Spelen of sterven | To Play or To Die (1990)

Themed Movie
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Nederlands (Dutch) | subs: English hard-coded | mp4 | http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100668/ | Original upload: 2010-05-18 |

Frank Krom's impressively doom-laden Dutch drama - based on a short story by Anna Blaman ...
is a grim, unyielding examination of teenage emotions, played out against the stark backdrop
of a Dutch boys' school.

Krom's screenplay focuses on the plight of Kees (Geert Hunaerts), a bright, handsome kid,
crippled by shyness, whose life is devastated by a group of school bullies.
Nevertheless, Kees is attracted to the ringleader Charel (Tjebbo Gerritsma), a beautiful thug
whose macho posturing is little more than a show for his like-minded circle of friends.
Kees invites him back to his (Kees') home when his parents are away, ostensibly to take revenge
and seduce the older boy, but Charel's inability to drop the pretense and
succumb to Kees' infatuation leads to a painful conclusion for them both.
Or does it?

Beautifully photographed in muted colors by Nils Post (an accomplished cinematographer
who also shot the highly controversial FOR A LOST SOLDIER in 1992),
the film takes place in an emotionally desolate world where the characters
are unable to connect with one another in any kind of meaningful context.
Gerritsma and Hunaerts are superb as tormentor and tormented, respectively,
with Hunaerts in particular giving a truly committed performance,
especially towards the end of the film during a moment of
(non-explicit, non-salacious) sexual candor.

TO PLAY OR TO DIE is NOT homophobic, as some have suggested;
it's simply unwilling to play the Hollywood game of providing its viewers with easy answers
and a neat resolution.  Gay filmmakers have a responsibility to depict the broad range
of experiences which affect their community, and that means confronting the harsh realities
of their daily lives as well as their triumphs over adversity. Some gay men are driven to
tragic extremes by circumstances beyond their control, and failure to address these issues
on film would make for a very one-sided view of an extremely complex subject.
As such, the film may not be a pleasant experience for some, but it dares to be bleak and
uncompromising when others might have hidden behind wish-fulfillment fantasies.
That's honesty, not homophobia.

In any event, Krom's rich visual style distinguishes the film from many of its
American counterparts, and the expert editing (by Krom and Sander Vos)
maintains a keen sense of rhythm amidst the slow-burning tensions inherent in the drama.
Incredibly, Krom (who was once an assistant to Paul Verhoeven) doesn't appear
to have directed anything since, and his subsequent involvement in filmmaking
has been relegated to technical support only.
That's a real shame, because TO PLAY OR TO DIE seemed to herald a bright new talent
on the European movie scene, especially in light of the New Queer Cinema movement
which emerged from the US shortly after this film was made,
boosting the production of gay-themed movies on an international scale.

~~~  Libretio


The principal actor, Geert Hunaerts is a beautiful twink who appears fully nude
in one scene and masturbates (non-explicitly) in another scene.

46 minutes, new DVD rip
Dutch with hard-coded English subtitles (as on the DVD itself)
H.264/MPEG-4 AVC video and AAC audio

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2012-07-01 12:10:20
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