Dutch Post-war Fiction Film through a Lens of Psychoanalysis is a sequel to Humour and Irony in Dutch Post-war Fiction Film (AUP, 2016), but the two studies can be read separately. Because of the sheer variety of Fons Rademakers's oeuvre, which spans 'art' cinema and cult, genre film and historical epics, each chapter will start with one of his titles to introduce a key concept from psychoanalysis. It is an oft-voiced claim that Dutch cinema strongly adheres to realism, but psychoanalytic theories on desire and fantasy are employed to put this idea into perspective. In the vein of cinephilia, this study brings together canonical titles (ALS TWEE DRUPPELS WATER; SOLDAAT VAN ORANJE) and little gems (MONSIEUR HAWARDEN; KRACHT). It juxtaposes among others GLUCKAUF and DE VLIEGENDE HOLLANDER (on father figures); FLANAGAN and SPOORLOOS (on rabbles and heroes); DE AANSLAG and LEEDVERMAAK (on historical traumas); ANTONIA and BLUEBIRD (on aphanisis).
- Table of Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- The unrealized potential of Dutch 'art' cinema
- The gargling sounds of Dutch
- Sex sells, to some extent
- Scenes from a marriage: psychoanalysis and cinema
- The imaginary, the symbolic, the real: three cameos by Fons Rademakers
- Cinephilia ties the book together
- Chapter 1. Spitting Images, Blind Spots, and Dark Mirrors
- From ideal ego to ego-ideal: Als twee druppels water
- Putting on a charade: Süskind
- Hair, hair, flow it, (do not) show it: Milo
- No sheiks of Baghdad: Gebroken spiegels
- The ambiguity of (an) avatar: R u there
- Traversing the fantasy
- A tale of two sisters: Zwart water
- Conclusion: through a glass darkly
- Chapter 2. In the Name of Fathers – Overbearing, Flying, or Otherwise
- A preacher teacher, a mouthpiece of his wife, and an irresponsible bon vivant
- Father as a memory-image: Pervola, Sporen in de sneeuw
- Great pretenders: Bloed, zweet & tranen; Lek, and Karakter
- First reformed fathers: the sub-genre of religious fervour
- Pathetic fathers as addressee: De avonden and Abel
- A (broken) chain of dead fathers: Gluckauf
- Restoring the image of the father
- In search of the imaginary father: De vliegende Hollander
- Conclusion: three fathers
- Chapter 3. That Obscure Object of Desire
- Amour fou: love romances in dialogue with French cinema
- Posthumous infatuation: Havinck
- Love regained at the point of dying: De grot
- The pros and cons of good etiquette: Het meisje en de dood and Wildschut
- Love after an act of violence: De Poolse bruid
- Perhaps love: Boven is het stil
- The frequency of love: 170 Hz and Out of love
- Only bastards: Hemel and Instinct
- The devil's advocate: Loos
- Conclusion: desire of the other
- Chapter 4. From Ordinary Men and Rabbles to Heroes
- Accidental 'hero': Soldaat van Oranje
- Female daredevils: Pastorale 1943 and Het meisje met het rode haar
- The partisan and the schemer: In de schaduw van de overwinning
- The joke of being a hero: De ijssalon
- 'Du kannst, denn du sollst': Beyond sleep versus Dokter Pulder zaait papavers
- The fury of a patient man: Flanagan
- In there, no one can hear you scream: Spoorloos
- Conclusion: capable of excess
- Plates
- Chapter 5. Paranoia, Psychosis, The Horrific-Fantastic
- A killer in the canals: Amsterdamned
- Existential isolation: Paranoia
- Lady in the lake: Van de koele meren des doods
- Memoirs of a nerve patient: Shock head soul
- A Cyborg messiah: Robocop
- Dutch existenz: De marionettenwereld and Wereld van stilstand
- Dark water: De poel
- One sister-bride for seven brothers in a Dutch slasher: De Johnsons
- Conclusion: stranger things
- Chapter 6. Passages à l'Acte
- A calculated blackout: João en het mes
- Murderous acts with or without actors: Rooie Sien and Het teken van het beest
- Licence to ride a cab: Nachtrit
- Each man kills the thing he loves: Tirza
- It's oh so quiet: Onder ons
- Chronicle of a death foretold: Schemer
- I'm deranged: Van God los
- Requiem for a champ: Wolf
- Conclusion: where is my mind?
- Chapter 7. From Historical Discomfort to Historical Trauma
- 'Thy paths of righteousness': Max Havelaar
- A constitutional habit of stinging: De schorpioen
- Song to the siren: Het zwijgen
- Smooth catholic criminals: De bende van Oss
- Strategic Masquerades: Zwartboek
- A Dutch Rashomon: De aanslag
- Time out of joint: Leedvermaak
- Death and the maiden: Charlotte
- Married to the mob: Layla M.
- Conclusion: what time is it there?
- Chapter 8. Aphanisis
- Guilty of desire: Amnesia
- Gender trouble: Monsieur Hawarden
- Farmer seeks wife: Kracht
- Rewriting Brueghel into utopian feminism: Antonia
- Take these broken wings: Bluebird
- Haptic effects (with a proviso)
- Ascetic styles: Guernsey and Brownian movement
- Leave no trace: Code blue and Nothing personal
- Winter sonata: Verdwijnen
- Dancing in the dark: Lena
- Conclusion: the discomfort of strangers
- Chapter 9. Hysteria, Neurosis, Perversion
- Portrait of a lady: Eline Vere
- Runaway 'mother': Nadine
- Call me by my – not your – name: Black butterflies
- A walking contradiction with Prussian sour: Mysteries
- Mother and son with champagne and Mozart: De witte waan
- Unruly behaviour: Pentimento versus Spetters and Showgirls
- Karma chameleon: Elle
- Enjoying it like a virgin: Flesh + blood
- A calvinist pervert: Brimstone
- Conclusion: ciphered messages and silent contracts
- Epilogue
- Awakenings: Soldaat van Oranje, Turks fruit, and Borgman
- Bibliography
- Filmography
- Index of concepts
- Index of films
- Index of names
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