I miss 35mm camera film. Digital photography on your phone is great since you are no longer limited to 24 or 36 frames before you have to rewind and reload. You also don’t have to pay for film, processing and making prints. It got even more expensive if you built your own darkroom in the basement. Unlike snapping away on the camera in your phone, using a 35mm was a bit magical. You kept adjusting the frame and focus before you pushed the button for what you hoped was the perfect shot. And then you had to wait to see if you really captured that moment like you imagined. The darkroom was a sacred dark space where you used chemicals and flashes of light to make that print that you’d swear belongs in a museum’s collection with Ansel Adams and Diane Arbus masterpieces. I bring this up because in the Dutch movie AmnesiA, the main character is a photographer who uses a 35mm camera. The film was shot in 2000 which was the time when digital photography was elbowing out Kodak film stock. AmnesiA‘s big dark secret involves what’s on a role of film.
Alex (Character & Speak No Evil‘s Fedja van Huêt) gets a call in the middle of the night from his twin brother Aram (Also Fedja van Huêt) that their mother (Sacha Bulthuis) isn’t doing good. She’s spitting up blood. Anan swears it is from a stomach ulcer, but mom think it’s her heart. Alex leaves the city and drives out to this mom’s old house in the countryside. Before you picture a quaint Dutch manor surround by nature, turns out the place is covered in old junked cars. Alex’s late father appears to have been a hoarder. The trip does start out weird for Alex since during the drive, he forgets that he’s picked up Sandra (Game of Thrones‘ Carice Van Houten). She’s up for the trip and also a bit of a pyro. When Alex gets to the house, he discovers too much is going on. His brother Aram has become a bit of a gangster and his latest criminal caper has gone wrong. Adam revisits a dark secret of the past that he captured on film when he was out with his brother and a woman.
AmnesiA is a film that keeps you guessing about what’s real in the film. There’s plenty of characters with iffy memories lurking around the house and the grounds. Martin Koolhaven keeps you guessing and also lets you just relax and take in the weirdness. There’s a lot of characters that seem quite a bit suspicious. Where did Sandra come from? The mother swears one of her twins is really her husband in an awkward moment. Is the mom making up the twins and it’s really one character? Are any of the characters real? You won’t feel cheated by AmnesiA‘s finale.
The Limited Edition boxset includes Martin Koolhoven’s first two major projects that he created for Dutch TV. Suzy Q (1999 – 84:35) is a TV movie that takes place in Amsterdam in 1967. Suzy (Carice Van Houten) is a teenager who gets inside the hotel room of Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithful. While she wants to tell her story; nobody believes it is real. The script was co-written by Frouke Fokkema. She was Suzy. Also in the cast is Michiel Huisman who went on to star in Treme and Game of Thrones. Duister Licht aka Dark Light (1997 – 54:45) has a guy being kept hostage on a farm by a woman with a gun. She means business and has a nasty pox outbreak on her arm. You can tell this film is Dutch because a character wears wooden shoes. Both films have trailers.
AmnesiA: Limited Edition is the perfect way to see the early works of both director Martin Koolhoven and Carice Van Houten. You do see a glimpse of Carice Van Houten’s Game of Thrones character when she’s playing with fire. Like a 35mm negative, you’ll want to stick with AmnesiA until the end finally develops.
The video is 1.66:1 anamorphic. The 4K HD transfer was taken from the original camera negative. You get to see the details of the mom’s house and junkyard. The audio is DTS LPCM 2.0, DTS-HD 5.1 Surround and Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround. All three tracks are in the original Dutch. The subtitles are in English.
Introduction by Martin Koolhoven (1:02) has him explain how he shot the film in 2000 with folks that worked on Suzy Q. He says the film is a black comedy so you can laugh.
Audio Commentary by Martin Koolhooven & Fedja Van Huet with moderator Peter Verstraten. He points out this is part of the “No More Heroes” project. They all speak in English. There are 99 scenes in the film. Martin points out that they didn’t have digital effects at this point.
A Conversation with Martin Koolhoven & Carice Van Houten (45:38) reunites director and actress in a movie theater in 2022. He talks about how his two TV projects played into his first theatrical feature film. They both speak English.
The Making of Amnesia (37:33) takes us onto the location with director Martin Koolhoven. He gets into what brought this movie together. This was recorded around the time of the original release.
Behind-The-Scenes with Carice Van Houten (1:18) is video of the shoot with a short interview with the actress.
Theatrical Trailer (1:43) gives a sense of the confusion and twin tension in the movie.
Cult Epics Trailers includes Death Laid An Egg, Naked Over the Fence, Pastorale 1943, The Debut, Frank & Eva and Blue Movie.
Cult Epics present AmnesiA. Directed by Martin Koolhoven. Screenplay by Martin Koolhoven. Starring Fedja Van Huet, Carice Van Houten, Theo Maassen, Sacha Bylthui and Cas Enklaar. Running Time: 89 minutes. Rating: Unrated. Release Date: April 11, 2023.
