Flodder | |
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Directed by | Dick Maas |
Screenplay by | Dick Maas |
Produced by |
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Starring |
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Cinematography | Marc Felperlaan |
Edited by | Hans van Dongen |
Music by | Dick Maas |
Production company | First Floor Features |
Distributed by | Concorde Film |
Release date |
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Running time | 111 minutes |
Country | Netherlands |
Language | Dutch |
Box office | 2.3 million admissions (Netherlands) [1] |
Flodder is a 1986 Dutch comedy film written and directed by Dick Maas, and produced by First Floor Features. It is the first film in the Flodder franchise and is followed by two more films and a spin-off series. The film follows an anti-social, dysfunctional family who move to an affluent, upper-class neighbourhood as part of a social experiment which results in mayhem as the Flodder family refuses to adapt.
Flodder's absurd humour and politically incorrect satire ridiculing the Dutch welfare state resulted in mixed reviews, but was the most popular Dutch film of the year and one of the top 10 of all time with 2.3 million admissions. [1] It still attracts a cult following, and in 2007 it was admitted to the Canon van de Nederlandse Film. Flodder is also a Dutch word meaning blank cartridge, a referral to the Flodders looking dangerous and being noisy, despite being rather harmless.
When it emerges that the Flodder family's current state-owned house is on a toxic waste dump, the city council is forced to find somewhere to move them. Social worker Sjakie, proposes to move the family to an upper-class neighbourhood hoping that the change in social environment will have a positive effect on the problematic family.
However the family fails to adapt and persists in their anti-social lifestyle which clashes with the values of the reserved upper class inhabitants of the neighbourhood, who try everything in their power to get rid of the Flodders. This results in several confrontations between individual members of the family and the upper class inhabitants.
The town council, being aware of the problems the family is causing, starts looking into alternative living accommodations, although Sjakie keeps insisting that the family should be given another chance. In the meantime son Johnny starts a relationship with neighbour Yolanda Kruisman, much to the fury of her husband.
This culminates at a neighbourhood meeting being held to discuss how to get rid of the family. Johnny and Yolanda walk in announcing their engagement. They decide to throw a party where everyone is invited. Meanwhile, the town council finds a suitable alternative house for the family, but Ma Flodder discovers she has inherited a large sum of money from Opa Flodder who recently died in a train accident. With the money she decides to buy the house in which they are living. The climax of the film is the engagement party, which is attended by everyone and quickly gets out of hand; the people from the neighbourhood however have a great time and finally start to appreciate the family as they are. In the meantime, Yolanda's husband goes to the army base where he works and takes one of the army tanks. In the finale of the film he destroys the house of the Flodders who take it with good humour.
Although reasonably well reviewed, the film was considered controversial at the time, but has since gained cult status. It was the most popular Dutch film of the year with 2.3 million admissions. [1] It was admitted to the Canon van de Nederlandse Film in 2007. In 1987 it won a Gouden Kalf for best Art Direction. [2]
The film was followed by two sequels, Flodder in Amerika (1992) and Flodder 3 (1995). A spin-off television series ran from 1993 to 1999.
The film was shown in Québec in Canada, where it was dubbed into joual (a working class Québec French dialect) under the title Les Lavigueur déménagent ("The Lavigueurs Are Moving") where it has a cult following. The name Lavigueur was taken from a Montreal working-class family who had made headlines in 1986 after winning what was then the largest jackpot ever awarded in a Canadian lottery, at 6/49. The family ― except for Yve Lavigueur ― attempted to sue the filmmakers, but they could do nothing as nobody owns a particular last name, especially a popular one. Yve, on the other hand, went to the premiere, where he quickly realised that the film had nothing to do with his family, which infuriated him. Drugs clouded his judgment. He thought that a film about his family would be a good thing, when, in fact, it was done to mock them. [3]
Cornelis Theodorus Maria "Kees" van Dongen was a Dutch-French painter who was one of the leading Fauves. Van Dongen's early work was influenced by the Hague School and symbolism and it evolved gradually into a rough pointillist style. From 1905 onwards – when he took part at the controversial 1905 Salon d'Automne exhibition – his style became more and more radical in its use of form and colour. The paintings he made in the period of 1905–1910 are considered by some to be his most important works. The themes of his work from that period are predominantly centered on the nightlife. He painted dancers, singers, masquerades, and theatre. Van Dongen gained a reputation for his sensuous – at times garish – portraits, especially of women.
Zaandam is a city in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. It is the main city of the municipality of Zaanstad and received city rights in 1811. It is located on the river Zaan, just north of Amsterdam.
