TULIP FEVER
UK, 2017, 107 minutes, Colour,
Alica Vikander, Christoph Waltz, Dane de Haan, Holliday Granger, Jack O’Connell?, Judi Dench, Tom Hollander, Zack Galifiniakis.
Directed by Simon Curtis.
One of the difficulties of reviewing is the eventual comparing notes with other reviews. And, it is sometimes surprising when a reviewer finds that a film that he has very much liked and enjoyed is the object of so much derision and condemnation. Reviewers and IMD bloggers seem to be unanimous in their dislike of Tulip Fever. What a pity!
The screenplay has excellent credentials, a collaboration between the author of the original novel, Deborah Moggach and celebrated playwright and screenwriter, Tom Stoppard. So many amateur bloggers have dismissed his writing as uninspired! The performances are interesting but those who did not like the film consider the central characters as so unlikable. Being likeable is not the essential for audience entertainment – Macbeth and his wife were not the most likeable of characters!
So, after these observations, what can a reviewer say about Tulip Fever and why it seemed such an interesting entertainment.
The setting is Amsterdam in 1634 – and a postscript set eight years later. If ever there was a film which spent a lot of attention on settings, costumes and decor, a recreation of the city, the canals, the markets, mansions, convents and churches, then this is a strong contender. And the frequent scenes of Amsterdam are totally atmospheric, a great number of extras, all in the dress of the period (remember Rembrandt), all busy, scurrying through the streets, the side of the canals, the fish markets, the door-to-door sales, crowded gatherings for trade in tulips, and the convent where the tulips are grown. The audience is immersed in the atmosphere. (And the score is by Danny Elfman.)
The cast is strong. We are introduced to the central character, Sophia (Alicia Vikander), along with her siblings at an orphanage Judi Dench as the abbess. For the children to go abroad for a new life, Sophia has to enter an arranged marriage with a local merchant, Cornelis (Christoph Waltz). His great desire is to have an heir and the couple make frequent strenuous attempts but fail.
When the merchant has the idea that the couple should have a portrait painted, an inexpensive young painter, Johan (Dane de Haan) is employed. Actually, there is a lot of detail in how posing (with the subjects and substitutes) is done, details of paint mixing and sketching. It is not difficult to predict what will happen – and does, although the details of the romance and its consequences become quite complicated.
In fact, everything is narrated by Maria (Holliday Grainger), the maid of the house, an astute observer of characters and situations who is in love with the local fishmonger, Will (Jack O’Connell).
And the tulip fever? A kind of 17th-century Dutch dot.com frenzy with the buying and selling and exploitation of tulips – with the abbess quite a business manager in the cultivation and sale of tulips. And financial collapse.
Actually, there are quite a lot of complications and Tom Stoppard is able to suggest a lot of psychological dimensions in telling lines of dialogue, audiences needing to be alert.
Difficulties? The characters are in difficult situations and struggle with them and so audiences are not able to identify entirely with them. And the trouble with Dane de Haan is that he looks so young (as he did in Valerian) although, in fact, he is older than Alicia Vikander. But Judi Dench is always interesting. Holliday Grainger and Jack O’Connell? do get our sympathy, Christoph Waltz is a master at a blend of the harsh and ironic, and Tom Hollander has a good cameo as a doctor who in later centuries would be immediately disbarred.
It is hoped that audiences venturing into see Tulip Fever will also find it interesting and entertaining.
1. A popular novel? Award-winning playwright, Tom Stoppard? Dramatising the novel?
2. The 17th century, 1634, the 1640s? The Netherlands? Amsterdam? The externals, the markets and canals, the sea and the beach? The interiors, the convent, the tulips, the world of painting, the world of finance? The audience immersed in this world?
3. The background of 17th-century Dutch painting? Costumes and décor? Memories of Rembrandt, the characters, their poses, their clothes? Photography of portraits? Background of paints, posing, sketching, substitutes? The reputation of painters? The musical score?
4. The introduction to the atmosphere? The title and the fever, the focus on the tulips and their beauty, white, colours? The visuals? The convent, the beds of tulips, the community working on the tulips? The sales, the certificates, a financial rush? Boom? Possibilities for bust? The exchange, the crowd of people, the shouting? Honest citizens, rogues? The prostitute and robbing Will? Boom and bust?
5. Convent, the abbess, as a person, her work, the other nuns, the place of the orphans, arrangements for marriages? For freedom and travel to the New World?
6. Cornelis? Businessman, his firm, spices, the East Indies, the imports, the cheating and the barrels? His partners? Not interested in tulips? His house, his wives, children and deaths? Marrying Sophia, the arrangement, her being indebted to him, the many attempts for pregnancy? His desire for portraits? An inexpensive artist? The visits, the sketching, the posing, the reaction of the couple waiting, their clothes? His being happy about the portraits?
7. The artist, his age, his work? His assistant and his drinking? Hopes, more work? His abilities, getting the subjects to pose, using the substitutes for further painting after the faces? His infatuation with Sophia, her response to him, resistant, succumbing to him? Her visit to his house, wearing a cloak? The affair, hurrying home for her husband from his card playing? The walk on the beach? Hopes for the affair? The effect on each?
8. Maria, her narrative, her work as a servant, diligent in the house? Flirting with Will? Buying the fish, Cornelis complaining about too much fish? Her relationship with Sophia, good service, cheerful? Will, fishmonger, flirting with Maria? Interest in the tulips, the money, selling his round, the certificates, the bidding, going to the convent, with the abbess, the special tulip? His making money? His seeing Sophia with a cloak, thinking her Maria, following to the artist’s house? Upset, with the prostitute? Her taking his certificate, his being bashed? Going To sea? Maria upset, pregnant, worrying about his absence?
9. The plan about the pregnancy? Maria and her experiences? Sophia covering? No sexual relationships with her husband? Morning sickness, clothes, Sophia and her pretences? The birth, the midwife, Cornelis and his wanting his wife saved? The effect? His love for the child, the deception about Sophia, the coffin, nailed down, her being carried out, her husband mourning her but consoled with the child?
10. The doctor, disreputable, examining Sophia, flirtatious? Misunderstanding about the abortion? Misunderstanding about impregnating Sophia? His being present at the birth, talking with Cornelis?
11. The artist, the speculation on the tulips, his many creditors? Sending his assistant to the convent, the bulb and the onion, the beating and his wanting to save the young woman, the drinking, carousing, eating the onion? The bust and so many losing their investment?
12. Sophia, the plan to go abroad, the effect of the experience, dropping her cloak in the canal, her being presumed dead?
13. The eight years passing, the artist, the abbess inviting him to paint in the church? His glimpse of Sophia? Her being in the convent, her passing, her smile?
14. Cornelis, his bequest to Maria and Will, the house, their children? His new life in the East Indies?
15. Maria, Will, the children, family and prosperity?
16. An interesting transition from novel to film?
