Greg Shapiro Speaks at EYE Filmmuseum Opening for ‘Coen Brothers Complete’ film festival
What was I doing speaking at the opening of a Dutch Coen Brothers film festival?
Amsterdam’s EYE film museum is hosting a Coen Brothers retrospective all summer long, kicking off with their first-ever feature Blood Simple. The programmer thought “What if we get The American Netherlander to comment on the differences in Dutch & American film culture?” Either that or pay for Joel Coen to be there… They chose me.
Boy, do Dutch people love the Coen Brothers! Cinema 1 was totally full. By the way, if you’ve never been to the new EYE film museum across from Amsterdam Central Station, you’re missing out.
You don’t even need to see a film: the building, the bar and the terrace are a work of art. I crossed the water on the ferry with my cinephile daughter, who was my plus one.
The opening word was given by the film museum programmer Ronald Simons, who wore an Evil Dead t-shirt. Why? Because Joel Coen was the cinematographer! Part film quiz. I loved it.
As for my speech, I got to show my PowerPoint slides on the big screen with a 4k projector. Ronald and I had met earlier to craft the message of my 15 minutes. He thought it would be fun to reference the US election – or as I call it – “No Country for Old Men.” (Hopefully.)
What are the themes of the Coen Brothers movies?
They are notoriously difficult to categorize. But Ronald wanted me to highlight these 3 things:
1) ‘Old Testament-like Trials.’ I had to reference Genesis and the famous Dutch mapmaker who said “God created the earth, but the Dutch created their own country.” Dutch people would have been the ones in Moses’ tribe who stayed behind to make their homeland on the bottom of the Red Sea. “We’ll put up some dikes, we’ll dig a few canals. Gezellig.”
2) They parody and subvert film genres. Dutch director Paul Verhoeven is well known for playing with genres.. but the master of parody and subverting genres would be Dick Maas. Coming soon: “Amsterdamned – TWO.”
3) Man vs Indifferent Universe / Bad Things Happen to Good People. The best example I could think of was the (part-) Dutch film called Spoorloos, from 1988. I saw it in an art-house cinema in 1990. And the ending was such a shock! It was such a sensation there was a Hollywood remake in 1993, called The Vanishing. This movie is so bad you have to watch it to believe it. I re-enacted the Hollywood version of the ending. And I ended by saying “now you know how hard it is to make a truly original, truly dark movie in the United States. With that in mind, let’s watch the Coen Broertjes’ first film: Blood Simple.” And it was great!
The Coen Brothers Complete – click here for dates (ends 11 September)
https://www.eyefilm.nl/programma/the-coen-brothers-complete/1268320
For more Greg Shapiro Corporate Events Click Here:
https://gregshapiro.nl/greg-shapiro-corporate-events/