De vliegende Hollander

I would say that this is a typical representative of European art. American studios have the ability to grasp a phenomenon, reputation, famous historical figure, or legend and, in the best case, turn it into an interesting narrative that is communicative worldwide regardless of cultural differences. In the worst case, it turns into a pop-cultural sludge that can be sold to practically anyone. European creators, on the other hand, are often proud that their work is practically not consumable by a wider range of viewers. The creators of The Flying Dutchman want to tell the story of the birth of a Flemish legend, but legends are definitely not born this way. They emerge from a collective mass experience, whereas this game is actually an intimate matter of a few characters traversing the film. Although I usually have no trouble understanding a film story and its individual scenes and elements, here I didn't grasp a few things, not just because the creators intentionally left many things unspoken. For example, the motif of the rebels holding a giant head, which remains a memento of a distant tragedy, somehow escapes me. I understand that film characters don't always behave as I would imagine, but here the psychological motivation in several scenes is similar to the idea of a puppeteer and a soldier having sex in the middle of the Battle of Austerlitz. On the other hand, the film has many things that a film fan can appreciate. Excellent camera work, and thanks to the coproduction a very decent budget by European standards, which allows for the illusion of the 16th century. Some images create a sense of magical realism, the actors are fresh-faced yet of high quality, and the director took care in the casting to ensure that his vision of history is full of strangely looking characters - although personally I think he went too far and this collection of freaks could have been seen at most in a medieval madhouse. I see the overall result positively, despite the long duration and slow pace. I was not bored, but I cannot give the film more than 3 strong stars considering the aforementioned. Overall impression: 65%. (03.03.2015)