Gerard Thoolen

Documentary about the Dutch theatregroup the Werktheater. The aim of the company was to create socially relevant theater by means of cooperative processes and improvisation. They often played their performances on location, such as in hospitals, prisons, healthcare institutions and schools. In this documentary, those involved are interviewed about this remarkable theater group.

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A troubled detective befriends a single woman and her daughter with the intention of using them as bait for a serial killer.

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The miserable adventures of Koos Tak, reporter for newspaper 'De Tijdgeest'

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Late 16th century, persecuted protestantism and general dissatisfaction with the Catholic Habsburg rule in the Netherlands lead to large-scale plundering and vandalizing of churches, only harshening the Spanish Inquisition, sparkling the Eighty Years War.

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In this melancholic comedy we follow the successful young violinist Sacha as she travels by train from Paris to Amsterdam and three days later when she returns, bereft of many illusions yet purified within.

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Four illegal Brazilian musicians come to try their luck in dynamic Amsterdam... It will be a survival of the fittest.

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A man from the province looks back on his graduation year, some teachers, the parental home and especially his father.

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A chimney sweep’s daredevil antics are meant to keep a young woman from jumping off the roof. But does she really want to jump? Or does he maybe? A street sweeper is watching and passes the hat round for our hero. Or is he part of the act too?

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Composer Misha Mengelberg collaborates with director Anthony Garner on a commissioned short film to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the death of Mozart.

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An exiled magician finds an opportunity for revenge against his enemies muted when his daughter and the son of his chief enemy fall in love in this uniquely structured retelling of the 'The Tempest'.

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D.C. has been abandoned by his girlfriend Nola, wants to go to Hollywood and participates in 'chicken races' out of desperation and lack of money; a perilous event in which one travels a certain distance on the road by car without stopping.

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A lonely man tossed by life and hectored by his landlady finds happiness only with an alley cat.

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During the 1976 Soweto uprising, a white school teacher's life and values are threatened when he asks questions about the death of a young black boy who died in police custody.

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Liesje’s parents are divorced. She lives in a nice house with her mother and grandpa. Liesje writes letters to her father who lives in Rio de Janeiro. At least, that’s what her mother has told her. After Liesje’s grandpa passes away, she begins to miss her father more and more. She decides to go visit him in Rio. To get money for the flight, she sells the stamp collection she was given by her grandpa. Without her mother knowing, she boards the plane to Brazil alone – but then she finds out the truth about her father.

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Alternating comedy and drama this portrait of different families on three floors in an Amsterdam building where the stairs symbolizes the suffering of known urban living alongside each other. Upstairs live two students, including the failed and unemployed singer Karin with Harrie and Wouter down with his demented mother.

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Four-part musical about the life of Dutch actress Fien de la Mar, chronicling her earliest days on stage with her father, her glory days as a stage and movie star and the building her own theatre, up until the tragic end of her life.

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Identical twin zoologists lose their wives in a car crash caused by a white swan. They become obsessed with the death and decay of animals, and develop a strange and unusual relationship with the driver of the car, a woman who is now an amputee.

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The full title of this Dutch film is Pervola: Tracks in the Snow. A stockbroker moves away from his home village of Pervola and puts his two sons in charge of his business. Older brother Hein (Bram van der Vlugt) cheats younger brother Simon (Gerard Thoolen) out of his share, claiming that Simon was disinherited because he is homosexual. Hein grows powerful, while Simon seems to weaken with each passing day. Flash-forward several years: the dying stockbroker calls his sons to his side. Faithful Simon agrees to dad's wishes that he be buried in Pervola, but Hein doesn't want to go to the trouble of transporting the body; he finally agrees to help Simon, out of fear that his brother will learn of his long-ago treachery. While arduously journeying to Pervola with the father's body strapped to a sled, Hein inadvertently confesses; Simon, however, is of strong enough moral fibre to forgive his brother.

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This film is about the Jewish girl Sara and the ruin of her family during World War II. Her parents have to live in the Jewish ghetto in Amsterdam, but later they are arrested and deported. Sara decides to flee with her brother and his girlfriend to Palestine. Based on the book by Marga Minco.

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Otto, a Jewish refugee who managed to escape from Berlin in the early days of WW2, is now the owner of an Amsterdam ice cream parlor. Otto's place soon becomes a microcosm of the city with its German invaders, Dutch collaborators and anti-fascist resistance groups.

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The reconstruction of a Dutch political scandal from the 1960s when a PR specialist managed to gain unhealthy influence in government circles. Eventually he became the biggest victim.

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A lift technician finds himself drawn into a web of mystery and peril as he investigates the perplexing deadly accidents occurring in the elevators of a new office building.

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Two brothers end up separated for one of them has mental issues. Meanwhile one of the two follows his dream in becoming a magician.

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Hes, an uptight and disaffected social worker reaching retirement, discovers a young woman, Anna, in the closet of an acquaintance who has committed suicide. Realizing that she has been kept in the apartment all her life, he moves in and helps her comes to terms with the complexities of the real world.

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A husband, half of an entertainment duo, the Nellicos, tells his wife, who is the other half of the duo, that he has another woman. But they cannot discuss this as he tells her only just before they are due to perform in front of a large audience. (BFI)

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In 1928 in the northern part of the Netherlands, a man has an affair with the wife of one of his friends (who is in jail at the time). Because she abandons her children to move in with him, the police are sent to arrest her. This leads to a dramatic confrontation.

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TV-adaptation of the performance by the Dutch theatre group 'Het Werkteater'. Three ladies of high society invite homeless people, homeless people and junks to spend a pleasant evening with them, in order to promote communication and integration.

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The film presents regular Stadsjournaal actor Gerard Thoolen as a rebellious cyclist gallivanting around the streets of Amsterdam performing anarchic stunts on his bicycle. He clumsily cuts up cars, kicks their wingmirrors off, generally torments motorists and takes part in a bicycle race on his heavy ride. When his black gentleman’s bike gets stuck in the tram rails, he angrily grabs a pneumatic drill.

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An unsuspecting flower farmer visits the hospital to discuss some test results, only to find himself admitted without explanation for an indefinite period of further examination and observation.

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"Conditions" - The improvisation-based performance was inspired by psychiatrists such as RD Laing (Family and Madness) and J. Foudraine (Who is of wood). The Werkteater played this performance 'in the den of the lion': in psychiatric institutions for patients and carers. This led to very intensive and adventurous performances in which 'a lot' always happened. Afterwards the discussions sometimes ran high, but even during the performance the audience sometimes mixed themselves in the scenes.

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TV-adaptation of the performance by the Dutch theatre group 'het Werkteater'. A realistic fairy tale about old people in the no man's land between life and death, set in a retirement home.

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Tim, now a respectable family man, runs into his old buddy Bodde. Bodde convinces Tim to go out with him under the motto: "Laugh, laugh, laugh!" Tim calls his wife to tell her "he'll be a little late," while Bodde keeps persuading him to stay with him for a new deal or a wonderful plan, and so they roam the country. Along the way, they swindle money from everyone and meet the young, beautiful Aafke. Isn't Tim too old for all this?

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Documentairy about the progressive theatre group 'Het Werkteater' at their home base on Kattengat 10 in Amsterdam.

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