Waiter (2006)

Directed by: Alex van Warmerdam | 97 minutes | comedy | Actors: Alex van Warmerdam, Thekla Reuten, Arian Schlüter, Jaap Spijkers, Pierre Bokma, Fedja van Huêt, Kees Prins

‘Ober’ is a comedy in a very special style that is very different in structure from the previous films by Van Warmerdam. For example, while his film ‘Grimm’ had almost no dialogues, ‘Ober’ is full of humor and sometimes extremely witty and witty dialogues. The story develops completely unpredictably, which is a strong point of this comedy. ‘Waiter’ is mainly a story about an ordinary little man who mainly wants to be a little happy in his ordinary little human existence. Edgar, the main character in the film, is a waiter in a moderately running restaurant “”Het Westen”” with a large aquarium. His work gives him little satisfaction. When he is provoked to the extreme by difficult customers and has no answer, he goes to Herman, the man who writes his life in the form of a screenplay for a film. He storms into the apartment of the writer and his wife Suzie, who is emphatically interfering with Herman’s work.

A clever idea is the way in which Edgar relates to his creator, the writer. The screenwriter and Edgar constantly get in each other’s way. This gimmick keeps coming back in the movie and this also applies to the other characters in the story. Yet this gimmick never gets boring. Edgar finds that the screenwriter makes his life very unpleasant for him and constantly demands changes in his existence. The screenwriter admits to this. But to bother him, he writes new entanglements in Edgar’s life story. These are sometimes even more unpleasant for Edgar or present him with new surprises. A special finding here is that the screenwriter’s wife is constantly making changes to the story herself against the scriptwriter’s wishes. The same scenes then play out again, but from a completely different angle in the storyline. This is a clever find that constantly leads to surprising developments and at the same time to a struggle between Herman and Suzie. This gives a nice glimpse into how a story can develop differently if the scenario is changed (and it continuously does).

Yet at the same time there is also a somewhat sad undertone to the story, Edgar is a bit of a pathetic figure who has no control over his life and cannot get enough. Through his repeated raids on Herman, Edgar also profoundly affects the screenwriter’s life, as he constantly comes to him with new desires about his own life. This also has an effect on the relationship between Herman and his wife. They strongly disagree about what this scenario should look like and get into a heated argument. Edgar’s life is always changing, new paths are always broken. Never a dull moment.

Although the story also includes a few deaths and a few knights of the sad figure (including a suicide), humor predominates to a great extent. The situations are often very bizarre with some brilliant finds. Strong acting, thorough camera work and magnificent photography. The locations where the story takes place are well chosen. An extremely capricious storyline guarantees many surprising developments. Let yourself be surprised and entertained by this absurdist and full of special humor filled film. Great class and highly recommended.