Dutch Angle: Chas Gerretsen & Apocalypse Now (2019)

Directed by: Baris Azman | 33 minutes | documentary, short film | With: Chas Gerretsen, Züleyha Azman, Jan de Vries, Martijn van den Broek

The Dutch photographer Chas Gerretsen is internationally known as a war photographer as well as a ‘Hollywood’ photographer. For years he traveled through conflict zones in Vietnam, Cambodia and Chile – and then filmed major film stars in the late 1970s and early 1980s. These two worlds come together beautifully in his work for the film ‘Apocalypse Now’: Francis Ford Coppola’s visionary and Palme-winning epic about the Vietnam War. Pretty much everything about the film’s shooting has become legendary: intended protagonist Harvey Keitel being replaced by Martin Sheen — and Sheen who, in turn, suffers a heart attack during the shoot, leaving his brother Joe Estevez as a stand-in until Sheen has been refurbished a bit; Marlon Brando who arrives on set unprepared and overweight and director Coppola who nearly loses his mind in the Philippine jungle when the film goes over budget, is delayed for months when the sets are destroyed by a tropical storm and all his own money in the production has to stop to save the day. The fact that the film finally comes out in 1979 can be called a small miracle. Eleanor Coppola (Francis’s wife) and two others made the fascinating documentary ‘Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse’ about it in 1991.

Gerretsen’s work adds a new dimension to this: he walked around the set in 1976 and 1977 at the invitation of Coppola as a ‘still photographer’. Coppola had been impressed by Gerretsen’s work as a war photographer and wanted to have him on the shoot. Some of the hundreds of photos the Dutchman took can be seen in this documentary. It is a collaboration between KINO in Rotterdam and the Nederlands Fotomuseum.

After a short introduction in which the compilers Martijn van den Broek, Züleyha Azman and Jan de Vries outline the framework, director Baris Azman allows Gerretsen (in English) to speak for himself, talking about his experiences in war and film, interspersed with many of his photos. Many of these images have never been seen before – a reason for the Fotomuseum to want to show them cinematically on the largest possible canvas. They are beautiful, colorful and penetrating images that show the actors and the sets in particular in the last part of the film: the camp in Cambodia where Colonel Kurtz (played by Brando) is treated as a demigod by the locals. — and a handful of Americans are worshipped. Gerretsen wasn’t really part of the crew, but walked around the set taking pictures of what he found interesting and what he believed to be the meaning of the film. At a certain point, the boundaries between film and reality, between a (war) report and staged compositions seem to fade. The photos and accompanying commentary by Gerretsen thus show the eccentricity and the almost hallucinatory experience of the recordings of ‘Apocalypse Now’. Gerretsen also says that he gave advice to the crew on how actor Dennis Hopper could better come into his own in his role as a manic photojournalist. In turn, Gerretsen learned a lot from the renowned cinematographer Vittorio Storaro – who would earn his first (of three) Oscars here.

The documentary lasts (unfortunately!) only half an hour and certainly leaves you wanting more. More anecdotes, more in-depth information and more photos. The title (Dutch Angle) not only refers to the angle of the Dutchman in the Philippine jungle, but is also a well-known way of filming from a skewed camera position in the film world – which has an alienating effect. Very appropriately chosen.