Jos Stelling - Netherlands director: biography, filmography

Jos Stelling is a director, screenwriter, producer from the Netherlands. The world public knows his films "Girl and Death" and "Illusionist". What do you know about the Netherlands cinema? In Northern Europe there was a special relationship to the cinema. European films do not look like Russian or Hollywood paintings. The directors of Northern Europe have their own special style.

Jos Stelling is the most Dutch director of all who lives there. His style in the movies is not like any of the known. In 2007, the Russian film was released the film "Dushka" with Sergei Makovetsky in the title role. The film was directed by Jos Stelling.

Biography: early years

The future director was born on July 16, 1945 in the city of Utrecht in the Netherlands. His parents were the most ordinary people, his father was a baker by trade. Jos, like all children, went to school, played with other boys in the yard. Once, when the boy was nine years old, he found a film on the street at 35 millimeters. The film was stuck together from water and unfit. Jos kept his find in the box and did not show it to anyone. Sometimes, when someone was interested in the contents of the box, he began to invent and tell stories that, he said, were stored in a box.

In the school where the future director was studying, on Sundays showed films by famous Italian movie masters. With each new film the boy more and more fell in love with the cinema. Subsequently, it is the Italian cinema school that will have the greatest impact on the work of Stelling.

After graduating from school, Jos decided to study as a director. In the Netherlands at that time there were no educational institutions that gave such an education. The guy has nothing else to do but study the history and foundations of the motion picture on his own.

The first films

When the guy learned the basics of motion pictures, he decided to make his own film at any price. He had a script and a huge desire, but there was no money and equipment. As actors in the film, the budding director invited his friends. Thus, the first full-length film by Jos "Mariken from Nijmegen" was shot. The film was released in 1974. At the box office, the picture paid off and attracted the attention of the audience. Quite unexpectedly for everyone, Stelling's creation fell into the main program of the Cannes Film Festival.

Inspired by the success of the newly-made Dutch director took up the next film. In 1975, the film "Elkerlik" was released. He was also shooting with a low budget and non-professional actors. This time the audience reacted to the picture rather sluggishly, despite the loud after the Cannes Film Festival the name of the director - Jos Stelling.

Films, which were filmed by the director, were already with a solid budget and with professional actors. In 1977, the screensaver released the painting "Rembrandt, Portrait 1669". A film about the life of a famous artist was warmly received by film critics and even received several awards.

Illusionist

In 1983, the movie "Illusionist" Jos Stelling was released. This picture made the director famous throughout the world because of its unusual. In the film, there is almost no talk. A lot of value is given to the atmosphere in which the main action takes place. Jos carefully selected the colors and music for each scene, as a result, he got something really fascinating. The director will actively use the technique of working with music and color from the "Illusionist" in his subsequent works.

Jos tells his audience that dialogue is not very appropriate in the movies. Cinema, in his opinion, is closer in its form to music than to literature. Conversations are born of the mind, they are, as a rule, weighed and deliberated. Stelling more like to shoot something that is born in the heart, and not in the brain, feelings, not reason. Jos believes that the rest of the directors should pay more attention to the feelings in their paintings, follow the music of the heart.

The film "The Illusionist" won the "Golden Calf" award in the category "Best Film" at the Netherlands Film Festival. Critics also really liked the new creation of the master.

At the peak of his career

The top of the master's work at the moment is considered the films that Stelling took immediately after the "Illusionist". This is the picture "Switchman", published in 1986 and the painting "Flying Dutchman", published in 1995. Two of these works, according to leading film critics, are among the 100 best films in the history of cinema.

Switchman

"Switchman" tells the audience the story of a man who works as a switchman on the railway. He spends his life alone, until a lost passenger appears next to his house. She settles at the switchman and turns his world upside down. "Switchman" liked the European film critics so much that not only received a lot of positive reviews in the press, but also deserved a special mention of the Venice Film Festival.

Flying Dutchman

The picture "Flying Dutchman" is not similar to other works of Jos, it is distinguished by its grandiose scale. There are a lot of characters here, quite a lot of dialogues. The action takes place in the 16th century, during the Inquisition. The flying Dutchman in the film is not a ship, but a man. The film shows the history of his journey, the history of overcoming obstacles and vicissitudes of fate, the history of achieving his goal. The key theme of the film is loneliness. Jos Stelling in the interview often says that he does not shoot different films, but the same film all his life. The main theme of all his works is loneliness.

"Flying Dutchman" was nominated for the "Golden Lion" of the Venice Film Festival, but received no reward.

Late works

The film "Neither trains, nor airplanes" was released in 1999. The audience took this picture of the Dutch director well. Critics have described the work as a "comedy of the absurd" because of grotesque characters, bright colors in the frame and special music.

In 2007 the film "Dushka" was released on the screens. This is a picture of joint production of Belgium, Russia, the Netherlands and Ukraine. In the CIS countries, this film was very positively received not only by the remarkable direction of Jos, but also by the talented play of actor Sergei Makovetsky, who played the main role in the film. Many Russian and Ukrainian actors were involved in filming the picture.

Film critics have not left Dushka without attention. The film was nominated for several prestigious awards, including the prize of the European Academy of Motion Picture Arts.

In 2012, cooperation between Russia and the Netherlands in the field of film production continued. On the screens there is a new film by Jos Stelling "Girl and Death". The "bow to Russian literature" is later called this work by director Jos Stelling.

"Girl and Death" to date - the last picture of the Dutch genius. On the new films Stelling does not say yet. Now for the director of the movie - it's not a job, but rather a hobby, or, as he himself says on this topic: "Cinema is a paradise."