User Reviews

The film "Van oude mensen, de dingen die voorbij gaan" (of old men, things that go) certainly has emotional and psychological depth, and can pride oneself on quality. Caro van Eyck and Paul Steenbergen do an excellent performance as a really, really old, old loving couple. The recordings are all indoor, and although the sets are in good taste, it is probably a low budget produce (it was recorded for TV, and anyway Dutch film artists don't claim tens of millions of dollars). In fact it could have been the recording of a play on stage. Essentially it is a family saga, situated in the upper circles of the The Hague society. For me, it brought back memories of the film "The age of innocence", which at the time fascinated me and has the same atmosphere of plush and tasteful luxury. The narrative is based on a book by Louis Couperus, who excelled in portraying the Dutch bourgeois society around 1900, notably in the administrative center The Hague. Like many other Dutch writers he prefers to elaborate on dysfunctional behavior of people, which is probably purifying but also somewhat depressing. So don't expect happy endings. Because of this preferred bourgeois subject, the stories of Couperus usually contain references to the colonial life. In "Van oude mensen" this is also the case, although to a lesser extent than in this other Couperus film "De stille kracht". The family in "Van oude mensen" holds three generations, and some ten characters, which unfold during the spectacle of four hours. The religious old maid ("this is not befitting"), the spouse who is always fishing for someones cash value ("I never talk about money"), the old administrator who was dismissed because of his affair with a young girl and now reads pornographic literature, the childish and depressed former beauty, married three times etc. SPOILER! The story line is the terrible secret of the progenitor couple, a manslaughter (or was it self-defense?), which happened some sixty (!) years ago in Dutch India (Indonesia). The crime was covered up by the close colonial community. This is another theme of the narrative: some things can't be forgotten, and come back to haunt you. The old man Emile hears voices, whereas the old woman Ottoline has flashbacks of the victim. Emile visits her every day, which leads to ever recurring conversations. The family has suspicions, is curious, but "You must let rest the past. Sometimes it is better not to know". One of the daughters, who had discovered the crime already during her youth, became a nun. A son, who had actually seen the pools of blood, is still traumatized. We witness the death of Emile, their old friend and accomplice the doctor, and finally Ottoline. Being devoted to social films, "Van oude mensen" is not really my thing. Still, it contains good character studies and psychological intricacy. The social thing in this film is probably negative: bourgeois life, always searching for money, often even in marriage, which buys comfort and security, but not happiness or an escape from loneliness.