Simon (2004)

oh my god! For the first time in human history, there is a really really good dutch film. Eddy Terstall is now in my list of favorite directors, among Fincher, Burton and Goundry. Wonderful dialogues, brilliant acting, a massive ending.

But is all sunshine? Euhm, nope. There is one big problem for this film. The brilliant dialogues, and joke's... I don't think they work in another language. It's limited to a Dutch audience, maybe Belgium and that will hold this film from world fame. Never the less, trust me, Simon has all the ingredients for one of the best films of the year.

Finally, i gained trust in dutch films, Tomorrow, I'll go see Snowfever! or maybe not...

Fmovies: Through an awkward accident, Camiel (Marcel Hensema) meets Simon (Cees Geel). Camiel is an intelligent, shy, insecure, gay student studying to become a dentist. Simon is close to his opposite: a true Amsterdam mythical hero - down-to-earth, liberal, dry humoured seducer ("Couldn't you just instantly turn into a naked chick?") who owns two cafés and lives in the Dutch paradox - he's in the semi-legal business of running a hash home delivery service. Both are true products of Dutch society, as it is dreamed to be, with their multilingual, easy, matter-of-fact approach to life. But the film is mostly about Simon. Well, about Camiel looking Simon, fascinated.

So what is it about Simon that so fascinates Camiel? To a certain extent, Camiel is an outsider, he is just someone who walks the streets. He is not extraordinary in any sense. Neither his love life, nor his profession can help him up, nor does he play an instrument or have any hidden talent. When he meets Simon, it seems as if Simon has his whole life organised around himself, to be able to live his life fully. He is surrounded by his oddball friends and has a loving family (in Thailand!). And that with a forgiving smile which allows him to boyishly do as he pleases.

The second half of the movie is darker than the first, when the weight on the looming tragedy starts to be felt (Simon's approaching death). The second half of the film is more emotional, building on the characters and relationships of the first half. Notice the remarkable difference in the treatment of the subject with Les Invasions Barbares, of death, friendship, love, sex and society. Perhaps the last is the most remarkable, because somewhere Simon is the society. There is no clash with an outer world which is different to him - because the difference between the individuals is what makes up the society in which he lives. Similarly there is no generational gap either, Simon's children will make something out of their lives as he did with his, nothing fundamental has changed. It is Western society at its (brief?) peak. 

If there is any weakness in the film, then it would have to be Simon's interest in Camiel, the reasons of which could have been more explicit (perhaps his stability, or his intelligence?). None the less, the audience takes on the role of Camiel, and is taken along into Simon's world. A world which is a rare glimpse into the liberal post-modern society which is (was?) The Netherlands. Camiel will not be the only one leaving impressed.

This film is extremely well elaborated. Without spoiling the movie for you, basically, Simon is a sad story between a drug-dealing, "living la vida loca" young man, and a gay man he unexpectedly met.

14 years later, they meet again, but this time, the situation is totally different.

The filmmakers do an excellent job at the beginning of the movie, that is, making people dive deep into the story, the characters and the general atmosphere. This has as consequence, later after the middle of the movie, that the filmmakers start playing with the audience's emotions, leveraging on all the details presented during the beginning to force the audience into the main topic of the movie.

The second half of the movie is the sad part of it. There, the lives of all the people involved are bound together by an unexpected tragedy. The film has an obvious ending, but during that time, the audience's feelings and emotions are constantly touched and moved. This emotional play is perfect for the deep meanings of the movie: a reflexion and the presenting of different perspectives of homosexuality, drugs, sex and eutanasia.

Simon fmovies. I've read the reviews here, most of them from people living in the Netherlands. This movie seems to polarize these folk in ways that must be unique to the Dutch. I'd like to comment on it from a different cultural perspective.

Reviewers here make the point repeatedly that this is a quintessentially Dutch movie, and more or less insist that you have to be Dutch to comprehend it in toto. That may be true. I know a little German, enough to have heard the cadences and staccato rhythms in the dialog. And I could tell that the English translation, although working hard, was probably not able to do justice to the actual words. This is an instance where a dubbed version might be an improvement for non-Dutch speakers.

As an American, and a gay man, I found this movie totally accessible. The subject of euthanasia was not especially controversial to me, having known many gay men who chose that route in the 80s. Nor did the interaction between the two friends seem that unusual. I've had close friends who were straight and we could talk to each other in the same blunt, joking way Simon and Camiel do. I think this story could have been set in many other urban communities around the world, not just Amsterdam.

So I guess I'm saying I don't think this story is uniquely Dutch by any means. That it has an extra dimension for the Dutch because of the language, however, seems likely.

I liked the structure of the film, I liked the close and choppy editing, and I liked the progression of the story. In many ways the film's style is as unsentimental as the story, and that seemed appropriate.

Eddy Terstall is one of the most talented directors in Holland. He always makes low budget films which are mostly about dialogues and not about action, explosions or special effects. His skills for writing dialogues in a funny a witty way are unique and it get's better every movieÂ… Simon is his latest and therefore best movie, about a remarkable character called Simon and his Gay friend Camiel. The story is touching, funny and interesting. The amount of nudity, foul language and drugs (Simon has his own coffeeshops) is very high, even for Dutch standards.

The best thing about Terstall is that he constantly uses the same actors and actresses, it's very funny to see them all in different roles in each movie of this director. Especially Rifka Lodeizen (always looking good, a lot of topless scenes :D) she just has this thing that makes my spine chill and this nice voice. And Daan Ekkel (who had the best part in Terstall's movie 'hufters and hofdames') as a friend of Simon who tried to staple his tattoo's because in a mushroom trip he thought they were coming off. Cees Geel as Simon is a new member of the actors' group but he fits in perfectly and I expect him to come back for the next movies Terstall will make. This is definitely going to be a Dutch classic, and it was made for only a million (in comparison to Terstall's other movies, this is a fortune) in an interview Terstall was complaining that he never get's a lot of money for his movies and is about to go bankrupt. I can hardly believe that because of the success of Simon, but I hope Terstall is not going to do stupid things in order to earn more money.. Simon is the Dutch submission for the Oscars, but they won't get it. This movie is to honest and too straightforward for any American jury to get it. This movie is about euthanasia, drugs, homosexuals (and Simon truly hates them and makes a lot of nasty remarks) and all kinds of things Americans don't want to talk about. It deserves the Oscar, but Simon is not going to get it. I give a 9/10

This movie is about a wide variety of emotions, topics and people. The dialogs are brilliant. Simon has a hilarious sense of humor, but his character, like the others in the movie, is still very well portrayed. All typical dutch subjects like gay-marriage, soft-drugs, euthanasia, etc., are handled in a way that it is still convincing. The last part, where euthanasia becomes the main topic, is where the movie rises above a good comedy and becomes a great comedy/drama instead. The acting in the last part is so brilliant that it almost feels like it is shot for real.

Certainly a movie to recommend, and I think that even when it is translated (with a possible loss of dialog)it is still a movie worth seeing! But see a subtitled version and not a synchronized voice-over version, for the latter will be terrible