Nostalgia Kinky

2024 is only about a week old and I have already made my first great film discovery of the year. Released in Dutch cinemas in 1977, Ate de Jong’s Blindgangers (Blind Spot) is an absolutely extraordinary and powerful look at the up-and-down relationship between an Amsterdam couple in the mid-seventies. Powered by two excellent lead performances from Ansje Beentjes and Derek de Lint, a remarkable score by Dutch jazz legend Willem Breuker, a strong supporting cast, and de Jong’s superb script and direction, Blind Spot is the kind of personal minor masterpiece I love discovering. Like, I seriously live for these types of hidden treasures.

Born in 1953 in Aardenburg, Zeeland, Netherlands, Ate de Jong like several of Holland’s most notable filmmakers, attended the Dutch Film Academy in Amsterdam after briefly working as a journalist before thoughts of a film career took hold. Best known to American audiences for various works, ranging from Miami Vice episodes to Drop Dead Fred (1991) his finest films are the ones he shot in the Netherlands in the earliest part of his career.

Ate de Jong was still in his early twenties when his first directorial opportunity came his way, via the 1976 anthology film Alle dagen feest, which also featured chapters directed by cinematic newbies Otto Jongerius, Orlow Seunke, and painter and future Mysteries director Paul de Lussanet. Blind Spot arrived just a year after and marked de Jong’s first feature-length film he both directed and co-scripted (with Wanda Reisel).

Produced for Horizon Film Productions by the important duo of Olga Madsen and Frans Rasker, Blind Spot is a penetrating look at a disintegrating relationship. Both Madsen and Rasker were fellow filmmakers and peers of de Jong, making them the ideal team to help bring his first production to fruition. One of the first films either would produce, Blind Spot is a quietly devastating debut and a most subtle look at a relationship burned at both ends. Filled with emotion, Blind Spot is incredibly moving and will be instantly relatable to anyone who has ever found themselves trapped in a romantic downward spiral.

Working with a tiny crew and an even smaller budget, de Jong turns any stumbling blocks to his advantage throughout Blind Spot. De Jong’s debut is a model of great independent filmmaking, transforming what could have been a very tired story into something both poetic and relatable. Opening audaciously with the final scene of Von Sternberg’s masterpiece Dishonored (1931), Blind Spot is extremely ambitious despite its small personal scale and it succeeds every step of the way.

Announcements for Blind Spot initially appeared in the Dutch press in the fall of 1976. De Jong was mentioned along with Nouchka van Brakel, who was also making her first film, in a Het vrije volk article. The first lengthy look at the upcoming film arrived in the pages of Algemeen Dagblad opening with:

“A student house in Amsterdam, in the heart of the Kankerbuurt, currently serves as a film studio. The tiny rooms of the home form a central setting for Blindgangers, a new Dutch feature film, for producer Frans Rasker and director Ate de Jonp who have a limited budget at their disposal…More than 90 percent of the story takes place indoors and there is much more dialogue than action. “I understand very well that I take extra risks and can therefore fall flat on my face more quickly,” says screenwriter-director Ate de Jong. “But I wanted this formula on purpose because it’s going to be such a film, which has to do with myself. The screenplay was written as close to home as possible; It’s about my ideas about the contemporary problems of young people.” “It has become common – especially in a city like Amsterdam – to move in together quickly.”

Written by journalist Constant Wallagh, the lengthy piece also featured interviews with the cast, including de Lint who noted that the cramped quarters were nothing new to him and they went along with the intimate feel of the film. The article pointed out that both leads were originally stage actors as Beentjes explained:

“Of course, I would like to spend a year just doing film in an environment and under a direction from which I can learn enough. But I’m also on stage with a full heart, which is why I definitely don’t chase every film opportunity across borders. In doing so, you have to remain realistic. Our country is too small to be primarily a film actress.” “I’ve just been a few years old older than my character Danielle. but I really feel the set-up and the text that Ate de Jong has given her. I follow philosophy about the merging and the non-merging of two people very closely, although I am a lot further along. The role is indeed even heavier than the one in De Loteling. I can’t cling to appearances as much now. The dialogue must come from within. The topical aspect of the fact is the indication that the so-called complete freedom between two people who are together does not exist in practice.”

Expected to premiere in five cinemas on March 31, 1977, Rasker mentioned the low budget wasn’t an issue “because everything is handled very economically,” with “Many interior shots taken in Ate de Jong’s home, for example. And there are no ferocious car chases or plane crashes.” Many other articles appeared throughout the early months of 1977, with Blind Spot often profiled along with van Brakel’s The Debut and Verhoeven’s Soldier of Orange.

The major players continued to promote the upcoming film throughout 1977. Rasker told Het vrije volk how personal the film was to everyone involved and how happy he was with the rough cut. Calling it authentic and realistic, he noted the film centered on two young people scared of being alone, but not yet ready to lose their childhood illusions of what they thought life and love would be. Noting the importance of the jazz-based score, Rasker praised the entire team, noting how much everyone excelled with the low budget.

