Humour and Irony in Dutch Post-War Fiction Film

Peter Verstraten is Assistant Professor of Film and Literary Studies at Leiden University. His publications include Film Narratology (2009) and Humour and Irony in Dutch Post-war Fiction Film (2016). Together with directors of photography Richard van Oosterhout and Maarten van Rossem, he co-edited Shooting Time (2012), a volume on cinematography. He is a regular contributor to Senses of Cinema.

• Preface Introduction Overview of Studies on Dutch cinema Like Sharing a Secret Code Three Theories of Humour: FLODDER IN AMERIKA! From ?Jokes? to ?Humour? Chapter 1: Low-Class Comedies A Prostitute and a Chambermaid: WAT ZIEN IK?! (No) Ordinary People: HOGE HAKKEN, ECHTE LIEFDE and SCHATJES! Be Thyself (or Act Like a Person): FLODDER Carnivalesque Forrest Gone Berserk: NEW KIDS TURBO Social ?Ragging? Over-the-top: VET HARD, MOORDWIJVEN, FILMPJE! Long Live ?Sjakie? Chapter 2: Multi-Cultural Comedies The Joie de Vivre of the Right-Wing: VOX POPULI Strategic Ambiguity: ALLEEN MAAR NETTE MENSEN 100% Halal: HET SCHNITZELPARADIJS Primal Dutch: SHOUF SHOUF HABIBI! DUNYA & DESIE as a Dutch Road Movie Kebab Sutra: RABAT Flouting Moral Rules Chapter 3: From ?Kind-hearted? Comedies to Neurotic Romances Feel-good Tragedies: KOMEDIE OM GELD and CISKE DE RAT Playful Parallel Editing: FANFARE Bergman ?Light?: DORP AAN DE RIVIER and MAKKERS STAAKT UW WILD GERAAS Sticks of Satay in the Theater: EEN ZWOELE ZOMERAVOND and TUSSENSTAND Pursuits of Happiness: ALLES IS LIEFDE and ALLES IS FAMILIE Free-floating Irony: DE GELUKKIGE HUISVROUW and GOOISCHE VROUWEN Post-Feminism: PHILEINE ZEGT SORRY Women Who Know Too Much Epilogue: A Note on Tolerance Chapter 4: Deliberate Camp A Faggot?s Fairy Tale: THEO & THEO EN DE ONTMASKERING VAN HET TENENKAASIMPERIUM Demy Revisited: DE TRANEN VAN MARIA MACHITA Double Entendres: JA ZUSTER, NEE ZUSTER The Detour of Postmodern Irony: FLORIS Gay Pride: CHEZ NOUS The Risk of Mere Witticism Chapter 5: Humour as an aftermath effect A Discrepancy between Story and Number: BLUE MOVIE A Bohemian Display of Sex and Decay: TURKS FRUIT Once Provocative, Now Obsolete: Pim & Wim Movies Band of Outsiders: CHA CHA Agent Provocateur: 06 and BLIND DATE The Humour of Horror: SINT Chapter 6: Homosocial Jokes Ironic Distance: SPETTERS Homosexual Panic as Baloney: ALL STARS Bonding between a Gay Yup and a He-Man: SIMON Dead Man ?Walking? as a Comedy: DE MARATHON A Wannabe Tarantino Bromance: BROS BEFORE HOS Poetic Homosociality: WILDE MOSSELS Chapter 7: From Ludic Humour to Cosmic Irony A Stilled Form of Catholic Slapstick: DE ILLUSIONIST and DE WISSELWACHTER A Buster Keaton Lookalike on and off the Set: OH BOY! The Brother with a Movie Camera: ZUSJE Play with Ontological Levels: HET ECHTE LEVEN and Mockumentaries Baudelaire?s Ironic Doubling: RENT A FRIEND A Metafictional Joke Played On a Serious Man: OBER A Rom-Com with Peter Pan: AANMODDERFAKKER Chapter 8: From Insubordinate Playfulness to Subversive Irony Ludic Paranoia: DE MINDER GELUKKIGE TERUGKEER VAN JOSZEF KATÚS NAAR HET LAND VAN REMBRANDT A Tongue-in-Cheek Short: BODY AND SOUL Anti-Bourgeois Satire: DE VERLOEDERING VAN DE SWIEPS Buñuelian Desires: DE NOORDERLINGEN Pervaded with Role-Playing: KLEINE TEUN and DE LAATSTE DAGEN VAN EMMA BLANK Middle-of-the-Road Absurdism: DE JURK and GRIMM A Black Horror-Pastiche: BORGMAN Deadpan Irony Chapter 9: From Grotesque Caricature to Grotesque Satire The Grotesque as a Concept A Wannabe Tarantino Caper Movie: BLACK OUT (Not) a Tarantino Dance Movie: NAAR DE KLOTE! Comic Strip Meets Tarantino and Tarkovsky: WEDEROPSTANDING VAN EEN KLOOTZAK Irony of Fate: PLAN C Metafilm as a Vengeful Satire: DE MANTEL DER LIEFDE Fantastic Irony: DE VIERDE MAN Almost Full Circle Conclusion Notes Bibliography Filmography Photo Credits Index of Concepts Index of Titles Index of Names