Tirza: an epilogue

More views of - or after - Cambridge Film Festival 2011
(Click here to go directly to the Festival web-site)

9 January

At the time of the Festival, I established that the book from which this book was made, with the participation of its author, into a film was available only in the original Dutch and in a German translation (which, at a pinch, I could have read, but at great cost).

I now see that there is a French translation, which would not put me at any greater advantage, but none in English that I can find, and I wonder what the fate of the film is - if it is not going to get distributed here or in the States, the possibility of an English translation probably depends on it.

Well, I still think that it is a tremendous film, and maybe I shall look for evidence of reviews...*


I have found this, with which I would take issue (and will, given a chance):

http://jasperaalbers.wordpress.com/2010/10/04/the-best-and-the-worst-of-dutch-cinema-%E2%80%93-the-tirza-review/


But, maybe, I'd prefer you to look at (or what preceded it):

http://unofficialcambridgefilmfestival.blogspot.com/2011/10/attempting-to-address-tirza.html


* Contains spoilers *

In the meantime, my knowledge of German allowed me, belatedly and when it had to be returned to the library, to look at the Dutch original, and it may not surprise to know that the ending in the novel appears to differ:

If I didn't miss something, and it isn't a dream, Jörgen does not try to leave, but ends up going back to, Kaisa's dwelling, but makes it to the airport, and, despite her cries of Want company, sir?, boards a flight and labours his way home.

As I say, I was reading the text as someone who speaks German, so I could work out much of what was being said, but I may have missed something in the preceding pages that could indicate that it is Jörgen's fantasy that he makes this journey...

Since then (at the end of February, in fact), Penny, a friend who speaks Dutch, took a look at the closing pages, and found nothing to suggest that there is the intervention of a dream between getting back from Big Mama and leaving Namibia.


End-notes

* Well, I see that it has no reviews at all on the so-called Rotten Tomatoes web-site, and the first one that I found was from one of the Festival's own Take One crew - I obviously didn't submit something myself, or, as others didn't, it didn't appear.


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Tirza in the afternoon?

More views of - or at - Cambridge Film Festival 2011
(Click here to go directly to the Festival web-site)

21 September

I'm thinking that it would be good to revisit this film, before saying anything much about it, which means being around for 1.00 - we shall just have to see whether that works...

The reason for doing so is that, now that I know where it goes, I'd like to feel the psychological realities afresh: at the moment, I still think of Engelby, the novel by Sebastian Faulks, and cannot tell whether I am convinced by the unfolding, or feel that it is a misunderstood peg on which the narration hangs. (It's also based on a novel, so I'm necessarily judging what has been done with that text.)


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