The Jordaan is a neighbourhood of the city of Amsterdam, Netherlands. It is part of the borough of Amsterdam-Centrum. The area is bordered by the Singelgracht canal and the neighbourhood of Frederik Hendrikbuurt to the west; the Prinsengracht to the east; the Brouwersgracht to the north and the Leidsegracht to the south. The former canal Rozengracht is the main traffic artery through the neighbourhood.
Cinema of the Netherlands refers to the film industry based in the Netherlands. Because the Dutch film industry is relatively small, and there is little or no international market for Dutch films, almost all films rely on state funding. This funding can be achieved through several sources, for instance through the Netherlands Film Fund or the public broadcast networks. In recent years the Dutch Government has established several tax shelters for private investments in Dutch films.
High Hopes is a 1988 British comedy drama film directed by Mike Leigh, focusing on an extended working-class family living in King's Cross, London, and elsewhere.
Tatjana Šimić, also known by the mononym Tatjana, is a Croatian-Dutch model, actress and singer.
Flodders in America, released in Quebec as Les Lavigueur Redéménagent, is a 1992 Dutch comedy film directed by Dick Maas. The film is the sequel of the successful film Flodder from 1986. It was filmed on location in New York and stars Dutch actors Huub Stapel, Nelly Frijda, Tatjana Simic, Rene van 't Hof, Lou Landré
Alles is Liefde is a 2007 Dutch romantic comedy film directed by Joram Lürsen and written by Kim van Kooten and starring Carice van Houten, Paul de Leeuw, Wendy van Dijk, and Daan Schuurmans. The movie is loosely inspired by the British Christmas movie Love Actually.
The Lavigueur family is a Quebec family who made headlines in Canada in the 1980s after winning a lottery jackpot of $7,650,267 in 1986, then the largest prize ever given by Loto-Québec. The trials and troubles of the Lavigueur family have since become entrenched in Quebec popular culture for various reasons: the fact that a poor family became multimillionaires overnight; the intervention of a stranger who found the lottery ticket lost by the family's father; the judicial saga of one of the family's daughters, the only member of the family to not have participated in the purchase of the winning ticket, suing her father for a fraction of the jackpot; the subsequent family disputes that tore apart the family which dissipated its fortune, all of which received wide coverage in the mainstream media of Quebec.
The Northerners is a 1992 Dutch film written and directed by Alex van Warmerdam. The film was selected as the Dutch entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 65th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee. This black comedy takes places in the 1960s, in a surreal Dutch new town consisting of only a single street. It is a darkly amusing satire of bourgeois life and its repressions, pursuit of fantasies through a Freudian forest are all executed with visual and dramatic flair. Van Warmerdam himself has said that he considers this his best film.
Flodder 3 is a 1995 Dutch comedy film directed by Dick Maas. It is the third and last film about the anti-social family, called 'Flodder'. The film is a continuation of the TV series and the previous two films. Different from the first two films, son Kees is now played by actor Stefan de Walle, and Johnnie Flodder is now played by Coen van Vrijberghe de Coningh, the same actor as in the TV series. It was the second most popular Dutch film of the year.
Alberts Frères, founded around 1899, was one of the first film production companies in the Netherlands. The company was founded by brothers Albert (1879–1941) and Willy Mullens (1880–1952); they were the main filmmakers and exhibitors in the Netherlands in the first two decades of the twentieth century.
The epithet tokkie is used in the Netherlands as a pejorative noun for lower-class people who often are seen as likely to engage in anti-social behaviour, similar to the English chav, the Scottish ned, the South African zef and the Australian eshay.
Ruud van Hemert was a Dutch film director known especially for (dark) comedy. In the 1970s he helped produce and direct TV shows on VPRO before starting a career as a film director.
Hubertus Antonius Gerardus Maria "Bert" André was a Dutch actor who started his career in theater and later became known to the greater audiences through his roles in various movies and TV series.
Het verboden rijk is a novel by Dutch author J. Slauerhoff (1898–1936). First published in 1931, the novel follows two narratives simultaneously—that of the Portuguese poet Luís de Camões, and that of a 20th-century Irishman, a radio operator and sailor. A sequel, Het leven op aarde, was published in 1933; a third book was planned but never finished.
Events from the year 2019 in the Netherlands.
Bram van der Vlugt was a Dutch actor. He is known for playing the role of Sinterklaas for over two decades. He died on 19 December 2020, at the age of 86, after contracting COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands.
Maria Austria was an Austro-Dutch photographer who is considered an important post-war photographer of the Netherlands, and was a theatre and documentary photographer. Her neorealistic, humanist photo reportage was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in 1953, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam in 1958, the Van Gogh Museum in 1975, and the Joods Historisch Museum in 2001.
Flodder is a Dutch comedy series about the criminal family Flodder as they are given government-provided housing in the high-class district of Zonnedael, that aired from 1993 to 1999.