Looks like the less we know about this Dutch thriller in advance the better (watch it with English subtitles here), but here’s the official synopsis: “Borgman’s arrival in the tree-lined avenues of an exclusive residential area is the beginning of a series of unsettling events around the carefully constructed facade of a wealthy couple, their three children and the nanny.”
Read Alex van Warmerdam’s own description of his intentions after the cut.
(via ScreenOnScreen)
In Borgman I wanted to show that evil comes in everyday form, embodied within ordinary, normal, polite men and women who perform their tasks with pride and pleasure, and with ruthless attention to detail. I wanted to show that evil is enacted not just on cold winter nights, but in the optimistic summer, beneath a warm and comforting sun.
And I wanted to show that a man like Borgman, who continually remains elusive, can intoxicate a woman so fully with desire that she is rendered powerless.
This film is darker than my other films because I wanted to go further. I wanted to descend into an unknown, dark part of my imagination and see what was to be found there. And I wanted to make a film very much open to interpretation, one that raises more questions than it answers.
I think Borgman is a strong film – ask me again in 10 years and I will have forgotten how I ever came to write it – but in my experience there are always things which could be better. Nevertheless I am very curious about how it will be received.
,,,,,,wondering if there is something thematic at work here in terms of the Cannes selection for films this year–people at their darkest AND extreme violence as a representation of that?
Thanks for the PDF link, too, Ryan.
Curiosity had the best of me and I ended up reading but all of the brief synopsis. Intriguing; and somehow, not a spoiler at all *(be careful) to each his own*, it makes me want to learn about it for more — in part, for instance, for what that little girl as a character has done at the end of the trailer; to see if that was an immediate shot or just PR stunt.
(To be honest, I’m also quite uncultured when it comes to Dutch films. So, in a sense this is going to be a Dutch-film lesson of sort to me as well.)
Super excited for this film! Alex van Warmerdam is one of my favorite directors! This one looks great as well!
So glad to see a Dutch film finally again in the line up for the Palme D’or!
Thanks again mate!
I’m super excited for this. Wish I could be in Cannes to catch it.
15-page PDF press material here, but I’m not going to read it. I’d advise nobody look at the “synopsis” page because it appears to reveal way too much.