For quite a few years, a belief held sway that bereavement consisted of a series of five – or was it seven? – stages, starting with shock and moving through to acceptance, after which you were more or less home free. Of course, no human emotion runs so smoothly, grief least of all. The various members of the family in Martijn de Jong’s Narcosis feel anger, anguish and denial by turns and sometimes simultaneously, each of them cocooned in their own sac of misery, unable to say what they feel, even to themselves. Grief here is as messy and resistant to resolution as it is in real life.
John, the paterfamilias (Fedja van Huet) was a professional diver. He was adventurous, eccentric and the fun parent; the last thing he brought home was an old telephone box, which he set up under the trees surrounding their rustically crumbling house. As the narrative wanders between past,...
John, the paterfamilias (Fedja van Huet) was a professional diver. He was adventurous, eccentric and the fun parent; the last thing he brought home was an old telephone box, which he set up under the trees surrounding their rustically crumbling house. As the narrative wanders between past,...
- 12/20/2022
- by Stephanie Bunbury
- Deadline Film + TV
Click here to read the full article.
Martijn de Jong’s feature directorial debut, Narcosis, is off to a dream-like start as The Netherlands recently selected the Dutch drama to compete on its behalf for a Best International Feature Film nomination at the 95th Academy Awards.
Narcosis, which de Jong co-wrote with his partner Laura van Dijk, chronicles a young family that’s become rudderless after losing their patriarch (Fedja van Huêt’s John) a year earlier during a deep-sea diving expedition. While it’s not an autobiographical story, de Jong and van Dijk infused the story with plenty of personal details from their own lives. Perhaps the most notable example is that the family matriarch, Merel, portrayed by Dutch actor Thekla Reuten, is a medium, which de Jong’s own mother happens to be. Ultimately, de Jong was relieved when Reuten embraced this particular character detail since clairvoyance is often stigmatized by the Dutch.
Martijn de Jong’s feature directorial debut, Narcosis, is off to a dream-like start as The Netherlands recently selected the Dutch drama to compete on its behalf for a Best International Feature Film nomination at the 95th Academy Awards.
Narcosis, which de Jong co-wrote with his partner Laura van Dijk, chronicles a young family that’s become rudderless after losing their patriarch (Fedja van Huêt’s John) a year earlier during a deep-sea diving expedition. While it’s not an autobiographical story, de Jong and van Dijk infused the story with plenty of personal details from their own lives. Perhaps the most notable example is that the family matriarch, Merel, portrayed by Dutch actor Thekla Reuten, is a medium, which de Jong’s own mother happens to be. Ultimately, de Jong was relieved when Reuten embraced this particular character detail since clairvoyance is often stigmatized by the Dutch.
- 10/27/2022
- by Brian Davids
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Click here to read the full article.
The particular limbo of grief, perennial fertile ground for drama, receives straightforward treatment in Narcosis, but with a poetic twist. Tracing the effect of a deep-sea diver’s death on his wife and children, writer-helmer Martijn de Jong infuses a standard template of family loss with a sense of mystery. Ocean exploration and the psychic abilities of the explorer’s widow are the story’s most unusual angles, and the restraint with which de Jong treats them is one of the film’s most effective qualities. The day-to-day takes on an understated eeriness that matches the unarticulated ache of the bereaved.
De Jong’s debut feature, scripted by him and his spouse, screenwriter Laura van Dijk, recently premiered on home turf, at the Netherlands Film Festival, and has embarked on the fest circuit, with dates in Thessaloniki and Cairo ahead. Though it might...
The particular limbo of grief, perennial fertile ground for drama, receives straightforward treatment in Narcosis, but with a poetic twist. Tracing the effect of a deep-sea diver’s death on his wife and children, writer-helmer Martijn de Jong infuses a standard template of family loss with a sense of mystery. Ocean exploration and the psychic abilities of the explorer’s widow are the story’s most unusual angles, and the restraint with which de Jong treats them is one of the film’s most effective qualities. The day-to-day takes on an understated eeriness that matches the unarticulated ache of the bereaved.
De Jong’s debut feature, scripted by him and his spouse, screenwriter Laura van Dijk, recently premiered on home turf, at the Netherlands Film Festival, and has embarked on the fest circuit, with dates in Thessaloniki and Cairo ahead. Though it might...
- 10/20/2022
- by Sheri Linden
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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