AmnesiA (2001) is the first theatrical feature by Dutch director Martin Koolhoven best known for the international art house success Winter in Wartime (2008).  The film is available here as an impressive two-disk Blu-ray set from the American label Cult Epics- which also features Koolhoven’s two earlier TV movies.

AmnesiA (this is the name of the central characters’ family estate and the ‘A’s are capitalized above the gate to the drive ) could be characterized as an elliptical neo-noir, a slippery movie which still has detectable roots in classical noir and earlier films in the neo-noir tradition.  It concerns the return of award-winning photographer Alex to his family home to be reunited with his mother, who is dying from cancer and his estranged twin brother, Aram.  He is joined on his journey by Sandra, an alienated young woman who suddenly appears in his car.  Incrementally the audience is let into the traumatic secret which has split Alex and Aram apart.

On the Blu-ray commentary track, Koolhoven opens up about his influences, especially Harold Pinter’s plays for the loaded conversations seething with subtext and Roman Polanski’s similarly abrasive Cul-de-Sac (1966).  In the opening scenes Koolhoven deploys bold colour schemes, analogues for the characteristic monochrome compositions of film noir.  When all the characters are settled at the family home, however, Koolhoven opts for a stable, sunny palette dominated by natural light which recalls the films of Eric Rohmer and more saliently the countryside set thrillers of Claude Chabrol.

AmnesiA is clearly surrealistic in intent but its surrealism is yoked to the narrative in a particular empirical way.  For instance, Aram goes everywhere barefooted and his license plate is the same as that of the car on the cover of The Beatles’ album, Abbey Road.

What seems to be a non-sequitur or director’s in joke is later clarified in the dialogue.  Aram’s decision to dress like Paul McCartney is an affectation on the part of the character.  Other details cannot be explained away logically.  Sandra, an apparent pyromaniac, keeps lighting fires in the old cars near the family estate which however never spread nor cause any consternation among the characters.

All performances are memorable and vivid, especially the leads.  Van Huet is remarkable in his award-winning dual role as the twins.  Aram is snide, bitter and brooding, Alex is insular, brittle and seemingly meek.  The parts are sharply delineated and the actor enjoys a special chemistry with himself.  As Sandra, Carice van Houten has an expressive blankness and manages to pull off the difficult feat of being at once an audience P.O.V character and an enigma.

 Despite AmnesiA’s ambiguity and playfulness, it does not cheat on the resolution of its plot which is clear and appropriately devastating.  Also, the film is underpinned by a dry and sneaky sense of humour.

The presentation on the Cult Epics Blu-ray is a new 4K HD transfer from the original camera negative.  The disk comes with several special features:  a commentary featuring Martin Koolhoven and his star Fedja van Huet and moderated by Peter Verstraten, a conversation with the director and his frequent star, Carice van Houten, a contemporary Making of AmnesiA (2001) and the film’s theatrical trailer (also apparently restored).  On all these supplementary materials Koolhoven comes over as a witty, engaging presence who enjoys lively, creative relationships with collaborators like van Houten and van Huet.

The first disk also features trailers for a number of other titles put out by Cult Epics. Besides the giallo Death Laid an Egg the rest (Naked Over the Fence, Pastorale 1943, The Debut, Frank and Eva and Blue Movie ) are a disparate group of Dutch movies.

The second disk on the Blu-ray contains copies of the two TV films that established Koolhoven’s reputation and led to his theatrical career:  Suzy Q and Dark Light along with a single trailer for each.  Like AmnesiA both films are subtitled in English.  Both are very different animals to the later film but there are common traits, like the unspoken fractiousness and hostility that often underline the characters’ interactions.  The first and later film Suzy Q (1999) (the title is a pun on the protagonist’s name and the Rolling Stones’ cover of the Dale Hawkins song which plays under one of the sequences) takes place in a recreation of the late sixties in Holland which has fashions and a general colourful aesthetic which recall Swinging London movies like Smashing Time (1967).  From the bare bones of its narrative (Suzy (Carice van Houten again) manages to meet up with Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull and snogs the former) and its opening stretch the film would seem to be a slice of Jack Rosenthal-type bittersweet nostalgia.

However, deeper into the story darker themes emerge.  Suzy has to fend off advances from both her unemployed, depressed father, Ko and her disturbed brother, Zwier.  In spite of these elements the film never really loses its everyday, fairly warm atmosphere.  Koolhoven and his co-scenarist Frouke Fokkema (whose childhood memories furnished the material) seem to be implying these dark aspects are as much a part of daily life as the teen characters’ fondness for pop music.  The second and earlier film, Dark Light (1997) is practically a short (53 minutes).  A two-hander character piece, it stars Marc van Uchelen as a young drifter who falls asleep on an isolated farm only to be taken prisoner by its owner (Viviane de Muynck), a religious fundamentalist who believes he is there to enact his penance which will somehow cure her debilitating skin condition.  A gritty piece, rather like ‘Misery’ it depends increasingly on the protagonist’s efforts to outwit his captor.  The film ends in the ambiguous, not quite there way that Koolhoven favours.  The drifter escapes the farm still in his fetters leaving the old woman either dead or traumatized, it is not clear which.  

With this release, Cult Epics has created an excellent package showcasing the earlier works of one of Holland’s most successful directors and an underrated figure in European cinema.