eat Weißwurst. Mediamatic (Wed-Fri 18.00-23.00), until 11 May Beauty and the Bead: From Madonna to the Maasai This first exhibition ever to focus on beads as a worldwide phenomenon features beaded costumes from every epoch and all corners of the earth. Tropenmuseum (Tues-Sat 10.00-17.00, Sun 12.00-17.00), until 13 May Joan Colom: El Raval A selection of work by the Spanish photographer, featuring 84 black-and-white pictures from 1958 to 1961, all taken during Colom’s nearly daily visits to Barcelona’s Barrio Chino district.

Known today as the Raval, the neighbourhood was once a centre of prostitution and crime. Foam (SunWed 10.00-17.00, Thur, Fri 10.00-21.00), until 13 May The Rise A work by German artists Nina Fischer and Maroan el Sani, realised during their five-month residence in Amsterdam’s Zuidas. Dealing primarily in the medium of film, they concentrate on the complex relationship between the visual language of a building, its psychological effects and the political-economic reality in which it functions. Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam (Tues-Sun 11.00-17.00), until 13 May

Erik Parker Erik Parker: Liner Notes Parker’s large-scale, colourful paintings stylistically fit into the tradition of ’80s graffiti, ’60s psychedelic album covers and comic strips. Often they depict a hallucinogenic world, but lying below is a sharp analysis of Western subcultures.

De Appel (Tues-Sun 11.00-18.00), closing Sunday Oog—Eye Images from WM Hunt’s collection which all have one thing in common—the subject is never looking into the lens. By showing people with their eyes shut or looking down, veiled or wounded, or with their face or body turned away from the camera, the photos prevent any sense of contact between the viewer and the subject, even in a close-up. Foam (Sun-Wed 10.00-17.00, Thur, Fri 10.00-21.00), closing Sunday André Villers Photos from the eight years the artist spent in Southern France. Some are taken in the studio of Picasso, whom he befriended there. Jan van der Togt Museum (Thur-Sun 13.00-17.00), Amstelveen, closing Sunday Ryan Gander: The Last Work A Docking Space event that sees Gander transform the space into a monochrome blue-painted room with an audio work playback. Visitors can experience a whispering girl express her thoughts on the nature of artistic practice and watch a video presenting the artist’s journey from his studio to his house. Stedelijk Museum CS (Daily 10.00-18.00), until 22 April Politiek in prent 2006 Last year’s political dramas in print. Persmuseum (Tues-Fri 10.00-17.00, Sun 12.0017.00), until 29 April Jan van der Heyden The first monographic exhibition in the Netherlands since 1937 of one of the leading 17th-century painters of Dutch cityscapes. He was also fascinated by firefighting and is still remembered to this day by many as the inventor of the fire hose.

Rijksmuseum (Daily 09.00-18.00), until 30 April Grafiek portfolio Ten internationally renowned artists offer new works in support of the museum’s renewal.

Eberhard Havekost, Sarah Morris, Dirk Skreber, Jonathan Meese, Daniel Richter, Gert and Uwe Tobias, Angus Fairhurst, Luc Tuymans, Wilhelm Sasnal and Michael Raedecker have all signed their pieces, available in a limited printing of 100 portfolios. All profits go towards costs for the museum’s new building.

Stedelijk Museum CS (Daily 10.00-18.00), until 1 May Architecture of the Night: Luminous Buildings A voyage into the dark night and the beautiful buildings and lighting designs that can transform the look and

Mapping the City This group exhibition focuses on the relationship between artists and the city from 1960 to the present day. Participating artists include Doug Aitken, Francis Alÿs, Stanley Brouwn, Matthew Buckingham, Philip Lorca diCorcia and many more.

Stedelijk Museum CS (Daily 10.00-18.00), until 20 May Ten Klooster: A Man With Two Lives Showing over 50 works by the Indonesian-Dutch artist Ten Klooster, varying from paintings to wood engravings. Tropenmuseum (Daily 10.00-17.00), until 20 May Robert Capa: Retrospective Taking a broad look at the work of Robert Capa (1913-1954), the legendary war photographer and founder of modern photojournalism. His photos of the Spanish Civil War and D-Day are etched in everyone’s memory and have shaped our image of the 20th century. Joods Historisch Museum (Daily 11.00-17.00), until 20 May Eva Besnyö: Unknown Photos Work by Eva Besnyö (1910-2003) has featured in countless publications and exhibitions. Yet after her death, many still unknown and previously unpublished photos were discovered in her archive. This exhibition presents a selection of these photos, underscoring her reputation as one of the greatest photographers in the Netherlands. Joods Historisch Museum (Daily 11.00-17.00), until 20 May Rembrandt in Berlin Excerpts from the worldrenowned collection of Rembrandt drawings from Berlin’s Kupferstichkabinett. Rembrandthuis (Daily 10.00-17.00), until 27 May Miriam Bäckström & Ursula Mayer Films by Austrian artist Mayer and Swedish artist Bäckström in collaboration with the Impakt Festival. Centraal Museum (Tues-Sun 11.00-17.00), Utrecht, until 28 May Moderniteit in de Tropen: Architectuur in Nederlands-Indië This collection features photographs, drawings and maquettes from Indonesia between 1850 and 1950. Nederlands Architectuurinstituut (Tues-Sat 10.00-17.00, Sun 11.00-17.00), Rotterdam, until 3 June Lucebert. Drawings Gouaches, drawings in Indian ink and works on paper in mixed media, dating from 1948 to 1993. There’s also an accompanying publication with text (in Dutch and English) by the Dutch author Cyrille Offermans. CoBrA Museum (Tues-Sun 11.00-17.00), until 3 June Flowers Under the Magnifying Glass: A Homage to Linnaeus A celebration of the 300th anniversary of the Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778), who studied and worked in the Netherlands from 1735 to 1738. In collaboration with the National Herbarium Nederland, this exhibition provides an overview of depictions of flowers, mainly by Dutch artists or artists

who worked in the Netherlands. Teylers Museum (Tues-Sat 10.00-17.00, Sun 12.00-17.00), Haarlem, until 3 June Brave New World Works by contemporary Spanish, Russian and Dutch artists, who level criticisms at Western society and its democratic system in a disturbing, ironic or sarcastic manner. Participating artists include El Perro (SP), AES+F (Russia) and the Dutch artists Marc Bijl, Jeroen Jongeleen and Renzo Martens.

CoBrA Museum (Tues-Sun 11.00-17.00), until 3 June Lights & Drawings Light and shadow are the literal and figurative focus of this exhibition by the New Yorkbased artist and activist Paul Chan. His projections, together with charcoal drawings, collages and digital studies are presented in six rooms. Stedelijk Museum CS (Daily 10.00-18.00), until 10 June De Engelse Kerk op het Begijnhof: 1607-2007 Exhibition marking the 400th anniversary of the English Reformed Church. Amsterdams Historisch Museum (Mon-Fri 10.00-17.00, Sat, Sun 11.00-17.00), until 17 June The Apocalypse of Max Beckmann A nice companion piece to the collection on display at the Van Gogh Museum, this series features 27 lithographs from the German expressionist, all inspired by the Biblical apocalypse. Featured are two versions: the series of original lithographs in black and white and the lithographs that Beckmann himself painted in watercolours. Bijbels Museum (Mon-Sat 10.00-17.00, Sun 11.00-17.00), until 19 August Max Beckmann in Amsterdam, 1937-1947 An extensive retrospective of the work produced by the artist during his years in Amsterdam. One of the most distinguished German artists of the 20th century,Beckmann fled to the city in 1937 after the Nazis had labelled his paintings entartete kunst. His works bear witness to his interest in the world of cabaret, Dutch landscape and life in Amsterdam. Van Gogh Museum (Sat-Thur 10.0018.00, Fri 10.00-22.00), until 19 August Scenes and Traces A lengthy exhibition focussing on three parts of the Stedelijk Museum collection: design, video and photography. Stedelijk Museum CS (Daily 10.00-18.00), until 25 November

Galleries Gianni Caravaggio Installations by the Italian artist.

Galerie Paul Andriesse (Tues-Fri 11.00-18.00, Sat 14.00-18.00), closing Saturday Morag Keil: Re Source This New acrylic paintings from the very young British artist. Grimm Fine Art (Tues-Sat 13.00-18.00), closing Saturday

Amsterdam Weekly

LEKKER BEZIG ‘The story is that K L A A S W E E R T A N D interprets American politics and culture as we have been able to RAE WITVOET being essentially narsecure two public art Public Curators cissistic. One of the spaces in the middle of works is a deconstructAmsterdam: nine large ed Uncle Sam which window display boxes blends ready-made, at Rembrandtplein pop and conceptual [on] Utrechtsestraat— styles simultaneously. in the former ABN ‘In the seventeenth AMRO bank—and century, the conveneight vitrines at the tional wisdom was ABN AMRO building that art should be ter on Vijzelstraat. The lering en de vermaak— bank used to show for education and work from their own entertainment. We are art collection, but the excited about the fact building on Remthat anyone can see brandtplein no longer our work at any time, belongs to them, and and that intimidating plans are to sell the building on Vijzel- ‘We like the idea of making factors like going to a gallery and having to straat at the end of the art accessible again’ interact with the year or next year. gallery people have ‘Obviously, we are been eliminated. very excited about this opportunity ‘Years ago, a New York writer because we have a forum to literally showdescribed the huge galleries in New York case our work. For years, we have as the new churches for the new religion: organised our own exhibitions “Out of the one must be quiet and respectful in the White Box”, as we were always producing “White Box” where the “Gods” are showing too much work for one gallery to handle. their absurdly expensive works of art.

‘We call our work “Neo Neo Conceptual Only a handful of insiders—the new Pop”, indicating that we recycle certain “High Priests”—chooses the gods; for the art ideas or concepts, and styles or moverest of us, it’s a leap of faith. We like the ments, particularly from the last idea of making art accessible again, we thirty-five years. even sometimes choose conventional Our next exhibition at Rembrandtmeans of representation for that very purplein is called White Wash if What Went pose.’

Wrong, an exhibition that culls ideas and work from the last ten years when we were www.amovablefeast.net living in the Midwest (the so-called Bible Belt). We started to see what was happening in the US from within, and our work

By Mark Wedin

mechanisms of human conflicts by staging impossible scenarios. To do this, he uses objects and figurines from cultures around the world, of varying ages and matter. Gallery Vassie (Wed-Sat 13.0018.00), closing Saturday Jan van Nuenen: Optimizer/Evolizer A solo exhibition featuring seven video animations by the new media artist, including the premiere of digital animation Evolizer. W139 (Mon-Sun 11.00-19.00), closing Sunday De Nieuwe Oogst Still life paintings for every desire.

