The forties and fifties
During World War II, many people in the film industry were killed or fled abroad. Film studios had been looted and destroyed. Reconstruction necessarily meant a new start for Dutch cinema.
Dutch film history: the forties and fifties
NOF – Netherlands Foundation for Educational Films
In the early 1940s an increasing number of commentators argued that teachers should be able to screen educational films themselves, in their own classrooms.
The Wieringermeer of Marofilm
On three occasions between 1938-1948, Alex Roosdorp and his wife Marie filmed the Wieringermeer area, in the Dutch province of North Holland.
WWII and the Resistance: From LO-LKP to De overval
After WWII, the studios in Duivendrecht and Wassenaar had been plundered and destroyed. Many people essential to the Dutch film industry had either been killed or had fled abroad.
The first Dutch War Films
The changing spirit of times is clearly reflected in the Dutch war film. Our vision of the war in particular is what emerges from the images.
At Last: Support for Dutch Feature Films
In 1946, film production appeared for the first time as an item in the federal budget. For the first time, the government was prepared to invest structurally in film.
NOF Films
Most of the films that the NOF supplied were intended to be used as aids to the teaching of general school subjects.
Film Didactics
The films that the NOF distributed in the 1940s and 1950s are characterised by two different, and seemingly opposing, didactic principles.
Foreign productions in Cinetone in the 1950s and 1960s
The arrival of foreign producers and film crews was the perfect opportunity for Dutch studio staff to gain more experience.
The Arrival of Television
Television was still in its experimental phase in the 1930s, but the medium developed rapidly and after World War II it was unstoppable.
Rudi Meyer and Joop Landré
The first two producers who tried to build up a measure of continuity in the postwar Dutch film industry were Rudi Meyer and Joop Landré.
The Dutch Documentary in the Cinema: Alleman and the 1960s
Within a few years at the beginning of the 1960s there were a number of long Dutch documentaries that were released as feature films in the cinemas.
The Critic as Guardian
Just as the Filmliga had done before WWII, film critic Janus Van Domburg was very critical of the light entertainment films made in Hollywood and pleaded for more artistic films.
Festivals in the Netherlands
Seeing the emergence of film festivals abroad, the Dutch organised their own film event in 1955: the Filmweek Arnhem.
Postwar Avant-Garde
After the Second World War, pre-war avant-garde films still defined the genre. It was not until 1958 that a new wind began to blow.
Children’s Film from Laan to Van der Linden: Childhood Heroes
From 1900-1960, the production of Dutch children’s films definitely had its own dynamic that was independent from the production of other feature films.
Small viewers, big audience: the children’s films of Rex Film
Children love films. From the 1950s on, the films made by Henk van der Lindens production company Rex Film drew full houses, year in and year out.
Film’s Heyday – and Its Decline
Directly after WWII, cinema attendance reached an all-time high. In total, nearly 90 million tickets were sold in 1946 – a record that has never been broken.
Spiegel van Nederland
In the autumn of 1957, the all-powerful Nederlandse Bioscoopbond (NBB) gave permission to Haghe Film and Triofilm to come up with their own newsreel.
Filmforum and the Verdict against Dutch Feature Films
In October 1957, the magazine Filmforum published an open letter to the producers of Dutch feature films, stating their productions were severely lacking in quality.