The Rage of the Whole World (2006)

Directed by: Guido Pieters | 118 minutes | comedy, crime, thriller | Actors: Esther Way, Elisa Becker, Nyncke Beekhuyzen, Ottolien Boeschoten, Frederik Braem, Ruben Brinkmann, Frederik Brom, Reinout Bussemaker, Thomas de Bres, Mirijam De Rooij, Peter Drost, Cas Enklaar, Marcel Faber, Cees Geel, Hugo Haenen, Maarten Heijmans, Ad Hoeymans, René van t Hof, Rosa Knaup, Frits Lambrechts, Frank Lammers, Peer Mascini, Kim Pieters, Joost Prinsen, Tatiana Radier, Bob Radstaak, Miryanna van Reeden, Arthur Roffelsen, Anna Speller, Vivienne van den Assem, Lizelotte van Dijk, Michel Visser, Bart de Vries

The film ‘The fury of the whole world’ is a very free adaptation of the book of the same name by Maarten ‘t Hart, who himself indicates that the film is far removed from his book. The title is taken from a cantata by JS Bach, in which he ‘evokes the rage of the whole world and also conjures it up again’. We find this incantation again in the closing developments of the film.

As is so often the case with book adaptations, much has disappeared for the readers of the book in the film version and storylines have sometimes been radically changed. There is nothing wrong with that in itself: a book is for reading, the film version is a pictorial story. From that point of view, the film could be described as a success. The film has no complaints about publicity beforehand. The name of the writer already guarantees this, there is also a well-organized publicity campaign up to and including a making of that is shown on TV and a festive premiere in The Hague with, among others, the Prime Minister.

In the film, the eventful childhood of Alexander Goudveyl is the focus. That youth is also the history of the fifties and sixties and of a murder case that has never been clarified. That murder goes back to an authentic incident: in 1956, just before Christmas, a police officer was shot dead in broad daylight in Maassluis during a large-scale evangelistic campaign. A failed attempt to escape with a herring cutter in the turbulent May days of 1940 also plays a role in the film. All those on board have to get into the lifeboat and the cutter is sunk. The refugees have to flee back to shore and find shelter at the pharmacist of Maassluis.

Skipper Vroom (Cees Geel) blames his Jewish passengers for the loss of his ship. He joins the police and cooperates with the Germans. Even after the war, his behavior still has a criminal slant. The storyline also has a large number of entanglements involving many people and various dramatic events lead to a film with thriller-like elements that are seamlessly interwoven with the psychological development of Alexander Goudveyl. His dream is to become a composer. He grew up in the religious Maassluis. His father is a trader in second-hand goods and moved to the petty-bourgeois Maassluis during the war. Agent Vroom did not play such a fresh role in this, he helped Alex’s father by ensuring that he could buy the business of a Jewish trader for a pittance.

During an evangelization day, Vroom is murdered. Alex witnesses this and fears that the killer will return one day to eliminate a troublesome witness. There are plenty of suspects, all the people on the scene make it a detective-like story, in which many have an unclear past.

‘The rage of the whole world’ eventually develops into a real whodunit where the inspector at the end reveals the shocking truth through a brilliant analysis of the situation à la Inspector Columbo.

The entire tone and staging of the film make it a very Dutch product, in which the smell of Brussels sprouts can almost be smelled. The dialogues sometimes sound a bit repetitive and the game lacks convincing power for some actors. Sometimes it’s too bold and becomes too big of a stereotype to be believable. The agent (Cees Geel) plays well, but seems to be a kind of bad guy of the Brommustache variant. That sometimes makes the types almost caricatured. The sex bomb that lets the young Alex make love for the first time, it is too thick and the story loses power by portraying these types of characters. The problem for the well-known Dutch actor is of course that you can hardly separate some of them from the types they play in other films or commercials.

Due to the occasionally stiff game and the excessive influence of the characters, the whole does not come loose from the ground. At the same time, it is precisely this recognizability of the actors that may be a good reason for many to see the film. The recognizability of the Netherlands from that period makes it worth the trip to the movie theater for fans of a light-hearted Dutch-language film. The serious film buff will not find too much to his liking in it.