De Kunstfabriek (Tues-Fri 12.00-18.00, Sat, Sun 12.0017.00), closing Sunday Dorothée Meyer Dorothée Meyer: Yokus Mahalleler A new solo exhibition from German photographer Meyer, who captures Istanbul’s suburbs and city streets. A challenge to viewers, her photos range from large diptych works featuring sweeping, high-angle views of building blocks, to small images displaying details of street furniture. Motive Gallery (Wed-Sat 13.00-18.00), closing Saturday Insitute of Nocturnal Light: Visual Resistenz Captured on film in a collection of videos is the everyday life of people during the organised 2006 resistance in Oaxaca, Mexico. Curated by multidisciplinary artist Gabriela León, this exhibition also features photos, sculptures and a sound installation that documents the movement. Other participating artists include Steven Brown (Tuxedomoon), Ana Santos, Bruno Varela and many more. iLLUSEUM (Sat, Sun 15.00 -21.00, Wed from 19.00), closing Saturday

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12-18 April 2007

Trialoog over Ruimte Albert de Wilde, Herman van de Poll and Fons Heijnsbroek explore the concept of space. Het Glazen Huis (Tues-Sun 12.00-17.00), closing Sunday Sleepless Mirrors: The Fields of Leshy and Kyra Drawings and mixed media by Ramona van Silfhout.

Supperclub (Daily), closing Sunday Bloeddorst Bloodthirsty comic art expo, a tie-in with a book of the same name. Galerie Lambiek (Mon-Fri 11.00-18.00, Sat 11.00-17.00, Sun 13.00-17.00), closing Monday Boghe Works by the artist who helped paint the MTV Europe Pimp My Ride garage. Wolf & Pack (Sun, Mon 13.00-19.00, Tues, Wed, Fri, Sat 12.00-19.00, Thur 12.00-21.00), until 20 April Craftwerk Contemporary French ceramics. Maison Descartes (Mon-Thur 10.00-21.00, Fri 10.00-17.00), until 20 April

Yvonne Mostard, Arie de Groot Recent work on paper and linen by De Groot; objects by Mostard.

Galerie Krijger + Katwijk (Wed-Sat 12.00-18.00), closing Saturday

Blackmail The artists of Red Stamp Gallery present a series of photographs, collages and 3-D objects, all erotically charged and with a focus on fetishism and the female body. With works by Christian Zanotto, Simone Lucietti, Ketra, Damian Boyall and Sonia Arata. Red Stamp Art Gallery (Tue-Sat 13.00-18.00), until 21 April

Histories/(Hi)stories… Photographs by Gérard Mermoz, in which the French artist explores the

Jens Wolf New paintings from the German artist, whose latest series features experiments with concen-

tric circles. Aschenbach & Hofland Galleries (Wed-Sat 12.00-17.00), until 21 April Fahrettin Örenli Recent works from the Turkish-Dutch artist. Dubbelbee Galerie (Wed-Sat 12.00-17.30), until 21 April Sipke Huismans New works. AdK Actuele Kunst (WedSat 12.30-17.30), until 21 April

Anouk Kruithof, Aram Tanis Two solo exhibitions: Kruithof presents a study of the psychological and sociological aspects of angst, while Tanis provides images from Japan. Amsterdams Centrum voor Fotografie (Thur-Sat 13.00-17.00), until 28 April Group Exhibition Marc Bijl, Lucy Wood, Katrina Daschner and others. Upstream Gallery (Wed-Sat 12.00-18.00), until 28 April Jakob Fioole: The Shape of Things to Come Paintings. AYAC’S (Fri, Sat 13.00-17.30), until 28 April ArtOlive Offline #2 Diverse works from three young artists: Erica Scheper, Marin de Jong and Douwe Dijkstra. ArtOlive (Mon-Fri 11.00-17.00, Sun 12.00-17.00), until 29 April Ars Macabra Holandica: A Celebration of the Fantastic A unique exhibit bringing together Dutch comic artists, illustrators, animators, photographers, designers, sculptors and painters, all sharing a love for the bizarre, the horrific and the fantastic. ABC Treehouse (Thur-Sun 13.00-18.00), until 29 April De Belofte An exploration of the autonomy of the art e//////lite with help from students of the Netherlands’ art academies. P/////AKT (Thur-Sun 14.00-18.00), until 29 April Van Huis Uit... The results of a research project by the Meertens Instituut about immigrant families and interiors of their homes. Imagine IC (Tues, Wed, Fri, Sat 11.00-17.00, Thur 11.00-21.00), until 30 April The New Black and White Four photographers with a refreshing take on traditional black-and-white techniques. Hup Gallery (Tues-Fri 12.00-17.00), until 1 May Hendrik Kerstens: Paula Kerstens’ photographs, said by some to bring to mind the paintings of Johannes Vermeer. Artspace Witzenhausen (Thur-Sat 12.0018.00), until 5 May New Horizons Subtitled Room for new Jewellery, this new gallery aims to cross borders both physical and metaphorical, and makes a start with the aptly named first exhibition. Galerie Rob Koudijs, until 12 May 50 jaar Galerie Espace Holland’s oldest gallery for contemporary art celebrates its 50th anniversary with an exhibition featuring a large number of their regulars, including the likes of Karel Appel, Lucebert, Roger Raveel, Lucassen and Jan Roeland. Galerie Espace (Wed-Sat 13.00-18.00), until 12 May Dark Mirror The differences between the actions of man and beast are not always as great as we like to think. This group exhibition of video art and film explores the relationship between our social conditioning and animal instincts, often depicting the prominence of human emotion and instinct over rational thought. Montevideo/Time Based Arts (Tues-Sat 13.00-18.00), until 19 May The Day After Yesterday A solo exhibition by Slovakborn artist Roman Ondák. It features three new video and photo works, which try to engage the viewer in a dialogue about what might happen if one takes another route, both literally and metaphorically. bak (Wed-Sat 12.00-17.00, Sun 13.00-17.00), Utrecht, until 27 May

Marc Ruygrok, Rob Regeer Sculptures and drawings

by Ruygrok and mixed artworks by Regeer. METIS_NL (Wed-Sat 13.00-18.00), until 21 April Tim Ayres Ayres’ exhibition On the status of the glass of water at its halfway mark features large-scale paintings that mix bold colours with text and design. Vous Etes Ici (Wed-Sat 12.00-18.00), until 21 April Mens-Wereld / Ode-Angst: Passage 2 An artistic quest for meaning and coherence among nature, society and culture. Arti et Amicitiae (Tues-Sun 13.0018.00), until 22 April SeaSideLight Artworks by Mathilde Cuijpers and Eric de Nie, inspired by the glorious light and atmosphere of the seaside. Arti et Amicitiae (Tues-Sun 13.0018.00), until 22 April Sirens Exhibition tracing the development of the siren from an instrument initially created for sound analysis into the role of auditory alert we’re more familiar with. Alongside a historical account, the exhibition looks at artistic appropriation of the machine, with participating artists presenting their own interpretation of sirens. 66 East (Fri-Sun 14.0018.00), until 22 April The Go-Between De Bijlmer plays host to The GoBetween, a series of art projects inspired by and taking place in the very heart of the district. Various locations, De Bijlmer, until 22 April Jonathan van der Putten Paintings. Horse Move Project Space (Fri-Sun 14.00-20.00), until 22 April Marketa Jirouskova Photography from her recent trip to the Ross Sea region of Antarctica on an ice breaker.

IISG (Mon-Fri 09.00-17.45), until 27 April

Job Koelewijn, see Opening David Goldblatt: Intersections ‘Intersections’ is the term Goldblatt (1930) uses for the human and ideological crosscurrents that make up South African society and that he captures in his photos—sharp yet subtle images of the nation. Huis Marseille (Tues-Sun 11.00-18.00), until 28 May W139/BASEMENT Providing opportunities for young artists and young art collectors, the Post CS basement is offering space to let at affordable rates for a onemonth period. At the end of each month, the exhibits will be auctioned. See www.w139.nl/basement.

W139/BASEMENT, until 24 June Whitewash of What Went Wrong A collection set in the window displays of the former ABN AMRO building restored as a public art space. Klaas Weert and Rae Witvoet introduce their second in a series of exhibitions entitled Neo Neo Conceptual Pop. See article above. Rembrandtplein (Daily), until 15 May

Amsterdam Weekly

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EVENTS Thursday 12 April Poetry/Music: The Open Stanza A mishmash of poetry, spoken word, music and performance, which offers an international collection of literary guests including Belgium’s Michel Delville, Berlin-based performance artist Lady Gaby, Dutch sensation Philip Fokker and UK rapper MC Jabber. Hosted by Australian poet Prue Duggan. In English and Dutch. Sugar Factory, 19.00, €5 Lecture: Józef Mrozek: A Tradition Imagined.

Some Remarks on European Design Amid the current debate on the need for a ‘European identity’, in this lecture, the Polish art historian Józef Mrozek focuses on the concept of a European design tradition. In English. KIT Tropentheater, 19.30, free Film/Music: Une Soirée Parisienne Featuring screenings of La Souriante Madame Beudet (1922) and Rien Que Les Heures (1926) as part of the Filmmuseum Biënnale 2007. Performing live soundtracks to both these works are violinist Finn Möricke, cellist Thomas Pitt and pianist Maud Nelissen. Concertgebouw, Kleine Zaal, 20.15, €30

Festival: DEAF07 See Short List. Various locations and times, Rotterdam, €7.50 per event, €30 day pass Multidisciplinary: Museum Weekend (See Saturday) Various locations, times and prices

Monday 16 April Discussion: Broeinest Entitled ‘Strategy evening on dangerous deals between NGOs and action groups’, tonight’s programme casts a critical eye on non-governmental organisations which make voluntary deals with commercial companies, thus leaving room for abuse and exploitation. In English and Dutch. Plantage Doklaan 8-12, 20.00, free Discussion: Women Inc Mireille Liong-A-Kong leads tonight’s discussion on ‘napptural hair’. In Dutch.

Pakhuis de Zwijger, 20.00, free Literature: Ian McEwan An interview with the English novelist, plus he’ll be reading excerpts from his new book On Chesil Beach. In English. Felix Meritis, 20.00, €9 Lecture: Lloyd Time on Mondays Comparisons between Western and Islamic philosophy and art, by artist and philosopher Maarten Cornel, and Turkish art historian and philosopher Asuman Kirlangic. Lloyd Hotel, 21.00, free

Debate: Iraq in Chaos Inspired by the book Irak in Chaos: Botsende visies op een humanitaire ramp by Pim van Harten and Roel Meijer, tonight’s programme looks at the past, present and future of a troubled nation. As well as the authors, guests include politicians, academics and journalists. In Dutch. De Balie, 20.30, €4 Festival: DEAF07 The current state of electronic affairs. See Short List. Various locations and times, Rotterdam, €7.50 per event, €30 day pass

Friday 13 April Festival: DEAF07 See Short List. Various locations and times, Rotterdam, €7.50 per event, €30 day pass

Saturday 14 April Lecture: Mondriaan & Van Gogh A lecture on Mondriaan and Van Gogh by John Leighton, previously the director of the Van Gogh Museum until his appointment last year as director of the National Galleries of Scotland. In English. English Reformed Church, 20.15, free Festival: DEAF07 See Short List. Various locations and times, Rotterdam, €7.50 per event, €30 day pass Multidisciplinary: Museum Weekend The 26th edition of the Museum Weekend again promises to be an extensive and action-packed event, with over 500 museums participating nationwide. Various locations, times and prices

Sunday 15 April Open Ateliers: Cultuurplekken Amsterdam Nu Amsterdam’s culture club espouses transparency. See Short List. Various locations, 14.00-17.00, free Film: Sprocket Sounds Classic clips from the most bizarre 8mm and 16mm celluloid collections. OT301, 20.30, €4

Marnix de Nijs, DEAF07 Festival: DEAF07 See Short List. Various locations and times, Rotterdam, €7.50 per event, €30 day pass

Tuesday 17 April Art/Talk: Spring Blossom 07 An artist lecture from English artist Ian Kiaer. In English. De Ateliers, 17.00, free, reserve: office@de-ateliers.nl Poetry: Poeziecafé The energetic and philosophical poet K Michel is given carte blanche to curate the latest edition of the poetry café, inviting guests such as Geert Buelens, Astrid Lampe, Lizzy Timmers and Anne Vegter. In Dutch. De Balie, 20.00, €9 Festival: DEAF07 See Short List. Various locations and times, Rotterdam, €7.50 per event, €30 day pass

Wednesday 18 April Festival: DEAF07 See Short List. Various locations and times, Rotterdam, €7.50 per event, €30 day pass

ADDRESSES 11 Oosterdokskade 3-5, 625 5999 66 East Sumatrastraat 66, 06 4475 4773 ABC Treehouse Voetboogstraat 11, 423 0967 AdK Actuele Kunst Prinsengracht 534, 320 9242 Amsterdams Centrum voor Fotografie Bethaniënstraat 9, 622 4899 Amsterdams Historisch Museum Kalverstraat 92, 523 1822 De Appel Nieuwe Spiegelstraat 10, 625 5651 Arti et Amicitiae Rokin 112, 624 5134 ArtOlive Polonceaukade 17, 675 8504 Artspace Witzenhausen Hazenstraat 60, 644 9898 Aschenbach & Hofland Galleries Bilderdijkstraat 165C, 412 1772 De Ateliers Stadhouderskade 86, 673 9359 AYAC'S Keizersgracht 166, 638 5240 Badcuyp 1e Sweelinckstraat 10, 675 9669 bak Lange Nieuwstraat 4, Utrecht, 030 231 6125 De Balie Kleine-Gartmanplantsoen 10, 553 5151 Bijbels Museum Herengracht 366-368, 624 2436 Bimhuis Piet Heinkade 3, 788 2150 Bitterzoet Spuistraat 2, 521 3001 Blijburg Bert Haanstrakade 2004, 416 0330 De Brakke Grond Nes 45, 626 6866 Café Pakhuis Wilhelmina Veemkade 576, 419 3368 Café Sappho Vijzelstraat 103, 423 1509 Centraal Museum Nicolaaskerkhof, Utrecht, 030 236 2362 Club 8 Admiraal de Ruyterweg 56B, 685 1703 Club Meander Voetboogstraat 3, 625 8430 CoBrA Museum Sandbergplein 1-3, Amstelveen, 547 5050 Compagnietheater Kloveniersburgwal 50, 520 5320 Concertgebouw Concertgebouwplein 2-6, 671 8345 Consortium Veemkade 570, 06 2611 8950 Crea Muziekzaal Turfdraagsterpad 17, 525 1400 Crea Theater Turfdraagsterpad 17, 525 1400 DanceStreet 1e Rozendwarsstraat 10, 489 7676 De Looier Looiersgracht 40, 638 1412 Desmet Studios Plantage Middenlaan 4A, 521 7100 Dominicuskerk Spuistraat 12, 624 2183 Dubbelbee Galerie Gerard Doustraat 142-144, 623 2884 English Reformed Church Begijnhof 48, 624 9665 Escape Rembrandtplein 11, 622 1111 Felix Meritis Keizersgracht 324, 626 2321 Filmmuseum Vondelpark 3, 589 1400 Flex Bar Pazzanistraat 1, 486 2123 Foam Keizersgracht 609, 551 6546 Frascati Nes 63, 626 6866 Galerie Espace Keizersgracht 548, 624 0802 Galerie Fons Welters Bloemstraat 140, 423 3046 Galerie Gabriel Rolt Elandsgracht 34, 785 5146 Galerie Jos Art KSNM-laan 291, 418 7003 Galerie Krijger + Katwijk Lange Leidsedwarsstraat 198200, 627 3808 Galerie Lambiek Kerkstraat 132, 626 7543 Galerie Paul Andriesse Withoedenveem 8, 623 6237 Galerie Rob Koudijs Elandsgracht 12, 331 8796 Gallery Vassie 1e Tuindwarsstraat 16, 489 4042 Het Glazen Huis Amstelpark, 777 0908 Grimm Fine Art Hazenstraat 24, 422 7227 Heineken Music Hall ArenA Boulevard 590, 0900 300 1250 Horse Move Project Space Oosterdokskade 5 Post CS Hotel Arena ’s-Gravesandestraat 51, 850 2400 Huis Marseille Keizersgracht 401, 531 8989 Hup Gallery Tesselschadestraat 15, 515 8589 IISG Cruquiusweg 31, 668 5866 iLLUSEUM Witte de Withstraat 120, 770 5581 Imagine IC Bijlmerplein 1006-1008, 489 4866 Jan van der Togt Museum Dorpsstraat 50, Amstelveen, 641 5754 Joods Historisch Museum Jonas Daniel Meijerplein 2-4, 531 0310 KIT Tropentheater Mauritskade 63, 568 8711

12-18 April 2007 De Kleine Komedie Amstel 56-58, 624 0534 De Kunstfabriek Polonceaukade 20 (Westergasfabriekterrein), 488 9430 Lellebel Utrechtsestraat 4, 427 5139 De Levante Hobbemastraat 28, 671 5485 Lexion Avenue Overtoom 65, Westzaan, 0900-BelLexion Lloyd Hotel Oostelijke Handelskade 34, 419 1840 Maison Descartes Vijzelgracht 2A, 531 9500 Maloe Melo Lijnbaansgracht 163, 420 4592 Mediamatic Post CS, Oosterdokskade 5, 638 9901 Melkweg Lijnbaansgracht 234A, 531 8181 Melkweg Galerie Marnixstraat 409, 531 8181 Melkweg, The Max Lijnbaansgracht 234a, 531 8181 METIS_NL Lijnbaansgracht 316, 638 9863 Montevideo/Time Based Arts Keizersgracht 264, 623 7101 Motive Gallery Elandsgracht 10, 330 3668 Museum Hilversum Kerkbrink 6, Hilversum, 035 629 2826 Muziekgebouw Piet Heinkade 1, 788 2010 Het Muziektheater Amstel 3, 625 5455 Nederlands Architectuurinstituut Museumpark 25, Rotterdam, 010 440 1200 Nederlands Fotomuseum Wilhelminakade 332, Rotterdam, 010 213 2011 Nieuwe Kerk entrance on the Dam, 638 6909 Noorderkerk Noordermarkt 44, 626 6436 OCCII Amstelveenseweg 134, 671 7778 OT301 Overtoom 301, 779 4913 P/////AKT Zeeburgerpad 53, 06 5427 0879 Pakhuis de Zwijger Piet Heinkade 179-181, 788 4444 Panama Oostelijke Handelskade 4, 311 8680 Paradiso Weteringschans 6-8, 626 4521 Patronaat Zijlsingel 2, Haarlem, 023 517 5858 Persmuseum Zeeburgerkade 10, 692 8810 Petersburg Frans de Wollantstraat Plantage Doklaan 8-12 Plantage Doklaan Podium Mozaïek Bos en Lommerweg 191, 580 0380 The Powerzone Spaklerweg, 681 8866 PRIK Spuistraat 109, 06 4544 2321 Punt WG Marius van Bouwdijk Bastiaansestraat 15, 618 7848 Queen's Head Zeedijk 20, 420 2475 Red Stamp Art Gallery Rusland 22, 420 8684 Rembrandthuis Jodenbreestraat 4, 520 0400 Rijksmuseum Jan Luykenstraat 1, 674 7000 Saarein Elandsstraat 119, 623 4901 Skek Zeedijk 4-8, 427 0551 Slewe Gallery Kerkstraat 105A, 625 7214 Soho Reguliersdwarsstraat 36, 422 9936 Stadsschouwburg Leidseplein 26, 624 2311 Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam Rozenstraat 59, 422 0471 Stedelijk Museum CS Oosterdokskade 5, 573 2911 Stichting Het Orgelpark Gerard Brandtstraat 26, 515 8111 Studio 80 Rembrandtplein 70, 521 8333 Sugar Factory Lijnbaansgracht 238, 627 0008 Supperclub Jonge Roelensteeg 15, 344 6400 TAG Den Haag Stille Veerkade 19, Den Haag Teylers Museum Spaarne 16, Haarlem, 023 516 0960 Theater Bellevue Leidsekade 90, 530 5301 Tropenmuseum Linnaeusstraat 2, 568 8200 Uilenburger Synagogue Nieuwe Uilenburgerstraat 91, 427 8347 Under the Grand Chapiteau Next to ArenA, 621 1288 Upstream Gallery Kromme Waal 11, 428 4284 Van Gogh Museum Paulus Potterstraat 7, 570 5200 Volta Houtmankade 334-336, 628 6429 Vous Etes Ici Lijnbaansgracht 314, 612 7979 W139 Warmoesstraat 139, 622 9434 W139/Basement Oosterdokskade 5, 06 2427 6657 Westergasfabriek Haarlemmerweg 8-10, 586 0710 Winston Kingdom Warmoesstraat 129, 623 1380 WM Gallery Elandsgracht 35, 421 1113 Wolf & Pack 232 Spuistraat, 427 0786 Zaal 100 De Wittenstraat 100, 688 0127 Zuiderkerk Zuiderkerkhof 72, 552 7987

12-18 April 2007

Amsterdam Weekly

SOS saves our stomachs Smorrebrod Albert Cuypstraat 91, 675 1035 Open Tue-Sat 10.00-17.00 Cash There is such pleasure to be had from finding a new spot to munch lunch on the Albert Cuypmarkt. You may be thinking: what more surprises can this foodie area offer on top of what it’s already got? Well, dear reader, there are new treats lurking, as your Glutton discovered.

I awoke that morning with a strong desire for herring and smoked salmon: very Freudian, to be sure. Perhaps I need to spawn—it’s reputed that herrings are very good for male fertility—and raise a tribe of pot-bellied gluttons, all clamouring for food. (Shudder!)

