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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

Title card for the Nederlandse Onderwijs Film (NOF)

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.

Wieringermeer, still from Herwinnen door werken (1946), Alex Roosdorp.
Wieringermeer, still from Herwinnen door werken (1946), Alex Roosdorp.

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.

Collection photo LO LKP FOT132748

LO-LKP (NL, Max de Haas, 1949)

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.

De overval (1962), Paul Rotha

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.

Poster for De vliegende Hollander (NL, Gerard Rutten, 1957)

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.

Permit granted by the NOF to screen films in the classroom.

NOF Films

Most of the films that the NOF supplied were intended to be used as aids to the teaching of general school subjects.

Still from Wie gaat mee? (NL, Reinier Meijer, 1942)

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.

Still from Hello television (US, Leslie Pearce, 1930)

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.

Bert Haanstra, Rudi Meyer and Hans Kaart on set, Fanfare (NL, Bert Haanstra, 1958).

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.

Poster for Alleman (NL, Bert Haanstra, 1963)

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.

Jan de Vaal, Janus van Domburg, Jan Keizer, Helen van Dongen, Frits van der Molen en Charles Boost at the film festival EXPRMNTL in Knokke (Belgium) in 1949.

Jan de Vaal, Janus van Domburg, Jan Keizer, Helen van Dongen, Frits van der Molen, Charles Boost. Filmfestival EXPRMNTL, Knokke 1949.

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.

Poster for International Film Festival Rotterdam, 1979.

Festivals in the Netherlands

Seeing the emergence of film festivals abroad, the Dutch organised their own film event in 1955: the Filmweek Arnhem.

Still uit Mad Nest (FR/NL, Shinkichi Tajiri, 1955)

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.

Still from De avonturen van Pietje Bell (NL, Henk van der Linden, 1964)

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.

Still from Vier rakkers en een oude jeep (1959, Henk van der Linden).
Still from Vier rakkers en een oude jeep (1959, Henk van der Linden).

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.

Thalia, Rotterdam, 1971.

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.

Opening title, Spiegel van Nederland. No. 1 (NL, Onbekend, 1958).

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.

Still from Kleren maken de man (NL, Georg Jacoby, 1957)

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.