The Seer (1998)

Directed by: Gerrit van Elst | 85 minutes | drama | Actors: Porgy Franssen, Carine Crutzen, Gijs Naber, Elizabeth Hoytink, Liz Snoyink

On the occasion of the centenary of the birth of the Dutch writer Simon Vestdijk (1888-1971), three films were released in 1998, based on some of his best-known novels. The titles: ‘The seer’ (Gerrit van Elst), ‘The glittering armour’ (Maarten Treurniet) and ‘Ivory watchmen’ (Dana Nechushtan). Although all three premiered at the Netherlands Film Festival, they have only been screened on TV since then. After fourteen years, they are now finally available on DVD.

In ‘The Seer’ we meet Pieter le Roy (Porgy Franssen), a somewhat dorky, unemployed stamp collector who still lives with his mother. At night, Le Roy likes to go out and watch couples making love. His greatest happiness – being seen and feeling so part of the making love – invariably ends in a beating. When Miss Rappange (Carine Crutzen), a French teacher in her mid-thirties, rents a room at Le Roy and his mother’s house and receives a student there for tutoring, Le Roy wants nothing more than to bring the couple together to share in their happiness. .

Unlike Nechushtan and Treurniet, director Gerrit van Elst does set his film in the time in which the book was published: the 1950s. That could hardly be otherwise, because of the small-town feel on which the story floats. Although it was by no means unusual for a teacher to receive students at home for tutoring, one is only somewhat susceptible to the gossip that Le Roy spreads in an anonymous letter about a possible relationship between Miss Rappange and her pupil Dick Thieme Bakker (Gijs Naber). There is a lot of eavesdropping and spying and Van Elst manages to portray this in a nuanced way.

Where in the book Miss Rappange is actually not to be seen, director Gerrit van Elst has (somewhat understandably) opted for an attractive actress – Carine Crutzen in this case. She portrays Rappange as a self-confident, headstrong young woman and that certainly benefits the film. When she gets wind of the gossip, she decides to stir it up by parading with Dick across the schoolyard with her head held high. To which the principal doesn’t know how quickly to ring the bell, fearing that his school’s reputation will deteriorate.

Le Roy meanwhile, is an interesting character. Although perhaps played a bit too mannerly, Porgy Franssen manages to make him amiable as a pitiful figure. The dirty peeper he initially seems, on closer inspection, turns out to be a man with a good heart. But someone who knows how to express himself unhappily. Gijs Naber holds his own as the somewhat shy student who gradually gains in self-confidence. All in all, ‘The Seer’ provides a beautiful picture of the time and an intriguing story. Whether this will make people feel the urge to read Vestdijk, however, remains to be seen. The fifties may still be a little too old for that.