My snout led me to Smorrebrod. Chef and owner Ingemal Modig is a courageous man: after working for a number of years at a particular restaurant, he was informed by new owners that they wanted a younger man. So, he left to set up shop on his own, and the result is this speciality lunchroom. It serves delicious Viking food, the famous smorrebrod open sandwiches, marinated herrings, salmon in aquavit and little Swedish meatballs that have nothing to do with IKEA. The open sandwiches, in particular, are edible artworks that delight the pelagically inclined palate by adding dill, red onion and crème fraiche into the equation.

You enter a high-ceilinged room and see wooden chairs hanging on the wall. Is it Bergmanesque symbolism? According to ancient Norse legend, a beautiful blonde giantess allows

THE UNDERCOVER GLUTTON Eggs stuffed with chopped shrimp, red onion and, topped with orange salmon roe and dill fronds, made me pause to contemplate the honest, pristine beauty. you to stand on her curvaceous hips in order to select your seat at Odin’s Table.

After this knave scanned da menu, he knew what to order. First, the SOS—a seafood platter

bearing different marinated tasties, all for €11.50; a whacking great basket of crispy flatbread—big roundels like prayer wheels—to slather with butter; some boiled potatoes; and a small bowl of

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little home-made meatballs. These were mildly flavoured and pleasant, very different from spicy Italian ones.

Then my attention was drawn to two oblong white plates, each with three small compartments that held my treasures. One contained eggs stuffed with chopped shrimp, red onion, crème fraiche and dill. They were topped with orange salmon roe and dill fronds, which made me pause to contemplate the honest, pristine beauty. The egg yolk was hard, yet was still a teensy bit moist, a detail that whispered of the care put into the preparation. They were delicious.

Next were two salmon rounds, one marinated in aquavit—which made the texture very soft— the other deeply flavoured smoked salmon, the really good stuff. I was instructed to eat it with the three boiled roseval potatoes that came alongside. Very Swedish.

The second dish held different kinds of herrings, presented in slices to facilitate eating small bits, one at a time, to savour the flavour. Mustard, dill and cream; a sweet-sour herbed herring, marinated with bay leaves, pimento, cloves, vinegar, sugar and salt. The layered flavours made my mouth water, even as each morsel was devoured.

Then an onion herring with a reddish colour. I sat back beaming. What a find! I was delighted with whatever surfaced before me.

Smorrebrod also puts on a Sunday brunch for €17.50: hot and cold Scandinavian specialities, and you can make and eat as many waffles as you like (booking for this glutton-fest is advisable).

The place is family-friendly and nicotine addicts should be advised that it’s non-smoking through and through. Hardened drinkers should be aware that while there are delectable smoothies, there is no beer. But with food like this, who needs drink? Skol!

Amsterdam Weekly

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Shooter

FILM Edited by Julie Phillips.This week’s films reviewed by Meredith Brody (MB),Shyama Daryanani (SD), Angela Dress,André Dryansky,John Hartnett (JH), Luuk van Huët (LvH),JR Jones (JJ),Dave Kehr (DK), Marie-Claire Melzer (MM),Mike Peek (MP), Jonathan Rosenbaum (JR),Marinus de Ruiter (MdR),Bregtje Schudel (BS),Ted Shen (TS) and Albert Williams (AW).All films are screened in English with Dutch subtitles unless otherwise noted.

Amsterdam Weekly recommends.

Festivals Filmmuseum Biennale This year’s Filmmuseum Biennale rejuvenates long-lost silent classics with new live soundtracks and revives the legacy of pioneering comedienne Mabel Normand. See article on p. 4. Filmmuseum Poolse filmlente A week-long festival of recent films from Poland, one of the more controversial new entries to the EU. Melkweg Cinema

New this week Ex Drummer A big ‘fuck you’ of a film, based on on a story by contentious, dissipated Flemish novelist Herman Brusselmans. See review on p. 24. (MdR) Het Ketelhuis, Kriterion Goya’s Ghosts Seven years have passed since director Milos Forman made his last feature, Man on the Moon, but Goya’s Ghosts wasn’t exactly worth the wait. Instead

12-18 April 2007

Wild Hogs

of focusing on one character, as he does in his masterpieces, here Forman wants too much. Painter Francisco Goya (Stellan Skarsgård) lived in turbulent times, and Forman shows all: the merciless rule of the Spanish Inquisition and the rise of Napoleon are intercut with Goya’s own misfortunes. As a result, the film never achieves the depth and richness of Forman’s previous work. A moral centre would have helped, but even there we have to fend for ourselves. Do we go for the impassive painter, his demented muse (Natalie Portman) or the lecherous monk (Javier Bardem)? The director can’t decide. (BS) The Movies, Pathé Tuschinski Normaal zijn we anders A documentary about Dionne, Fran, Bertus and Maurits, four actors with a developmental disability. Directed by Susanne Engels. 67 min. Het Ketelhuis Perfect Stranger Journalist Halle Berry poses as a temp to infiltrate the business empire of Bruce Willis, whom she suspects of killing her best friend. She winds up in a game of online cat-and-mouse. Directed by James Foley, with a minor role for Dutch model Daniella van Graas. 109 min. Pathé ArenA, Pathé De Munt

Still playing

whom claim to have been protesting on the streets before dictator Ceausescu fled, thus making the event an uprising. Insightful and funny, with spot-on performances, the film tells us more about current Romania than its light tone might suggest. In Romanian with Dutch subtitles. (BS) 89 min. Filmmuseum 300 Whatever the fanboys expected from Zack Snyder’s adaptation of Frank Miller’s graphic novel about the Battle of Thermopylae, it surely wasn’t Leni Riefenstahl-style war porn. The already risible contents of the book are magnified tenfold in the film, so that the Persians are portrayed as deformed, bisexual fundamentalists, while the band of 300 Spartans are engorged, gleaming warriors for the Greek way of life. Spotting your favourite political agenda isn’t too hard, but ultimately imbues too much importance into a flick which has a character proclaim that ‘freedom isn’t free’, while we all know from Team America: World Police that freedom costs $1.05. (LvH) 117 min. Pathé De Munt

Anche libero va bene

Broken Flowers Bill Murray’s minimalism as an actor combines with Jim Jarmusch’s as a writer-director to yield a certain redundancy, making this 2005 comedy Jarmusch’s starkest film to date. (JR) 105 min. Pathé Tuschinski

12:08 East of Bucharest ‘Was there or wasn’t there?’ is the central question—and the original title—of this feature film debut by director Corneliu Porumboiu. Sixteen years after Romania was freed from communist rule, a pompous small-time television host decides it’s time for a televised discussion on the revolution. The only two guests he can find are an alcoholic history teacher and an old man, both of

Anche libero va bene Italian family drama from Kim Rossi Stuart, told from the point of view of an 11-year-old boy whose mother disappears for weeks at a time, and whose father (played by Rossi Stuart) struggles to hold the family together. The Movies, Rialto

Bamako In a courtyard in a slum in Bamako, the

capital of Mali, the World Bank and IMF are subjected to a mock trial, accused of creating poverty in Africa.

Meanwhile, Melé, a bar singer, and her husband Chaka break up; another couple get married; the residents of the courtyard work and play alongside the abstract discussion of Africa’s economic malaise. Intriguing in

Five-Word Movie Review

THE FIRST DUTCH PORN FILM Pruimenbloesem, Rialto

both content and structure, the film was directed by Abderrahmane Sissako. In French/Bambara with Dutch subtitles. 115 min. Rialto Blood Diamond Just like the previous effort of director Edward Zwick, The Last Samurai, this film is a hackneyed action flick bearing a preachy message. It may look splendiferous on the big screen, and the intentions are noble, but the underlying tone is condescending and exclusively occidental, with Djimon Hounsou cast in a thankless role as a ‘noble savage’ and Jennifer Connelly as a goody-two-shoes American reporter. The only redeeming factor is Leonardo DiCaprio, who shines as a morally conflicted Rhodesian mercenary; sadly, his Bogart-worthy role doesn’t rescue this insipid flick, despite all the bling bling of the title. (LvH) 143 min. Pathé ArenA, Pathé De Munt Curse of the Golden Flower After wowing the international community of chop-socky lovers with Hero and House of Flying Daggers, Yimou Zhang is poised to bedazzle once again with Curse of the Golden Flower.

Aficionados of the work of gaijin like Segal’s or Van Damme’s will scratch their noggins, but the true connoisseur will appreciate the lavish lushness of the production design, the Machiavellian scheming within

Special screenings Boogie Nights In writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1997 film, a Los Angeles busboy (Mark Wahlberg) is plucked from obscurity by a patriarchal pornmeister (Burt Reynolds at his near best) to become a sex star. Anderson attempts to outdo Tarantino (in a fabulous late sequence with Alfred Molina) and to plagiarise a sequence from Raging Bull that itself quotes from On the Waterfront. But notwithstanding its occasional grotesque nods to postmodernist convention, this is highly entertaining Hollywood film-making, full of spark and vigour. With Julianne Moore, Don Cheadle, William H Macy, Heather Graham, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Nicole Ari Parker. (JR) 152 min. Rialto

while making up sardonic songs. When Elena’s little romance collapses, there’s a nightmarish drive back home on a highway dense with speeding trucks—a prelude to the nightmares ahead. In French/Italian with Dutch subtitles. (MB) 95 min. Rialto

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind Adapted by Charlie Kaufman from Chuck Barris’ fanciful autobiography, this 2002 feature charts the rise of a young game show host (Sam Rockwell in a knockout performance) who supposedly was also working as a CIA operative and assassinating enemy agents in Europe. George Clooney, in his directing debut, botches the spy plot by casting himself as Barris’ Agency contact and Julia Roberts as Barris’ Mata Hari lover. Yet the mounting delirium drives home Kaufman’s basic point: that a shadow government rules by bread and circuses. Screening with short films from Oaxaca’s Visual Resistenz collective. (JJ) 113 min. iLLUSEUM

Lost Highway It’s questionable how much Barry Gifford has benefited the work of David Lynch—either in furnishing the source material for Wild at Heart or in collaborating on this even more noir-heavy script— but this 1996 feature was Lynch’s most audacious break from conventional narrative since Eraserhead.

