The thirties: sound film
The advent of the sound film changes film production and cinema culture in many ways. From scriptwriters to editors, from actors to projectionists: everyone has to adapt. Cinema musicians have to find other work. In the Netherlands, this upheaval takes place in the first half of the 1930s.
Dutch film history: sound film in the thirties
Loet C. Barnstijn (1880 - 1953).
The Emergence of the Sound Film
In 1930, more than half of all Dutch cinemas had sound projectors, making this country one of the forerunners in Europe.
Foreign Stars in the Netherlands in the 1930s
In the 1930s, many foreign stars regularly came to the Netherlands as part of publicity campaigns for themselves or their films.
Female film editors in the 1930s
One of the first roles behind the camera where women did gain a foothold was that of editor.
De big van het regiment (NL, Max Nosseck, 1935)
December 1934 – the Kuijt Case
In the mid-1930s, every Dutch film had had several German crewmembers work on it. So why did the union, the NVF, block the work permit of this one editor?
Still Jubileumfilm Vandaag (1937).
Publicity in the 1930s
‘Cinematography is young; publicity is even younger’, quipped publicity manager Henrik Scholte in his contribution to the ‘Officieel Orgaan van den Nederlandschen Bioscoop-Bond’.
Multi-Language Versions
The arrival of the sound film immediately brought another problem with it: the language barrier.
Contests and Surveys
Using contests in the 1930s, magazines not only tried to find new film talent but also to maintain or encourage audiences’ interest in film.
The Summer of 1936
De Jantjes, premiered in 1934, ushered in a short-lived boom in Dutch feature film production. Within about two years, more films using the same formula were produced.
Film Factories in the 1920s and 1930s
Newsreels were a popular genre, and quite a few production companies produced their own newsreels.
Abraham Tuschinski (middle); Theater Tuschinski, 1927.
Theater Tuschinski
The Polish immigrant Abraham Tuschinski built a Rotterdam cinema empire in just over a decade. He then set his sights on building his own cinema in Amsterdam.
The Sound Film Succeeds Thanks to Revue Stars
When the sound film was introduced in the Netherlands, the film world capitalised on the popularity of Dutch revue stars.
De Zeearend
The Eye collection contains two versions of a brilliant documentary film about a transatlantic sailing race that took place in 1936, made by Jan Hin.
Cinetone studios, 1930s to 1948
Although this dream factory would be the epicentre of Dutch film for fifty-five years, Cinetone always remained undermined by a "permanent crisis".
Rudi Meyer and Dutch Film in the 1930s
According to Meyer, his role as a filmmaker was to mediate between ‘the capital interests’ and the ‘artistic demands of the film’.
The ‘Jordaan’ Film
Once the sound film had been introduced in the 1930s, well-known revue stars such as Fien de la Mar, Sylvain Poons and Heintje & Louis Davids had the opportunity to sing in films.
World of wonder: the travelogues of Theo Regout
As an adventurer, Regout follows in the footsteps of the great nineteenth-century explorers, except that he brings a camera along so that he can show us what he sees.