The Debut (1977 film)

Het Debuut
Het Debuut
Directed by	Nouchka van Brakel
Written by	Nouchka van Brakel; Carel Donck
Produced by	René Solleveld; Matthijs van Heijningen
Starring	Marina de Graaf
Cinematography	Theo van de Sande
Edited by	August Verschueren
Music by	Ron Westerbeek
Release date	18 May 1977;
Running time	94 minutes
Country	Netherlands
Language	Dutch

Het Debuut ('The Debut') is a 1977 Dutch drama film based on a Hester Albach's novel and directed by Nouchka van Brakel.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]

Plot summary

A 14 year old girl and a 41 year old friend of her father's fall in love, and soon their relationship grows into a sexual one as well. For some time all is happy, but then the tension grows too much, because of the secrecy and frustration of being the lover of a married man, and because she feels he starts to treat her too much like a child instead of a lover.

Cast

Marina de Graaf as Carolien
Gerard Cox as Hugo
Pleuni Touw as Rita/Hugo's wife
Kitty Courbois as Anne/Carolien's mother
Dolf de Vries as Dr.Peter/Carolien's father
Wendy Ferwerda as Susan
Sandrien van Brakel as Tanja/Carolien's schoolmate
Pieter Fleury as Jacques

Production

News of the film version began to pick up steam in November 1976 when De Telegraph ran a full-page article on the film's casting. Nouchka van Brakel wanted an unknown for the lead, though. It was essential that the part not be played by a recognizable actress. A week before Christmas, 1976, De Telegraph announced 17-year-old Marina de Graaf as the actress who Van Brakel had cast.^[5]

Reception

"Het Debuut was one of the top three Dutch films of 1977."^[6] The film, "Nouchka's first full - length film, (is) a confident justification of her belief that a woman can render her sex much more precisely on screen than a male director can", according to Dutch Cinema: An Illustrated History.^[7]

References

^ Robinson, David (1986). The Illustrated History of the Cinema. Orbis. ISBN 978-0-85613-754-9.
^ Verstraten, Peter (30 March 2021). Dutch Post-war Fiction Film through a Lens of Psychoanalysis. Amsterdam University Press. ISBN 978-90-485-5172-9.
^ Vermeulen, Ella (19 October 2022). "Eye Amsterdam eert powervrouw Nouchka van Brakel | Nouveau". www.nouveau.nl (in Dutch). Retrieved 6 June 2024.
^ Waardenburg, André (1 June 2016). "Nouchka van Brakel: A Female Point of View". Filmkrant (in Dutch). Retrieved 6 June 2024.
^ "Nouchka van Brakel's Het Debuut (The Debut)". nostalgiakinky.com. Retrieved 4 June 2024.
^ Nelmes, Jill; Selbo, Jule (29 September 2015). Women Screenwriters: An International Guide. Springer. ISBN 978-1-137-31237-2.
^ Cowie, Peter (1979). Dutch Cinema: An Illustrated History. Tantivy Press. ISBN 978-0-498-02425-2.

External links

Het Debuut at IMDb

[1] Robinson, David (1986). The Illustrated History of the Cinema. Orbis. ISBN 978-0-85613-754-9.

[2] Verstraten, Peter (30 March 2021). Dutch Post-war Fiction Film through a Lens of Psychoanalysis. Amsterdam University Press. ISBN 978-90-485-5172-9.

[3] Vermeulen, Ella (19 October 2022). "Eye Amsterdam eert powervrouw Nouchka van Brakel | Nouveau". www.nouveau.nl (in Dutch). Retrieved 6 June 2024.

[4] Waardenburg, André (1 June 2016). "Nouchka van Brakel: A Female Point of View". Filmkrant (in Dutch). Retrieved 6 June 2024.

[5] "Nouchka van Brakel's Het Debuut (The Debut)". nostalgiakinky.com. Retrieved 4 June 2024.

[6] Nelmes, Jill; Selbo, Jule (29 September 2015). Women Screenwriters: An International Guide. Springer. ISBN 978-1-137-31237-2.

[7] Cowie, Peter (1979). Dutch Cinema: An Illustrated History. Tantivy Press. ISBN 978-0-498-02425-2.

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