The enigmatic plot concerns a jazz musician (Bill Pullman) who inexplicably changes into a much younger garage mechanic (Balthazar Getty) after possibly killing his wife (Patricia Arquette). The wife seems to have been reincarnated as a gangster’s girlfriend (Arquette again), who pursues the mechanic. (JR) 134 min. Kriterion The Machinist Forget Robert De Niro’s tubbiness in Raging Bull and Renée Zellweger’s baby fat in Bridget Jones’ Diary—Christian Bale set a new extreme for body manipulation in The Machinist (2004) by losing 30kg for his role. While Bale’s skeletal frame is morbidly fascinating, his innate acting talent is the film’s biggest asset. Brad Anderson’s Lynchian tale of a traumatised factory worker whose insomnia is slowly driving him bonkers intrigues until the very end, when all the loose ends are tied up just a tad too neatly. (LvH) 102 min. Rialto

Fat Girl (À ma soeur) Catherine Breillat directed this 2001 meditation on adolescent female sexuality, investigating the relationship between two sisters on holiday with their parents. Elena, a beautiful 15 year old, is hot to trot, while Anaïs, a pudgy 12 year old, watches her pick up a handsome Italian at a café, then sneak him into their shared bedroom for the inevitable, heartbreaking seduction. Their selfinvolved parents are oblivious, and Anaïs takes refuge in banana splits and floating in the crystal-blue pool

Horror Express A unique early (1973) version of the now-classic movie plot of the human possessed by aliens. This particular monster, dug up in China in 1906, need only glance into its victims’ eyes to boil their brains and take possession of the corpse. Archeologists Christoper Lee and Peter Cushing transport their find on the Trans-Siberian Express; Russian army officer Telly Savalas is called in when events get out of hand. 90 min. Cavia

Once Upon a Time in the West Sergio Leone, famous for his spaghetti westerns shot in Spain, dared to invade John Ford’s own Monument Valley for this 1969 epic. He brought back a masterpiece, a film that expands his baroque, cartoonish style into genuine grandeur, weaving dozens of thematic variations and narrative arabesques around a classical western foundation myth. With Henry Fonda and Charles Bronson. (DK) 165 min. Cavia Peeping Tom In Michael Powell’s suppressed masterpiece from 1960, the German actor Carl Boehm plays a shy, sensitive British boy who loves movies with all his heart and soul because he knows what they’re really about—sex and death. This seductive, brightly coloured serial killer drama isn’t about the ‘problem’ of voyeurism as much as the sub-rosa fascinations of the cinema. It’s an understanding and at times even celebratory film—attitudes that scandalised critics years ago and are still pretty potent today. (DK) 109 min. Rialto Pruimenbloesem According to Rialto (which is having a sex theme month), the first Dutch porn film didn’t appear until 1982, when X-rated cinema owner Willem van Batenburg became dissatisfied with the quality from his foreign suppliers and decided to make his own. The film will be introduced by Van Batenburg, who is about to publish a memoir. 80 min.

Rialto Sepet A 19 year old Chinese street vendor sells pirated DVDs by day and writes poetry by night, until one day a 16 year old Malay schoolgirl arrives at his stall in search of films by Wong Kar-Wai. Director Yasmin Ahmad looks at how the two lovers negotiate their social differences in this 2004 Malaysian feature.

Subtitled in English. 104 min. De Balie Seul Contre Tous Gaspar Noé’s corrosive 1998 portrait of lumpen-proletariat xenophobia, alienation

and violence in France suggests a remake of Taxi Driver by Alain Robbe-Grillet, forcing us to share the edgy, vengeful fantasies of a bitter, unemployed, middle-aged butcher with a gun (Philippe Nahon).

Noé, a French film-maker born in Argentina, made a 40-minute narrative (Carne, also being screened) about the same character in 1991; this film, formally as well as ideologically, marks a considerable advance. Despite the extremely violent scenes at beginning and end, it is shocking mainly for the mental climate it reproduces, the foulness of language, the harsh accuracy of working-class iconography and the aggressiveness of its formal tactics, which are pressed to admirable didactic ends and calculated to make you squirm. In French with English subtitles.

(JR) 93 min. De Nieuwe Anita Sex Is Comedy This 2002 provocation from writerdirector Catherine Breillat is so perversely enjoyable it gives the lie to her image as a serious, politically incorrect purveyor of pornographic instincts. Here she parodies herself, casting Anne Parillaud (La femme Nikita) as the demanding director of an erotic film who’s after the money shot, encouraging her actors (Gregoire Colin and Roxane Mesquida) to do their simulated best—one bit involves Colin trying on fake erect penises for size. It’s all layered with the kind of delectable philosophising and psychologising only the French can get away with. In French with Dutch subtitles. (TS) 92 min. Rialto Shogun Assassin A hyperviolent 1980 re-splicing— and English-language dubbing—of a Japanese samurai epic about Lone Wolf (Tomisaburo Wakayama), who travels with his toddler son in search of revenge. This cult item served as inspiration for Quentin Tarantino—it appears on TV at the end of Kill Bill 2—while Wu-Tang Clan’s GZA used clips from the voice-over on his solo album Liquid Swords. 86 min.

De Roode Bioscoop

12-18 April 2007

Amsterdam Weekly

23 A slap in the face of good taste. Lovely.

Three morons and a decadent writer run wild and make bad music in a provocative black comedy.

VARIETIES OF WEST FLEMISH VERBAL ABUSE FILM Ex Drummer Opens Thursday at Ketelhuis, Kriterion

By Marinus de Ruiter

‘I wanted to show them crawling out of their dark holes,’ says Flemish director Koen Mortier about the introduction of the shabby characters in his debut feature, the pitch-black comedy Ex Drummer. The opening scene, which is played in reverse, shows three men, going

the decadent Imperial Court and the expertly choreographed fights, which are mesmerising to behold.

Tricked out with the richest colours, most opulent costume design and most Shakespearean plot of the year, the decline of an empire never looked better. In Mandarin with Dutch subtitles. (LvH) 114 min. Kriterion, Pathé ArenA, Pathé Tuschinski

The

Departed Director Martin Scorsese’s latest finds him once again in top form and at home in his favourite subjects: the underworld, money and clan loyalty. The Departed is based on the 2002 Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs and set in Irish-Italian South Boston. Mob boss Frank Costello (an exuberantly evileyed Jack Nicholson) runs the show; Matt Damon, as Costello’s police department mole, alternates between a poker face and a winning smile. But the police have their own double agent, Leonardo DiCaprio, whose slow disintegration is at the heart of this drama about doubling and deception. (JH) 152 min. Pathé ArenA, Pathé De Munt

backwards to the dirty, violent households they’ve just left. Mortier is fairly unapologetic in portraying them and their environment as cases of arrested development.

Koen, Jan and Ivan are looking for a drummer to join their rock group, one who can help them win the upcoming band contest in their hometown, Oostende. Cycling from the slums of the coastal town to the upper-class seaside resort, they barge into the luxurious apartment of famous writer Dries, whom

saga that also chronicles the turbulent era when black music (and the aspirations it expressed) crossed over to the cultural mainstream. Beyoncé Knowles, Jennifer Hudson and Anika Noni Rose are the Supremes-like trio, Jamie Foxx is their controlling, unscrupulous producer and Eddie Murphy, in a solid performance, is an oldfashioned R&B (‘rough and black’) star who can’t make the transition to a smoother style. (AW) 123 min. Cinema Amstelveen, Pathé De Munt Forever Heddy Honigmann’s latest film documents the life of the Parisian cemetery Père-Lachaise. But the film-maker can’t seem to make up her mind whether to make a film about Proust (one of the cemetery’s residents), a statement on art versus mortality or a portrait of the living visitors. Her quiet style of filming, using long shots and a static camera to allow the action to unfold, has worked well for her in the past, when you felt she had a connection with the people she filmed.

But in Forever, none of these approaches brings the talented Honigmann onto familiar ground. In French with Dutch or English subtitles. (MM) 95 min. De Uitkijk

Destricted Seven major contemporary artists and directors reflect on sex and pornography in this series of short films, recommended to viewers who are not easily offended by either hardcore porn or hardcore experimental art. Cinephiles will welcome the return of Gaspar Noé, who elaborates on the daring narrative style of his 2002 knockout Irréversible. In the segment ‘Impaled’, Larry Clark puts his head on his critics’ chopping block by staging auditions for an actual pornographic scene filmed by himself. Art aficionados will be pleased with Marina Abramovic’s beautiful reenactments of strange erotic rituals found in Balkan folk history. The remaining explicit contributions are by Matthew Barney, Sam Taylor-Wood, Richard Prince and Marco Brambilla. (MdR) 116 min. Rialto

Freedom Writers Idealistic teacher Erin Gruwell has found a highly unconventional way to connect with her unruly students: actually listening to them. After she hears of their rough lives, she grabs their attention by teaching them about the Holocaust. (One of her texts is The Diary of Anne Frank, which leads to questions such as: ‘Will Anne and Peter get together?’ and ‘When will Anne smoke Hitler?’) The story has its fair share of sentimentality and may be too educational to connect with the target group, but the film redeems itself with sincerity and strong acting, especially from two-time Academy Award winner Hilary Swank and the young actors playing her students. (BS) 123 min.

Pathé De Munt

Dreamgirls Elegant, unabashedly theatrical and packed with lush concert scenes, this musical by Bill Condon (Kinsey) is remarkably faithful to director-choreographer Michael Bennett’s Broadway hit about a black girl group of the ’60s and ’70s. It’s a soapy showbiz

Ghost Rider Maybe it was too much to expect any depth in a film basically revolving around a flaming skeleton on a motorcycle, but director Mark Steven Johnson works his Daredevil mojo once again to royally screw up. Nicolas Cage plays Johnny Blaze as a

they have heard used to play drums as a kid.

At first, arrogant Dries is appalled by this shameless attempt to take advantage of his high profile. Moments later, he realises that he, in turn, can use the poor bastards to provoke the literary establishment, while at the same time getting back in touch with the lives of ‘real people’.

Visiting their practice space, the grimy basement of Jan’s mother, Dries is captivated by the band’s primitive style.

He decides to take charge, although he can’t actually play drums. This is no problem for the trio, who explain their gimmick: they’re a handicapped rock band. Singer Koen has a lisp, bassist Jan, a stiff arm and guitarist Ivan is deaf—so an ex-drummer with no rhythm fits in fine. The first song they play is a relentlessly loud cover version of Devo’s ‘Mongoloid’. Immediately they realise they stand a good chance against their main rival, a band called Harry Mulisch, even though its singer has the biggest

zany redneck, Eva Mendes seems cast solely as cleavage, and the bad guys look like moping Goth kids who got rejected from The OC. The only inspired moment in the film is when Sam Elliott reveals himself to be the original cowboy Ghost Rider, but that doesn’t justify the fecklessness of this utter drabfest. (LvH) 114 min.

Pathé ArenA, Pathé De Munt

The Good German The Good German American reporter Jake Geismar (George Clooney) returns to Berlin at the end of World War II to cover the Potsdam Peace Conference. He hopes to find Lena Brandt (Cate Blanchett), a German girl he once dated, but when he does, he discovers that she is now having an affair with his driver, Corporal Tully (Tobey Maguire). Tully informs the Russians he knows the whereabouts of Lena’s husband Emil and will tell them for 100,000 marks. When he is killed, Geismar becomes determined to find out why everybody is so interested in Emil Brandt. The plot has many twists, most of them neither appealing nor surprising. Together with the beautiful film noir style, they apparently asked so much from director Steven Soderbergh that he forgot about character development.

Most of the characters look like noir figures, but not for one second can you imagine them having a life outside the story. While Blanchett is charismatic enough to hold her own, Clooney is definitely no Bogey. (MP) 105 min. Cinecenter, Pathé Tuschinski

The

Good Shepherd Director Robert De Niro deglamorises the profession of espionage in The Good Shepherd, viewing the CIA through the personal life of a fictional co-founder, Edward Wilson (Matt Damon). Almost by accident, Wilson becomes a key Agency figure, but his professional success is paral-

male genitalia in town.

