Obsessions
Pim de la Parra / NL, DE, 1969 / 90 min.
When a student discovers a hole in the wall he gets an eyeful of his neighbour’s erotic and criminal adventures. This Hitchcockian thriller based on a script by Pim de la Parra, Wim Verstappen and Martin Scorsese (!) was sold to no less than 65 countries. In memoriam Pim de la Parra.
Pim de la Parra passed away on 6 September in Paramaribo at the age of 84. As a tribute to this legendary film pioneer, we’re screening Obsessions. The film’s events pick up when a painting comes down from a wall. The room’s tenant, a medical student, spies on his neighbour through a tiny opening. It is not only sex that stirs his curiosity. Hidden out of sight, he witnesses puzzling and disturbing events, all pointing to crime.
Martin Scorsese, who was in Amsterdam shooting his feature debut Who’s That Knocking At My Door, contributed to the screenplay. Pim de la Parra called his first feature film a ‘sex and psycho-suspense mystery’, an English-language, Dutch-German co-production by $corpio Films. He was inspired by Hitchcock's classic thriller Rear Window (1954) for the story. De la Parra contracted Frans Bromet for the camera work, who had previously only shot on 8 and 16mm.
Pre-film
As a pre-film, Joop (Pim de la Parra, NL 1969, 10’) will screen, in which a clumsy man loses his last chance at lasting love. De la Parra shot this comic short film fourteen days before the premiere of Obsessions, as a preliminary film.
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Details
Director
Pim de la Parra
Production year
1969
Country
NL, DE
Original title
Obsessions
Length
90 min.
Language
English
Subtitles
NLD
Format
DCP
Part of
Eye Classics
Eye’s collection includes a wealth of classics. With the Eye Classics series, Eye brings film history even closer. Every week, we screen at least three classics from the collection under one recognisable name: Eye Classics.
In Memoriam
Pim de la Parra was one of the Netherlands' most colourful directors, and an inspiration to many young Dutch and Surinamese filmmakers. With a free-spirited approach to film-making, he changed the course of the Dutch feature film. He died on 6 September at the age of 84.
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