Opname (1979) User Reviews

A Movie seen by accident but much loved

[AMaycock · 9/10 · 6 May 2001]

I saw this movie on British TV in, I think, 1985. I was idly flicking channels but became transfixed by it. I'm open to sub-titled movies but they can be hard work sometimes. This film was gripping and intensely moving. The subject material, a death from cancer, might deter you but watching this movie will be a life-affirming experience. You will not know whether to cry or leap with joy as the protagonist achieves his small, final victory. Spare, almost documentary in style, the film looks like a bleak small screen soap but it will snare you, enfold you, lead you through the fog of despair but finally lift you.

Gripping (Warning SPOILERs)

[paaskynen · 9/10 · 15 October 2004]

This Dutch film was a low budget project and many of the support cast are amateurs (such as actual hospital staff), but this has contributed to the realism of the film rather than detracted from it.

The plot follows a Dutch horticulturist from the day he leaves his farm to be admitted to hospital for a cancer treatment to the inevitable sad ending. The film displays intensely how the different people concerned deal with the taboo of cancer (which was very strong in the 70s). Nobody tells the protagonist that he is in fact fatally ill, so that he has to discover that by himself and come to terms with it.

This film relies very much on the strength of the acting performances by the main characters, which are totally believable if you take into account the time when the film was made. The storyline is gripping and contains very emotional scenes, but the everyday/everyman approach avoids the risk of melodrama.

Little gem

[Amsterdam_Man · 9/10 · 9 November 2019]

This is one of the best Dutch movies of the '70.

Patients in a hospital try to cope with their illness and the way it affects the people they love.

[bakooi-1 · 10/10 · 2 April 2006]

This a truly hard hitting drama, written and acted by the finest Dutch actors of their generation, who together formed 'Werkteater', which was set up to break away from the suffocating world of Traditional Theater. The acting is absolutely superb and there are many scenes that will resonate in your mind for years to come. Admiraal's mental breakdown as he desperately tries to leave the hospital to be at his daughter's wedding, spawns what is probably the most haunting line in the history of cinema, one which proofs that this troupe of writers and actors truly understood the deepest sense of human nature. Truly an emotional masterpiece, this may well be the finest film ever produced in The Netherlands. Mind you, competition is stiff!

A Special Film

[billf-9 · 10/10 · 27 December 2000]

It would appear that I saw this film 18 years ago! It was at the Toronto Festival of Festivals and I only saw it once, but I found it to be a deeply moving and honest film. It has stayed with me all these years.

The film was well crafted and beautifully acted (Marja Kok was incredible - she said so much with just the movement of a hand.) The story could have been just another disease of the week film - the main character dying of cancer. It spoke so deeply to me about life and about being a man and of bonding; without falling into that manipulative trap that these films often do. A very special film indeed.