Review: Character/Karakter
(The Netherlands, 1997)
Written and directed by: Mike van Diem Produced by: Laurens Geels Cinematography by: Rogier Stoffers Music by: Paleis van Boem Actors: Fedja van Huet, Jan Decleir, Betty Shuurman, Tamar van den Dop, Victor Low. Based on novel by F. Bordewijk.
On a dark afternoon, a young man named Katadreuffe is just sworn in as a lawyer. The way he chooses to celebrate this achievement is to visit his enemy, a court bailiff named Dreverhaven and slam a knife on his desk. Later we see Katadreuffe leaving the building covered with blood. Soon we learn that Dreverhaven was stabbed to death with the very same knife, and the new lawyer is arrested on suspicion of murder. This provides a setup for him to unfold his life story through the police interrogation.
Set in the 1920's Rotterdam, "Character" is a good-looking piece of melodrama from the first-time director Mike van Diem. It follows Katadreuffe's life, out of wedlock from a one-night stand between the brooding and stony bailiff Dreverhaven and his housekeeper Joba. She refuses his marriage proposal and raises her son alone. He grows up with strong resentment for his father, and Dreverhaven's action does not help to improve this relationship either. He sets numerous obstacles in his son's road to success, only to watch him jump through the hurdles one after another by the young man's stubborn and persistant effort. The tension between father and son continues to escalate to the point that it finally ends with a knife.
The weakness and the appeal of "Character" is its unrestrained passion displayed among the three members of the family, especially between Dreverhaven and Katadreuffe. Hate mixed with love flying and spilling all over the place, it is easy to be affected, yet hard to completely understand these characters' motivation and minds. The most puzzling and contradictory person is Deverhaven. He appears to be a ruthless, terrifying man who throws poor people out of their homes into the streets. He seems to enjoy making life difficult for his own son. On the other hand, he has his reasons -- he believes building one's character requires hardship and endurance. Ironically, it all works very well for his son. He does not disgard Joba when she is pregnant, even though he has forced her. Instead he kept asking her "When is our wedding?" He is clearly tired of living, and makes attempts to get himself killed only to fail. One can only speculate his degeration to such a sad existence since the movie refuses to give us any clue about why. He is the mysterious father figure that no one understands. Jan Decleir has a truly chilling presence on screen as a heavy, intimidating figure of power, authority and ruthlessness that the mere sight of him in that black coat and hat can inflict instant fear in the hearts of the poor and of his own son. He doesn't have many words, but always casts a shadow everywhere in the film.
If the father is intimidating, the mother is no more approachable. She seems to enjoy being the only person in the world to drive the mighty Deverhaven crazy. She ignores the boy's emotional needs forever. She hardly even says a word. Years later, when her son asks why she did not marry when his father proposed to her, she is still a stone wall. She is so cold and distant that it is almost inhuman. Again no explanation is provided and she remains mysterious until she takes all her secrets into the grave.
With dysfunctional parents like these, it is no wonder that Katadreufe is emotionally messed up. He is a passionate child, with no one to turn to. He turns out to be unable to release himself from the extreme desire to piss off his father, or perhaps subconsciously to please him and meet his expectations. As stubborn and proud as his parents are, he fights his way up in a small law firm from the lowest level. By a faint light, we fancy the same kind of self-torturing hard struggle in a young Deverhaven years ago, and the same kind of disillusion when he gets everything he had wanted, yet realizes that he has lost any chance to find love and a healthy normal life. The line between love and hate is blurred. When his mother is so indifferent to him, we suspect that even the harsh treatment from his father is welcome deep down in Katadreuffe's mind -- at least he gives a damn about him, even if it's mean-spirited.
Compared to this really dysfunctional family, the movie provides a couple of rather interesting supporting roles. Lorna Te George is Katadreuffe's office coworker who is let down by his failure to express his love for her (because of whatever demon he has). De Gankelaar is K.'s boss and mentor who tries to substitute for a sensible and loving father to him. He has a protruding jaw that reminds me of Billy Bob Thornton's Karl Childers in "Sling Blade", with a warm and understated tenderness. K.'s only friend Jan, his mother tenant, is a fun-loving young man and a communist. These are K.'s only chance to escape his family and connect to a normal emotional world, but his blood and destiny pulls him back to his dark father.
As a directorial debut, Mike van Diem displays a great deal of confidence and sophistication in his work. The tension and passions are pushed to the highest level, because he never tries to hold it back. Such approach often leads to something completely over-the-top, but the nice performances by the entire cast have prevented it. Instead, we are affected by them rather than feeling silly or disbelief. He also shows a very sure hand in the movement of camera and the transitions between two scenes. It's a good thing that van Diem refuses to explain everything to us including what's on the characters' minds, but some crucial points become too vague for the audience to identify with or understand. Another problem is that the tone throughout the movie is so decidedly and stubbornly dark and suffocating, that it becomes rather humorless and a bit too heavy from time to time.
If the direction is not quite over-the-top, unfortunately the music is. Always ready to increase the sense of fear, rage, hatred, pain, etc. etc., it is just too much. I feel that the music tries too hard to tell the story that it loses its effect after a while, as if it was trying to scream at the audience to tell them how they should feel.
The things I enjoy the most about this film are the cinematography and production design. Filmed in Poland to replicate the scenery of an old Rotterdam, it is full of symbolic tall and dark buildings that cast shadows of terror upon one's heart. The cinematography is truly gorgeous and breath-taking. With most scenes shot in the rain, at night, in the shadows of the houses and under cloudy skies, it effectively creates the moody world of despair and melancholy. It is a perfect example of beautiful camera work becoming a central element of the movie. It is simply wonderful to look at.
Overall, I find it a quite handsomely done piece of work. I have to admit that I enjoy watching such bold effort to throw passions at the audience without holding back. Grade: B+.
jun ps. I was rather disappointed to find out that someone beat me at pointing out the fact that "Character" and "Star Wars" have strong similarities.
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