Van de koele meren des doods (film)

Van de koele meren des doods is a 1982 Dutch film, directed by Nouchka van Brakel and based on the same-named novel by Frederik van Eeden. Book and film give an account of a bourgeois woman who struggles with her sexuality. The film is known internationally as Hedwig: The Quiet Lakes and The Cool Lakes of Death. The film was selected as the Dutch entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 55th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.

Plot
The film begins in 1869. Hedwig is a girl from an upper-middle-class family. She is mainly interested in reading Alice in Wonderland in English. This was first read to her by her mother before she died from typhoid fever. During a visit to her mother's grave she meets Johan, a young man who is very smitten with her. She has sexual fantasies about him and is unable to hide this from her strictly religious family. Her governess tells her that she is sinning and she won't be able to get children anymore. Humiliated, she tries to commit suicide but fails.

Three years later Hedwig is a lady and again meets Johan, now a poor aspiring artist. He wants to marry her but she thinks that she will make him unhappy, and instead marries a notary called Gerard. Their marriage is without passion as her husband is attracted to men. Her resulting unhappiness soon manifests itself as sickness. On the advice of her doctor Gerard finally tries to have sex with his wife. This turns out to be a disappointing and traumatic experience. She admits to her friend Leonora that she finds life too boring and predictable.

One day she gets a letter from Johan, who accuses her of being a prostitute. When she goes to meet up with him she finds his corpse after he has shot himself. Hedwig also tries to shoot herself but is stopped by Gerard. Soon after she meets Ritsaart, a romantic pianist whom she begins an affair with. She first refuses him when he meets her in her chambers but at night she can't control her sexual fantasies.

During a passionate night with Ritsaart, Hedwig enjoys sex for the first time and intends to leave Gerard. He, filled with jealousy, plans to kill Ritsaart when he comes visiting, but their confrontation is interrupted when they note water running down the walls of the house: they run upstairs to find Hedwig in the bathroom with a slashed wrist. Gerard sees how Ritsaart turns out to be Hedwig's saving angel and lets his wife go.

Hedwig goes on tour with Ritsaart in England and pretends to be his wife. This is a success at first but they are shut out of society when she confesses to be his mistress. They move to Cobham, Kent as they await the birth of their first child. Shortly before birth Ritsaart is called away for his first musical engagement in months. Hedwig goes through a difficult birth and delivers a girl she names Charlotte. The physician who aids her in the delivery is pessimistic about the baby's health and tells the maid he only gives the newborn a couple of days to live.

Hedwig experiences a postpartum psychosis in which she stuffs baby Charlotte and her jewels in a bag and sets off, intending to go back to Holland. At Calais she clings to a man she believes to be Gerard. This man takes advantage of her delusion by taking her fancy clothes and money off of her but is unsuccessful in taking the bag she holds tight. He uses some of her money to put her on a train to Paris and gets off it with her bag as it departs. In Paris she ends up in an isolation cell of a psychiatric institution. After she is released she becomes addicted to morphine and prostitutes herself.

Hedwig faints from hunger on the street and is taken to a hospital. She gets help from the French convent sister Paula, who helps her overcome her addiction. When she is healthy again she returns to the Netherlands. She decides to visit Joop, who is impressed with her growth. There she runs into Ritsaart and tells him that she will always love him but doesn't want to see him again. Hedwig spends her final years with a humble farming family.

Production
The film was produced by Matthijs van Heijningen, with whom van Brakel had worked previously, most notably on Zwaarmoedige verhalen voor bij de centrale verwarming (1975). The budget was small—some € in today's currency—which led to conflict between Van Brakel and Van Heijningen. The former was concerned with artistic integrity, the latter with money; Van Heijningen publicly criticized the director and her staff by calling them lazy amateurs in a leading Dutch movie magazine. This led to a work stoppage. Van Heijningen apologized, again publicly, and work was resumed; afterward, he took out a full-page ad and congratulated the crew—they did likewise.

Several scenes in the film were shot at the Hof van Moerkerken in Mijnsheerenland where Frederik van Eeden lived in the 19th century.

Cast

 * Renée Soutendijk as Hedwig Marga 'Hetty' de Fontayne
 * Derek de Lint as Ritsaart (Richard Delmonte)
 * Adriaan Olree as Gerard Johannes Hendrikus Wijbrands
 * Erik van 't Wout as Johan
 * Peter Faber as Joop
 * Claire Wauthion as Sister Paula / Mother
 * Krijn ter Braak as Father
 * Lettie Oosthoek as Governess
 * Kristine de Both as Leonora
 * Huub Stapel as Herman
 * Siem Vroom as Religion teacher
 * Rudolf Lucieer as General practitioner

Note: Dutch actor Hans van Tongeren was initially cast as Johan, the character who commits suicide—but he committed suicide just before the filming started.

Reception
The film is praised as a "handsome period melodrama". Critical reviews were positive, and with 602,637 admissions it was the best-attended Dutch movie of 1982. The Dutch broadcaster VARA listed the film at #10 in a list of the best Dutch films of the twentieth century, and the movie site NeerlandsFilmdoek.nl listed it as #56 out of 258.