ABSTRACT

Chapter two is informed by the question ‘Why are there always two fathers?’ (and sometimes even three). Starting with Rademakers’ clearest attempt at ‘art cinema’ (DE DANS VAN DE REIGER), the chapter addresses the unbridgeable gap between actual fathers and the symbolic bearers of the father's name. Examining a heterogeneous list of film titles, father figures take different guises: as a preacher teacher (DORP AAN DE RIVIER), a mouthpiece of his wife (MAKKERS, STAAKT UW WILD GERAAS), an irresponsible bon vivant (CISKE DE RAT); a memory-image (PERVOLA), a great pretender (LEK; BLOED, ZWEET EN TRANEN; KARAKTER), a pathetic character (ABEL; DE AVONDEN; GLUCKAUF), an unwitting gangster boss (DE BOSKAMPI’S), and also a legendary ghost (DE VLIEGENDE HOLLANDER).

KEYWORDS

Two fathers (and sometimes three) – Freud's fable from Totem and Taboo – Hypermasculine and symbolic fathers – Unforgiving fathers

In the opening scenes of Rademakers’ black-and-white DE DANS VAN DE REIGER, shot in widescreen format, a bald man plays the part of a horny master to a woman dressed as a chambermaid. She acts as if she is running away from him, but when she jumps upon the bed, she lets her ankles be kissed by him. When she gets up again, he goes after her, taking a bottle of champagne with him. They then start kissing each other, but suddenly they both listen up, for they hear a boy's laughter, offscreen. The camera moves around objects inside the apartment to end up peeping in through the window from the outside, and we now see the couple behind the bars, framed by curtains. As we hear an offscreen ‘Dad, mom’, the man swiftly takes the chambermaid's cap from her head. He then opens the window and says ‘Eddie, my boy’, to which the woman adds: ‘Weren't you going to the cinema?’ Any view from the kid is kept from us, for this frontally staged two-shot of the man and woman in the open window dissolves into a landscape shot of the Adriatic Coast, over which the credits are projected. The picture-postcard quality of the scenery is emphasized when yellow letters mention ‘Greetings from Dubrovnik’.