DRESS, THE (Jurk, De) (director: Alex van Warmerdam; screenwriter: Alex van Warmerdam; cinematographer: Marc Felperlaan; cast: Henri Garcin (Van Tilt), Ariane Schluter (Johanna), Alex van Warmerdam (Train Conductor), Rijk de Gooyer (Martin), Elisabeth Hoijtink (Stella), Olga Zuiderhoek (Marie), Eric van der Donk (Painter), Netherlands-1996)
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
This social comedy is a slick sick one, told in short sketches, where absurdity and perversity go hand-in-hand with the dress, which is the subject of the film. We see it from its inception, as its cotton material is picked in the fields of Spain, to its unlucky-in-love designer who created its pattern of imaginary red and yellow leaves on a blue background, to its death by cremation, as its last owner, a homeless lady is put to rest in it. To emphasize the bad karma of the dress, it is shown how troubled men created it and merchandised it. The fashion designer of this plain summer dress is a pervert with a pig fetish, and to add insult to injury, it is worn by losers who are taken in by its optimistic design and colors.
On the dresses journey, it brought bad luck to whomever owned it, passing to different ownership many times; the film could have gone on ad infinitum, if the director wasn't kind enough to end the film with a good old mercy killing of it. The dress becomes the object of the film, and as the director and writer and actor, Alex van Warmerdam, said: we used a dress in the film because women wear dresses. But by making it just an object, giving it no other symbolic significance, the film has to rely on its biting satiric humor to carry it through. And since, I couldn't find myself consistently laughing at its Monthy Python-like skits, nor find its outrageous humor and politically incorrect stands to be paricularly tasteful, I therefore found myself under-whelmed with this third film by the independent cult film director, even as I empathize with his determination to make his own type of film, no matter how it is perceived by others. This bawdy comedy, should guarantee it some audience abroad, though those seeing it in the Netherlands, have an added plus going for them, as they should be more able to recognize the cameos that some of the notable Dutch film stars make in it.
Coincidently, the first couple who buy it in a dress-shop, get robbed and she gets extremely sick as soon as they bring the dress home. When the husband hangs it out to dry on the clothesline, it blows away and falls eventually into the the hands of a pretty cleaning lady (Ariane), who feels very sexy wearing it. The ticket-collector (Alex van Warmerdam) on the train is so attracted by it, that he follows her home, where she lives with an older artist (Eric ), a real cold and gloomy sort, but whom she tries to appeal to with her new dress. It only inspires him to redraw the drab blue dress he was working on in his canvas, with this brighter pattern. When the artist steps out with his artist friends, the train conductor comes back to rape her. This was the most risque and politically incorrect scene in the film, but it also turned out to be a rather tame but funny scene, after all. But the humor came at the expense of the pathetic lady being chased by the rapist, who when in trouble would shout out, "I'm normal."
She gives the dress away to some rip-off charity seekers, who sell it to a boutique. The dress is then made to look more chic and youth orientated, so an attractive teen-ager buys it and in a long litany of coincidences, the train conductor is there to try and rape her. This rape scene was crasser than the other one, for a few moments it had the same hard edge of violence to it that a film like "Funny Games" had. But comedy is the vehicle here, so when the teen escapes from her sleeping would-be rapist, she promptly has the dress stolen by a homeless lady in the park.
The final act of indignity for the dress is when the gloomy artist's rendition of it, is hung in a gallery as a great work; the train conductor then appears to rip it apart, as a tour guide helplessly watches. This violent act fits in with all the other themes the film superficially covers: of sexual harassment, rape, dysfunctional relationships, insanity, homelessness, fake charities, and the poor relations between a boss of the dress factory (Garcin) where this dress was manufactured and one of his employees, who attacks him.
Since I was not all that amused by what I saw and did not find the film particularly perceptive, and only found parts of the film to be diverting and original, it is hard for me to recommend it as anything but an attempt to be outrageously funny without enough substance in it to be funny for a long enough period of time to be a fully entertaining movie. And it is only from an entertainment perspective, I think, that this film should be judged.
REVIEWED ON 8/2/99 GRADE: C
Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"
http://www.sover.net/~ozus
ozus@sover.net
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