Perfect Men

One of the many upsides to finally acquiring enough Dutch is learning how to swear appropriately, terribly, and awfully in the local tongue. Another is getting a chance to...appreciate the, ah...finer aspects of Dutch cinema.

To be sure, New Kids: Turbo can hardly count as art haus--or, for that matter, bath house. It just might make "out house"...and then only because of the scatological humor that is (mercifully) sometimes employed. Sure, there are actually good Dutch movies about important things (Komt een vrouw bij de doktor), but nobody does self-parody like the Dutch, and if you want to understand that certain segment of the population that's the equivalent of "hillbilly" in the US, look no farther than the New Kids.

Yes, it's a parody, and as such, it's highly exaggerated, full of non-sequiturs that have non-sequiturs of their own. But if you think of it as one long Jeff Foxworthy skit, it starts to make sense. Kind of. As much sense as randomly running over people can make, anyway.

Two things to note: first of all, as a parody, it is grounded in truth. How much of it is true, on the other hand...there are some gags that just aren't that funny because they are, quite sadly, completely true, such as the violence some people degenerate into when appealing (unwisely) to have their uitkering geld limits increased. Secondly, you don't realize how much you lipread until you watch a movie full of mustaches. Apparently my ability to understand the spoken word is more limited than I thought, though that might also be due to the funky accents.

A Bridge Too Far

If you've heard of Nijmegen prior to reading this blog, it's probably because you've seen the movie A Bridge Too Far. When the Allies cross the Waal, a substantial portion of the film takes place on the Ooijpolder, right next to Nijmegen's Waalbrug. Yes, that bridge was there in World War II (okay, maybe not the exact same bridge--as I recall Nijmegen was bombed pretty extensively towards the end of the war, so parts of it, if not the whole thing, have been rebuilt since then). And yes, it looked as out-of-place then as it does now.

It's always strange to watch places you know pop up on screen. When I saw Ocean's Twelve (yes, I'm a bit tardy when it comes to watching movies) and watched Amsterdam roll by, it felt a bit like playing punch-buggy on a long car trip. If Cold Case is on, I'm always watching for the bits of "real" Philly that get inserted into the scenes. Lately, Karel has been taken like a virginal bride by the show Masterchef, which takes place in London. Admittedly, I don't know London nearly half as well as I know Philly, but we walked around quite a lot and it's always fun to point out places we've been to. Seeing places you've been to opens up a slice of your life to the rest of the world, even if the others watching it don't realize it. It feels like a connection in some cases--and a betrayal in others, in the sense that some places feel like they belong to you, in some way.

Ultimately, it boils down to the people you know--they are the ones who make a place feel like home. It's why, I think, I feel more at home in Maastricht than I do in Nijmegen. Hopefully that will change soon. I can't be wandering around forever.