At this point the film has already poured out huge loads of profanity and gross images over its audience. But as Dries explores the world of his new acquaintances, the viewer is treated to even more scenes of domestic violence, nauseating sexual fantasies and a seemingly infinite vocabulary of West Flemish verbal abuse (subtitled in Dutch).

Mortier adapted the film from Herman Brusselmans’ 1994 novel of the same name, and writer and director share an uninhibited style and a caricatured view of society. Although the film doesn’t always follow the original story, it is similar in contrasting the frustration and poverty in the lives of Koen, Jan and Ivan to the decadence and almost synthetic beauty that surrounds Dries. Mortier and Brusselmans are familiar with both sides of the tracks.

Ex Drummer has been criticised in Flanders for demeaning women, disabled people and the working classes. This is exactly the kind of comment the director was trying to provoke. Mortier has stated that he wanted to break through the indifference and ignorance of the cultural elite towards genuine social problems, with black humour as the means of achieving his goal.

The film is filled with hilarious scenes, but there is no sense of hope in the film—an essential aspect of black comedy, contrary to the Hollywood message of films like American Beauty.

Perhaps the only way the writer and the band members are able to connect is through loud music, which sharply intensifies the physical experience of the film.

Ex Drummer is like a slap in the face, yet that is what we should all expect from art from time to time.

leled by his perfectly executed personal lapse into isolation and paranoia. People expecting an in-depth exploration of the CIA will be disappointed: The Good Shepherd is less a history lesson than a film about the influence of fate and coincidence on the course of each human life. (MP) 167 min. Pathé De Munt Hannibal Rising It’s sad when an author sells his soul to Hollywood. Michael Crichton did it with The Lost World (the sequel to Jurassic Park), and Thomas Harris—creator of Hannibal Lecter—has done it with this prequel. Here we are witness to the genesis of this evil genius. Unfortunately, his birth isn’t that impressive.

Gaspard Ulliel (Audrey Tautou’s beloved in Un long dimanche de fiançailles) lacks the poise and sophisticated menace Anthony Hopkins lent the character.

Even while brutally slaying policemen, Hopkins remained graceful. Ulliel’s cruel butchery is often downright silly. (BS) 117 min. Pathé ArenA Hot Fuzz The creative team behind Shaun of the Dead, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, return with a vengeance in a buddy-cop flick that, like Shaun, is simultaneously a hilarious spoof and loving homage to a genre. Top bobby Nicholas Angel (Pegg) is demoted for making his colleagues look bad, but finds a crime wave in the sleepy hamlet of Sandford that only he can bring to justice, aided by his loyal sidekick PC Butterman (Frost). Frost and co-writer Pegg prove to be a well-oiled comedic machine, while leaving room for the rest of the star-studded cast (Martin Freeman, Bill Nighy, Billie Whitelaw) to shine. (LvH) 121 min. Pathé ArenA, Pathé De Munt

Inland Empire Like an unending zooming shot of a fractal, textured with fire and blood, or a Droste effect in the mirror hall of an insane asylum, the digitally shot Inland Empire both rises above and sinks below standard filmic and narrative conventions. It offers a hallucinatory carnival ride through the murky subconscious of David Lynch, which may prove to be a little too dark, incomprehensible or disturbing for the uninitiated or those with a short attention span. Those who persevere are rewarded

24

with a new masterpiece of modern art, an uncompromising experimental film and plenty to talk about afterwards.

(LvH) 172 min. Cinecenter, Kriterion It’s a Boy/Girl Thing High school enemies Samaire Armstrong and Kevin Zegers accidentally switch bodies—haven’t we seen that plot somewhere before?—in this tame teen comedy. With Sharon Osbourne as Zegers’ mother. 95 min. Pathé ArenA, Pathé De Munt

Jimmy Rosenberg—de vader, de zoon & het tal-

ent Who knew that down a flat country road, in a group of Sinti caravans in a dead-end corner of a nondescript Brabant town, lives one of the Netherlands’ greatest musicians? At nine, Jimmy Rosenberg was hailed as the new Django Reinhardt. At 15, he signed a million-dollar contract with Sony. Then when he was 18, his father was sent to prison for murder and Rosenberg fell into a well of despair, heroin and mental instability. This documentary by Jeroen Berkvens is a voyage of musical discovery and a tense father and son story, told with tenderness, insight and elegance.

In Dutch. (André Dryansky) 77 min. Rialto

Amsterdam Weekly The Last King of Scotland This compelling UK drama features a titanic performance by Forest Whitaker as Idi Amin, the brutal dictator who terrorised Uganda throughout the ’70s. A fictional young Scottish doctor (James McAvoy) follows his taste for adventure to Africa and becomes personal physician to the general, who’s just seized power in a military coup. Alternately charming and sinister, vulnerable and vengeful, Amin draws the naive young man deeper into his murderous regime, and by the time the doctor fully grasps the depth of Amin’s evil he’s complicit in it. (JJ) 123 min.

The Movies, Pathé ArenA, Pathé De Munt Das Leben der Anderen This Oscar winner by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck mostly deserves all the praise and admiration it has received. A study in the dehumanising effects of state surveillance, it focuses on two men living in East Germany in 1984: a playwright (Sebastian Koch) who attracts the interest of the state and a Stasi officer (Ulrich Mühe) whose loyalty to the socialist cause is starting to erode. Predictable and slightly distant, but also disturbing and effective. In Ger-

man with Dutch subtitles. (LvH) 137 min. Cinecenter, Het Ketelhuis, Pathé De Munt, Pathé Tuschinski, Rialto

Little Children Five years after his superb debut feature In the Bedroom, writer-director Todd Field returns with another story set in a close-knit community whose quietness makes the characters’ unhappiness seem like thunder. Kate Winslet and Patrick Wilson, both disenchanted with their spouses, meet in a public park with their toddlers, and a series of carefully arranged playdates allows them to nurse their unspoken infatuation until it finally engulfs them.

Meanwhile, a bitter ex-cop lets off steam by harassing a paroled paedophile who’s come home to live with his mother. As in Field’s first film, the characters are drawn with such compassion their follies become our own and their desires seem as vast as the night sky.

(JJ) 130 min. Het Ketelhuis Little Miss Sunshine In this offbeat comedy, a fractious family of misfits piles into an ailing VW bus and sets off for California so the youngest (Abigail Breslin) can compete in a children’s beauty pageant.

12-18 April 2007

Suffering each other along the way are her irascible grandfather (Alan Arkin), suicidal uncle (Steve Carell), Nietzsche-obsessed teenage brother (Paul Dano), beleaguered mom (Toni Collette) and abrasive dad (Greg Kinnear), a motivational speaker whose ninestep programme for success constantly aggravates the others’ sense of failure. As scripted by Michael Arndt, this isn’t much more than a glorified sitcom, but it deftly dramatises our conflicting desires for individuality and an audience to applaud it. Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris directed. (JJ) 102 min. Kriterion The Monastery: Mr Vig & the Nun The synopsis reads like a fairy tale: an eccentric old man, living alone in a castle somewhere in Denmark, has dreamt for years of starting his own monastery. Finally, the Russian Orthodox Church agrees to send down some nuns. Amongst them is the remarkable Amvrosija, who turns out to be just as stubborn as Mr Vig. After years of neglect the castle is nearly a ruin, but Mr Vig and Amvrosija work hard to repair the building and make their dream come true. The process is filmed in beautiful, smoky images, yet Pernille Rose Gronkjaer’s documentary doesn’t tell much about the promised ‘special relationship’ between Mr Vig and the nun, which should be the most interesting part. Maybe the camera wasn’t looking, or maybe it just wasn’t there. In Danish with Dutch subtitles. (MM) 85 min. Het Ketelhuis, De Uitkijk Munich Steven Spielberg made us feel exhilarated about killing Arabs with Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981); a quarter of a century later he’s decent enough to have second thoughts, but he can’t find much to do with them in this mediocre thriller. Scripted by Eric Roth and Tony Kushner, it chronicles the grim mission of vengeance pursued by Mossad after 11 Israeli athletes were kidnapped and killed by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Olympics. Spielberg moves beyond the Zionist complacency one might expect, but Michel Khleifi and Eyal Sivan’s recent documentary Route 181 addresses the Arab-Israeli conflict with greater courage and curiosity. Munich may have value as an act of expiation but not as entertainment or art.

With Eric Bana, Daniel Craig, Geoffrey Rush, and Michael Lonsdale. (JR) 162 min. Pathé ArenA Music & Lyrics After years of playing shy romantic leads, heart-throb Hugh Grant is becoming an expert in portraying big spoilt children. In About a Boy he lived off the royalties of one popular Christmas song; in Music & Lyrics he recycles the golden oldies of a boy band called Pop (also the sound the hipbone makes during their trademark dance move). Like every other romantic comedy, this one is predictable, but the film is saved by Grant’s mild self-mockery, the chemistry between Grant and co-star Drew Barrymore and the hilarious video at the beginning of the movie.

(BS) 104 min. Pathé ArenA, Pathé De Munt, Pathé Tuschinski Namaste, London He is a typical boy from a village in Punjab. She is a Londoner who rejects the Indian lifestyle. He fell in love with her at first sight. She has set her sights on marrying her English boyfriend. Arjun (Akshay Kumar) and Jasmeet (Katrina Kaif) meet during the first trip ‘Jazz’ takes to India. Her father (Rishi Kapoor) arranges their marriage against Jazz’s wishes. Back in London, Jazz rejects Arjun and accepts Charlie’s proposal. But Arjun won’t give up that easily.

Go if you’re in the mood for yet another movie about Indian vs British lifestyles. In Hindi with Dutch subtitles.

(SD) Pathé ArenA Norbit Eddie Murphy returns to the multiple roles and prosthetic blubber of his Nutty Professor movies, playing a trio of grotesques: Norbit, a cringing nebbish with a bad Afro and a speech impediment; his battleax wife, a raging sea of cellulite; and his ageing foster father, one of those crude and insulting Asians who’ve become such a reliable comic type. This dismal comedy joins a growing pile of Murphy disasters, though Thandie Newton provides some visual relief. (JJ) 102 min. Pathé ArenA, Pathé De Munt Notes on a Scandal A bitter old history teacher at a wild English high school (Judi Dench) befriends an attractive young colleague who’s just arrived (Cate Blanchett), only to discover she’s having sex with a 15-year-old student. Adapted from a novel by Zoë Heller, this drama is both literate and urgently plotted, with a voice-over from Dench that cuts like broken glass. Her character is sly, controlling, desperately lonely and capable of anything, and when Blanchett’s secret gets out, a proper chamber drama explodes into something much more troubling.