Much of the coverage surrounding the film focused on the phenomenal actors, perhaps especially Beentjes who waxed poetically about the film and her role in the pages of De Warheiid:

“It’s about the last three days of an affair between a boy and a girl. It’s their first intimate relationship. The first time they experience what living together is…” “It’s not about morality, It’s about the pattern of thinking. It’s the games they play with each other. They think they’re being honest with each other, but they’re dishonest because they’re hiding their emotions. I think it has to do with the times. I’ve experienced it myself. You think you’re doing well with each other, but subconsciously you also know that you’re not. Only you don’t talk about that. You hide from each other. Later, you think you’re not compatible at all, when you don’t have to be… That’s what it’s all about: how young people, out of ignorance, can interact with each other. My character is younger than I am and she wants to leave, for a long time, but she’s afraid she’ll hurt him and doesn’t dare to say it. The boy says that long-term relationships can’t exist anyway. Essentially, he craves a relationship with her. That’s the drama…I love that de Jong was like, ‘I’m just going to make my own film’. I love that. It’s a cheap movie. It costs less than 170,000 guilders, I believe. Soldier of Orange costs five million in comparison. De Jong didn’t need that as there are no spectacular things in it, no ferocious chases for example…De Jong his own money in it, he’s put his life-savings into it.”

As pre-release buzz gained for Blind Spot, controversy arose after The Cannes Film Festival refused entry to it and several other deserving Dutch productions. Had Blind Spot found its way to the festival, it very well might have secured some international deals and wouldn’t be so obscure today, but it just wasn’t to be. Even more difficulty arrived when the date and location of the film’s Dutch premiere had to be changed several times, as Het Parool noted at the end of April, 1977.

Blind Spot finally premiered in a handful of Dutch theaters by the summer of 1977. Critical reaction was mostly positive if slightly mixed. Algemeen Dagblad noted that despite having less money than even typical micro-budgeted works, de Jong had created a film that was ‘authentic’, ‘honest’, and ‘relatable’ and it avoided many of the problems that often came with a debut feature. De Volkskrant praised the film as being especially ‘ambitious’ considering its budget. The review applauded the script and performances finally exclaiming, “Blind Spot might only be a very small drama, but it is filled humanity and truth.”

Typical of the Dutch press, there were some mixed to negative reactions as well. Het Parool, comparing it unfavorably to French New Wave productions, found the film finally too dull for its own good and perhaps ‘too honest.” Drawing parallels to Polish cinema in the sixties, NRC Handelsblad praised some of the film’s ‘quieter moments’ and noted the strong supporting cast but ultimately found the film ‘cumbersome’ and ‘transparent’.

Nieuwsblad van het Noorden detailed just how much de Jong and his small crew of just half a dozen people had invested in the film themselves. Praising certain moments in the film and performances, the review finally couldn’t seem to decide if it approved of de Jong making a film so intensely personal or if the whole production was finally just a major ‘product of hubris combined with a lack of critical guidance.’

Blind Spot continued playing throughout the summer and fall of 1977 in Dutch theaters, but it failed to become a breakout hit although De Telegraph, in a long profile of de Jong, noted that audiences packed certain theaters initially. De Jong, pleased with his achievement, spoke extensively in the interview:

“I’m not fazed by all the interest, A lot of things happened that I knew would come over me and I endured it as resignedly as possible. I certainly do not want to say that I have been unmoved by it. I also have fears. For example, I’m afraid to enter one of the cinemas where it is running, afraid to hear people react negatively or to see people leave the theatre prematurely. At the same time, of course, it is a great feeling to see your name in neon letters on such a theater. After all, it’s something you only dreamed of a year and a half ago and that so many have to dream of for the rest of their lives. I am also pleased that it appears to be possible for private initiative to be rewarded. I was able to scrape together the money for the film with pain and effort and eventually shot it on a minimum budget of 170,000 guilders, insanely low when you consider that the average Dutch film nowadays can no longer be made below seven or eight hundred thousand guilders.”

De Jong also discussed the writing of the film in the interview as well as his views on young Dutch people at the time:

“What shocked me, however, was the pessimism among these very young people. That pessimism really exists, I don’t suffer from it myself, probably because I have ambitions. But I see from many of my peers that live from a great gloom, with a dark view of the future. There is a frightening uncertainty among young people of the generation as it appears in the film. Too many have no goal, no ambition, lack the material compulsion to fight or hard work. I believe that this is where the difference lies…I wrote the story for the film with Wanda. We had a lot of discussions while writing. So the tone in the film is not only mine, but also hers. We spent six months together when we started writing. Perhaps we had a more secure starting position then. We had gone through that period of exploring each other and stood opposite each other as human beings, who had no secrets from each other…too much in life is ill-considered, it’s done too much out of despair or pessimism with no view of the future…But don’t paint me the image of the great pessimist. I’m just signaling it, but personally, I definitely don’t feel that way. I’m restless at work. I don’t even have the time to sit down and think gloomily, and I feel like restless work discovers many good elements that contribute to happiness in life.”

Blind Spot failed to garner much of a release outside of the Netherlands, either theatrically or on home video, a truly sad fate for such an exceptional work but one that plagued many great Dutch films. De Jong’s next film, Dag Dokter (1978), again starred de Lint, was co-scripted by the great Flemish novelist and filmmaker Hugo Claus. De Jong made a few more Dutch films before briefly moving to America in the mid-eighties for several television shows and features. He’s continued working steadily, although the promise of his early self-funded career perhaps never fully fulfilled itself in the way it deserved.

De Lint became amongst the Netherlands most respected actors and Blind Spot remains one of his finest performances. Sadly, Blind Spot remains one of the few feature film roles for the uber-talented Beentjes, who has spent the majority of her career on the stage. I’ll not forget the moments De Lint and Beentjes share in Blind Spot, a film so deserving of a second chance, much like the young couple’s relationship the film so eloquently details.

-Jeremy Richey, January 2024-

Here are some further vintage Dutch scans I have quoted from above: