ABSTRACT

Aphanisis is the key concept in chapter eight. It concerns moments when characters are so overwhelmed, usually due to traumatic events, that they become speechless (temporarily or otherwise). This occurs to the war victim in Rademakers’ THE ROSE GARDEN who can utter no more than the name of his enemy. Moments of self-obliteration also befall the twin brothers in AmnesiA, the woman-disguised-as-man in MONSIEUR HAWARDEN, and the city woman who marries a farmer in KRACHT. Characters try to come to terms with personal issues, and they try to do so in films such as BLUEBIRD, GUERNSEY, NOTHING PERSONAL, and VERDWIJNEN which, even more explicit than the titles in previous chapters, beg comparison to international arthouse pictures such as those by the Dardenne brothers, by Varda, and by Bergman.

KEYWORDS

Aphanisis – Problems with names / naming – Urge to break with old habits – Comparisons to European arthouse

Little did Rademakers know THAT THE ROSE GARDEN (1989), in his own words no more than a ‘decent assignment picture’, would be his last feature (qtd. in Bernink, 139). He was able to make this film in the wake of the success of DE AANSLAG, for which he had received an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1987. FOR THE ROSE GARDEN, he was able to assemble a ‘stellar’ cast with Maximilian Schell, Liv Ullmann, Peter Fonda, and Hanns Zischler. but he was quite sarcastic: the subject required a German-language film he thought, but because of the presence of Ullmann and Fonda, it was decided it should be English-spoken. Though the film lacks subtlety basically due to its dénouement which is too utopian, the quality of the film is not as average as Rademakers suggested.

The narrative structure and cinematography of THE ROSE GARDEN are quite conventional, but the behaviour of the main character—an elderly man with unkempt hair—is puzzling, especially in the first 30 minutes. He seems confused from the beginning, apparently startled by every sound, such as the wailing of the fire siren. When he takes a cab, he gets out in front of a crowd, staring at the firemen who are about to rescue a cat from a high building in Hamburg.