Richard Eyre (Iris) directed. (JJ) 91 min. Cinecenter, The Movies, Pathé Tuschinski Nue propriété Isabelle Huppert plays a Belgian mother who feels her life is weighing her down. She decides to sell her house and, together with her new lover, start a bed and breakfast in the Alps. Left to their own devices, her twin sons take their abandonment out on each other in this film by Joachim Lafosse; the English title is Private Property. In French with Dutch subtitles. 105 min. Pathé Tuschinski

12-18 April 2007 Ober Absurdity reigns once again in Alex van Warmerdam’s latest feature, a hysterical tale about the many bizarre misfortunes of a waiter named Edgar (played by the director himself), who also happens to be the main character of a manuscript in the making. Reality and fiction coalesce even further when the badgered Edgar complains to his creator about all his mishaps and demands restitution. Van Warmerdam’s characteristic grim sense of humour and the many hilarious guest appearances by renowned Dutch thespians make this a film you’re not likely to forget. In Dutch.

(BS) 97 min. Het Ketelhuis

Offside

Offside Director Jafar Panahi shows the plight of six

girls who want to attend a football match but are sidelined by Iranian law. Despite its heavy subject matter, the film remains light-hearted, deriving its delicate touch from the absurdity of the situation. At one point a girl isn’t even allowed to pee, because there’s only a men’s room. The film is daring and insightful, but Panahi’s rebelliousness comes at a price. His films thrive in Europe, but his first feature has yet to be released in Iran.

In Farsi with Dutch subtitles. (BS) 93 min. The Movies

Our Daily Bread This may remind you of We Feed the World, the documentary by Erwin Wagenhofer that was released in the Netherlands last November. Like that film, it’s a behind-the-scenes look at how meat and produce make the transition from soil to supermarket. But Our Daily Bread is far more experimental, abstaining from dialogue and even music. Alternating shots from the work floor of a meat-packing plant with the same people silently eating their lunches, Austrian director Nikolaus Geyrhalter creates a mood of inevitability. He is not interested in opinions or politics, only in showing the bizarre, almost science-fictional way our food is produced in the 21st century. (MP) 92 min. Filmmuseum A Prairie Home Companion Director Robert Alt-

man’s final film has turned a popular American radio show into an enormously entertaining backstage comedy with country and western music. The movie takes

FILM TIMES Thursday 12 April until Wednesday 18 April.

Times are provided by cinemas and are subject to last-minute changes. Film times also at www.amsterdamweekly.nl.

De Balie Kleine-Gartmanplantsoen 10, 553 5151 Filmbanktour:A World of Make Believe Sat 20.30 Sepet Wed 19.30.

Cavia Van Hallstraat 52-I, 681 1419 Horror Express Fri 20.30 Once Upon a Time in the West Thur 20.30.

Cinecenter Lijnbaansgracht 236, 623 6615 The Good German daily 16.15, 19.30, 21.45, Sun also 11.00, 13.30 Inland Empire daily 16.30, 20.45, Sun also 13.00 Das Leben der Anderen daily 15.45, 18.45, 21.45, Sun also 11.00 Notes on a Scandal daily 21.45, Sun also 11.15, 14.00 La Vie en rose daily 15.45, 18.45.

Cinema Amstelveen Plein 1960 2, Amstelveen, 547 5175 Arthur en de Minimoys Sat, Wed 15.30, Sun 14.00 Beestenboel Sat, Wed 13.30, Sun 12.00 Dreamgirls Thur-Sat 20.30, Thur also 15.00, Sun 16.15 A Prairie Home Companion Tues, Wed 20.30.

De Duif Prinsengracht 756, , Atlantide Sat 20.30 Such Men Are Dangerous Fri 20.30.

Filmhuis Griffioen Uilenstede 106, Amstelveen, 444 5100 Lights in the Dusk Thur, Fri 21.30, Tues 21.15 Sophie Scholl Thur 19.00 The Way I Spent the End of The World Fri, Tues 19.00.

Filmmuseum Vondelpark 3, 589 1400 12:08 East of Bucharest Mon 22.00, Tues, Wed 21.30 Blow-Up Tues, Wed 21.45 Entoeziasm Fri 11.30 Exit Thur-Sun 22.00 Filmmuseum Biennale Thur-Sun The Floor Below Sat 10.00 Head Over Heels Fri 15.00, Sat 11.40 Holland Revisited Fri 18.00 Home Stories Thur 18.00 I Don't Want To Sleep Alone Mon 19.15 Man to Remember,A Thur, Fri, Sun 20.00, Sat 10.00 Molly 'O Thur 15.00, Sat 14.00 The Night of the Hunter Thur, Sat, Mon-Wed 19.45, Mon-Wed

Amsterdam Weekly place during a fictional last performance of the show, which has been cancelled by a Texas media conglomerate; as the numbers play onstage, an angel of death (Virginia Madsen) wanders the wings searching for her prey. These hokey plot elements provide an adequate structure for some of the funniest and warmest character improvisations Altman generated in years.

(JJ) 105 min. Cinema Amstelveen

Princess Half Japanese-style animation and half

live action, this Danish cult film tells the violent story of a priest’s bloody quest through the sex film industry to avenge the death of his porn star sister and the abuse of her five-year-old daughter. Princess is relentless in its portrayal of porn as a life-ruining business, raising the issue whether its director, cartoonist Anders Morgenthaler, should have toned down his moral judgement. Highly recommended for those not allergic to controversy. In Danish with Dutch subtitles.

(MdR) 90 min. The Movies The Queen Helen Mirren’s flinty performance as Elizabeth II won an Oscar, but equally impressive is Peter Morgan’s insightful script for this UK drama, which quietly teases out the social, political, and historical implications of the 1997 death of Diana, Princess of Wales. Shortly after the shocking news reaches Britain, Prime Minister Tony Blair (Michael Sheen) scores a PR coup by memorialising Diana as the ‘people’s princess’, while the royal family’s obstinate silence angers their grieving subjects. But Blair is more sympathetic to Elizabeth than many of his staffers, and he instinctively understands what she cannot: that in the tabloid age, celebrities are dangerously usurping the monarch’s hold on the public imagination. (JJ) 97 min. Pathé Tuschinski, De Uitkijk Shooter Steely Mark Wahlberg stars as an army sniper, coaxed out of retirement to foil an assassination plot on the president, who discovers that he’s the patsy in a government conspiracy. The story is often ridiculous, but director Antoine Fuqua provides plenty of fun distractions, including an evil Russian in a wheelchair, a conniving US senator (Ned Beatty) and a heroine who favours tank tops. (JJ) 124 min. Pathé ArenA, Pathé De Munt Shut Up and Sing On a stage in London in 2003, on the eve of the US-led invasion of Iraq, Nathalie Maines of Texas country band the Dixie Chicks infamously announced: ‘Just so you know, we are ashamed that

also 17.45, Fri, Sun 21.45 Ninotchka Thur, Sat 21.45, Fri, Sun 19.45 Objects of Desire Fri 9.30 Our Daily Bread Mon 17.15, Tues, Wed 17.35 The Robber Symphony Thur 10.00 WWW:What a Wonderful World Mon 21.45, Tues, Wed 19.30. iLLUSEUM Witte de Withstraat 120, 770 5581 Confessions of a Dangerous Mind Wed 20.30.

Het Ketelhuis Haarlemmerweg 8-10, 684 0090 De Avonturen van het Molletje Sat, Sun, Wed 14.30, Sun also 11.15 Ex Drummer daily 17.30, Thur-Sun also 19.30, 21.30, Mon-Wed also 21.45 Kruistocht in Spijkerbroek (NL) Sat, Sun, Wed 14.00 Das Leben der Anderen Thur, Sun-Wed 17.00, 20.15, Sun also 14.30, Fri, Sat 14.30, 19.00, 21.45 Little Children Thur-Tues 21.30 The Monastery: Mr Vig & the Nun daily 20.00, Thur-Sat, Mon, Tues also 17.00, Sun, Wed also 15.45 Normaal zijn we anders Thur-Sat, Mon, Tues 18.45 Ober Sun 11.45 Vreemde Vogels: City Slickers Sun 11.00.

Kriterion Roetersstraat 170, 623 1708 Curse of the Golden Flower daily 20.00, Sat, Sun also 16.00 Ex Drummer daily 18.15, Thur-Sun, Tues, Wed 22.15 Inland Empire daily 17.45, Thur-Mon, Wed also 21.00, Sat, Sun also 14.30 Little Miss Sunshine Sat, Sun 14.00 Lost Highway Fri, Sat 0.00, Mon 22.00 Sneak Preview Tues 22.00.

Melkweg Cinema Lijnbaansgracht 234A, 624 1777 Chaos Mon 20.00 The Cross-Way Café Fri 22.00 Destined for Blues Fri 22.00 Down Colourful Hill Tues 20.00 The Foundation Sat 20.00 It's Me Now Thur 20.00 Perfect Afternoon,A Sun 20.00 Poolse filmlente Thur-Wed Slaughterhouse I Sun 15.00 The World Is Waiting For Us Wed 20.00.

The Movies Haarlemmerdijk 159-165, 638 6016 Anche libero va bene daily 19.30, 21.30, Sat, Sun, Wed also 14.45 Beestenboel Sat, Sun, Wed 15.00 Ellen ten Damme Fri, Sat 0.00 Goya's Ghosts daily 16.45, 19.15, 21.45, Sun also 12.45 The Last King of Scotland daily 17.00, Fri, Sat also 23.45, Sun also 12.30 Notes on a Scandal daily 19.00, Sat, Sun, Wed also 14.15, Sun also 12.15 Offside daily 17.30, Sun also 13.00 Princess Fri, Sat 0.10 Shut Up and Sing daily 20.00, 22.00, Fri, Sat also 0.15, Sat, Sun, Wed also 15.30 La Vie en rose daily 16.15, 21.15.

De Nieuwe Anita Frederik Hendrikstraat 111, 06 4150 3512, Seul Contre Tous Mon 20.30.

the president of the US comes from our state.’ Oscarwinning film-maker Barbara Kopple records the fallout in this lively documentary, in which Maines emerges as intelligent and independent-minded, the kind of person you would love to go to the pub with—though maybe not while she was wearing her stage clothes.

(Angela Dress) 93 min. The Movies Sophie Scholl Sophie and her brother Hans, members of the White Rose resistance movement, were caught distributing anti-Nazi leaflets in Munich in February 1943, and were guillotined for their crime.

Recently released transcripts of Sophie’s interrogation by the Gestapo supply the core of this 2005 German feature. The first half is breathlessly suspenseful, as the siblings are captured and Sophie (Julia Jentsch of The Edukators) tries to outsmart her Nazi inquisitor. After she’s forced to confess, director Marc Rothemund doesn’t have much to do but marvel at her heroic defiance, and the film is overtaken by its talkiness, claustrophobia and polarised morality. In German with Dutch subtitles. (JJ) 117 min.

Filmhuis Griffioen

25

The Way I Spent the End of The World After years

of change and culture shock, Romanian film-makers are finally starting to portray the chaos of the 1989 revolution. This utterly charming and well-acted family portrait by Catalin Mitulescu is set in the last year before Ceausescu’s fall, when fear and repression were still part of everyday life. Small dramas are paralleled with the historical changes taking place in the background: teenager Eva falls in love with Alex, son of a Communist Party member, much to the dismay of her dictator-hating grandfather and her devious little brother. In Romanian with Dutch subtitles. (MdR) 106 min. Filmhuis Griffioen

Wild Hogs

Transylvania Director Tony Gatlif likes to make gypsy road movies—his most famous one being Gadjo Dilo—and his latest film is no exception. This time we follow female protagonist Zingarina (Asia Argento) to the Romanian region of Transylvania to be reunited with her boyfriend. When he rejects her and their unborn baby, Zingarina is inconsolable. Yet love lurks in unlikely places. It’s uncommon for Gatlif to feature a female lead, yet actress Biro Ünel (the anti-hero of Gegen die Wand) steals every scene. What Transylvania lacks in narrative, it amply makes up for in vibrant music and raw emotion. In French/Romanian/English with Dutch subtitles. (BS) 103 min. Rialto

Wild Hogs John Travolta, Tim Allen, Martin Lawrence and William H Macy are middle-aged motorcycle buffs who soothe their midlife crises with a crosscountry expedition to the Pacific Coast. In New Mexico, Travolta (goofing like he hasn’t since he played Vinnie Barbarino) inadvertently torches a biker gang’s roadhouse, and the bikers, led by a sublimely typecast Ray Liotta, hunt them down. Slack direction from Walt Becker sullies this formula comedy, but the cast is agreeable, particularly Marisa Tomei as the diner owner who falls for Macy, and Peter Fonda, turning in his second Easy Rider parody in weeks (the first was in Ghost Rider). (JJ) 105 min. Pathé ArenA, Pathé De Munt

La Vie en rose Any director would have had a hard time adapting Edith Piaf’s eventful life—filled with neglect, disease and death—into a 140-minute movie, yet Olivier Dahan eschews any pretence of coherence. Seemingly at random, he jumps through time, barely differentiating between important and less relevant events. We get to see the winning match of Piaf’s lover, boxer Marcel Cerdan, but not her role in the French resistance. Both Piaf and Marion Cotillard (giving a remarkable, fragile perfor mance as ‘The Little Sparrow’) deserve better. In French with Dutch subtitles. (BS) Cinecenter, The Movies, Pathé Tuschinski

WWW: What a Wonderful World Casablanca. Kenza is a traffic policewoman who makes money on the side by lending her cell phone to neighbours and friends, including a prostitute called Souad. Kamel is a hitman who calls Souad after each assignment, but often gets Kenza on the phone and falls in love with her voice.

Director Faouzi Bensaïdi (Mille mois) creates his own style while mixing film noir, animation, romantic comedy, silent movies and other film genres to tell the story of Kamel and Kenza. His use of choreography, from traffic control to how people walk, makes this movie refreshing and playful. In French/Arabic with Dutch subtitles. (SD) 90 min. Filmmuseum

OT301 Overtoom 301, 779 4913 Feed Tues 20.30 Kids Cinema Sun 14.00.

The Last King of Scotland daily 21.40 Das Leben der Anderen Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 18.10, Sat 18.25 Mr Bean's Holiday Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 12.30, 14.45, 17.20, 19.40, 22.00, Sat 10.40, 13.15, 15.35, 18.10, 20.30, 22.50 Music & Lyrics Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 13.45, 16.30, Sun also 11.15, Sat 12.15, 15.00, 18.45 Norbit Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 13.45, 14.30, 16.15, 17.15, 18.50, Thur, Fri, Mon-Wed also 12.10, Sun, Mon also 10.45, Sat 10.10, 11.30, 12.30, 14.10, 15.00, 16.40, 17.30, 19.15 Perfect Stranger Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 13.00, 15.40, 18.15, 21.10, Sun also 10.25, Sat 11.55, 14.30, 17.05, 19.50, 22.30 Shooter Thr, Fri, Sun-Wed 12.40, 15.30, 18.30, 21.30, Sat 11.30, 14.20, 17.15, 20.15, 23.15 Sneak Preview Tues 21.30 Wild Hogs Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 14.15, 16.45, 19.15, 21.45, Sun also 11.40, Sat 10.50, 13.25, 15.30, 18.20, 20.50, 23.30.

Paradiso, Grote Zaal Weteringschans 6-8, 626 4521 The Eleventh Year Thur 23.00 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Thur 19.00.

Pathé ArenA ArenA Boulevard 600, 0900 1458 300 (IMAX) daily 16.00, 18.45, 21.30, Thur, Fri, Mon, Tues also 13.15, Sat, Sun also 10.30 Arthur en de Minimoys Sat, Sun, Wed 13.25, Sat, Sun also 11.05 Beestenboel Sat, Sun, Wed 15.35, Sat, Sun also 10.50 Blood Diamond Thur, Fri, Sat 21.00 Cilgin Dersane Sat, Sun, Wed 15.40 Curse of the Golden Flower daily 12.25, 15.10, 17.45, 20.15, Sat, Sun also 10.00 The Departed daily 20.30 Ernst, Bobbie en de geslepen Onix Sat, Sun, Wed 12.00, 13.40, Sat, Sun also 10.15 Flushed Away (NL) Sat, Sun 10.05, 14.10 Ghost Rider daily 13.30, 16.05, 19.10, 21.50, Sat, Sun also 10.55 Hannibal Rising daily 18.20, Thur, Fri, Mon, Tues also 13.00, 15.40 Hot Fuzz daily 13.10, 15.55, 18.50, 21.35, Sat, Sun also 10.25 It's a Boy/Girl Thing daily 12.00, 14.15, 16.30, 18.55, 21.20 The Last King of Scotland Sun-Wed 21.00 Mr Bean's Holiday daily 12.50, 15.00, 17.20, 18.30, 19.30, 21.40, Thur-Tues also 16.20, Thur-Mon, Wed also 20.45, Thur, Fri, Mon, Tues also 11.50, 14.00, Sat, Sun also 10.40, 12.00, Wed also 11.55 Munich Tues 13.30 Music & Lyrics daily 18.00, Thur, Fri, Mon also 12.40, 15.35, Sat, Sun, Wed also 13.05 Namaste, London daily 18.10, 21.10, Thur, Fri, Mon, Tues also 12.15, 15.15, Sat, Sun, Wed also 15.20 Night at the Museum (IMAX) Sat, Sun, Wed 13.15 Norbit daily 12.10, 14.35, 17.00, 19.35, 22.00 Perfect Stranger daily 13.45, 16.15, 19.20, 21.55, Sat, Sun also 11.15 Shooter daily 13.25, 16.10, 19.00, 21.45, Sat, Sun also 10.35 Sneak Preview Tues 21.00 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Wed 14.05, 16.10 Wild Hogs daily 12.35, 14.55, 17.15, 19.45, 22.05, Sat, Sun also 10.10.

Pathé De Munt Vijzelstraat 15, 0900 1458 300 Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 12.15, 13.15, 15.10, 16.00, 17.50, 20.45, Thur, Fri also 18.45, 21.20, Sat 10.15, 11.15, 13.00, 14.00, 16.15, 16.55, 19.05, 19.40, 21.50, 22.40, Sun, Mon, Wed also 18.40, Sun also 10.30 Babel Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 20.15, Sat 22.10 Beestenboel Sat 10.30, 12.45, 15.15, Sun 12.55, 15.10 Blood Diamond Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 21.15, Sat 21.30 The Departed Sun, Mon, Wed 21.20 Dreamgirls Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 12.25, 15.15, Sat 12.30, 15.25 Freedom Writers Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 17.25, Thur, Fri, Mon-Wed also 12.05, 14.50, Sat 17.45 Ghost Rider Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 13.35, 16.15, 19.05, 21.50, Sun also 10.55, Sat 11.05, 13.40, 16.25, 19.30, 22.20 The Good Shepherd Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 20.00, Sat 21.15 Hot Fuzz Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 12.05, 15.00, 18.00, 21.00, Sat 11.00, 13.50, 16.45, 20.00, 23.00 It's a Boy/Girl Thing daily 19.20, Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed also 14.00, 17.00, Sun also 11.40, Sat 11.45, 14.10, 16.35

Pathé Tuschinski Reguliersbreestraat 34, 0900 1458 Because I Said So Wed 20.45 Broken Flowers Thur, Tues 13.30 Curse of the Golden Flower daily 16.15, 21.30 The Good German daily 21.45, Thur, Tues also 16.10, Fri-Mon, Wed also 12.30 Goya's Ghosts daily 12.45, 15.40, 18.50, 21.40 Das Leben der Anderen daily 12.10, 15.20, 21.10 Der Mandarin Sun 10.30 Mr Bean's Holiday Thur-Tues 21.00, Thur-Sat, Mon, Tues also 13.30, 16.00, 18.30, Sun also 14.15, 16.30, 18.45, Wed also 12.30, 15.00, 17.30 Music & Lyrics daily 18.20 Notes on a Scandal daily 13.45, 19.10 Nue propriété daily 18.40, Thur-Tues also 15.30, 21.20 The Queen Thur-Tues 12.30 La Vie en rose daily 19.00, Thur, Tues also 16.00, Fri-Mon, Wed also 15.45.

Rialto Ceintuurbaan 338, 676 8700 Anche libero va bene daily 18.40, 20.45, Sat, Sun also 14.15, Sun also 11.45 Bamako Fri-Sun, Wed 16.30 Boogie Nights Fri 23.00 Destricted Sat 23.00 Fat Girl (À ma soeur) Sat 16.00 Jimmy Rosenberg--de vader,de zoon & het talent Sat, Sun 13.45 Das Leben der Anderen daily 19.00, Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed also 21.45, Fri-Sun also 16.15 The Machinist Fri 16.00 Peeping Tom Sun 11.00, Wed 16.15 Pruimenbloesem Sat 22.00 Sex Is Comedy Sat 14.00 Transylvania daily 20.00, Thur, Sat-Wed also 18.00, Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed also 22.00, Sat also 22.15, Sun also 12.15, 14.30, Wed also 15.30.

De Roode Bioscoop Haarlemmerplein 7H, 625 7500, Shogun Assassin Sun 20.30.

De Uitkijk Prinsengracht 452, 623 7460 After the Wedding daily 19.15 Forever Sun 15.15 The Monastery: Mr Vig & the Nun daily 21.30 The Queen daily 17.15.

Amsterdam Weekly

26

WEEKLY CLASSIFIEDS Ads are free, space permitting. They will be posted both to the paper and online. Guaranteed placement is available for a small fee; see our website for details. Ads may be published in English, het Nederlands or whatever language is best for you to communicate your message.

How to submit an ad: via our website at www.amsterdamweekly.nl, by fax at 020 620 1666 or post to Amsterdam Weekly, De Ruyterkade 106, 1011 AB Amsterdam. Deadline: Monday at 12.00, the week of publication.

AD OF THE WEEK

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