''The Dress'' or ''De jurk'' is a 1996

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

drama directed by

Alex van Warmerdam Alex van Warmerdam (born 14 August 1952) is a Dutch screenwriter, film director, and actor. He is also a painter. Life and career Van Warmerdam was born in Haarlem, a city in the province of North Holland in the Netherlands. He was cofounder of ...

Plot

''The Dress'' is a tale filled with sex, violence, misery, comedy and drama as it follows the life of a dress and parade of lives. Conceived under a cloud of frustration and despair by the dressmaker, the dress becomes a wheel of misfortune in extraordinary sequence of events that envelopes both the dress and those fatefully drawn into its universe. An aloof artist, a school girl, an unfulfilled maid, a borderline train conductor and a broken business executive, all become involuntary players in a macabre game of tag. No one who comes in contact with the dress until it reaches its destination.

Cast

Henri Garcin Henri Garcin (born Anton Albers; 11 April 1928 – 13 June 2022) was a Belgian film actor. He appeared in more than 100 films from 1956 to 2022. Selected filmography * ''Mademoiselle and Her Gang'' (1957) * ''Mata Hari, Agent H21'' (1964) * '' ...

as Van Tilt * Ingeborg Elzevier as Mrs. Van Tilt * Khaldoun Elmecky as Cremer *

Margo Dames *** People * Margo (actress) (1917–1985), Mexican-American actress and dancer * Margo (magician), American magic performer and actress * Margo (singer), Irish singer * Margo (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name P ...

as Stewardess *

Frans Vorstman Frans is an Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swedish given name, sometimes as a short form of ''François''. One cognate of Frans in English is ''Francis''. Given name * Frans van Aarssens (1572–1641), Dutch diplomat ...

as Loohman *

Peter Blok Peter Stephanus Blok (born 7 April 1960 in The Hague), known as Peter Blok, is a Dutch stage, television, film, and voice actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" ...

as De Vos *

Jacob Derwig Jacob Derwig (The Hague, 15 July 1969) is a Dutch actor. Film and television He recently played roles in box-office hit Family Way (2012) (for which he won a Golden Calf), The Dinner (2013), Public Works (2015), and in the highly popular Dutc ...

as Koerier *

Rudolf Lucieer Rudolf Lucieer (born 10 November 1942) is a Dutch actor. He has appeared in 36 films and television shows since 1966. He starred in the 1967 film ''Paranoia'', which was entered into the 17th Berlin International Film Festival. In 1992 he won t ...

as De Vet * Maike Meijer as Eva *

Carol van Herwijnen Carol may refer to: People with the name *Carol (given name) *Henri Carol (1910–1984), French composer and organist *Martine Carol (1920–1967), French film actress *Sue Carol (1906–1982), American actress and talent agent, wife of actor Ala ...

as Shopassistent *

Rijk de Gooyer Rijk de Gooyer (17 December 1925 – 2 November 2011) was a Dutch Golden Calf-winning actor, writer, comedian and singer. From the 1950s until the early 1970s, he became well known in The Netherlands as part of a comic duo with John Kraaijkam ...

as Martin * Elizabeth Hoytink as Stella *

Jack Wouterse thumbnail Jack Wouterse (born 17 June 1957 in Soest) is a Dutch actor. His career as a movie actor took off with his role in the 1992 film ''The Northerners'', directed by Alex van Warmerdam. Wouterse made his international debut in an episode o ...

as Gardener *

Ariane Schluter Ariane Schluter (born 1 February 1966) is a Dutch actress. She is best known for playing in films by such Dutch filmmakers as Alex van Warmerdam and Theo van Gogh. Career Ariane Schluter studied at the Maastricht Academy of Dramatic Arts. Af ...

as Cleaning woman *

Kees Hulst Kees or KEES may refer to: * Kees (given name) * Kees (surname) * KEES, an American AM radio station licensed to Gladewater, Texas See also * Cees (disambiguation) Cees () is a Dutch masculine given name, a short form of Cornelis. Since, as in ...

as Overbuurman *

Ricky Koole Ricky Koole (born 11 September 1972) is a Dutch singer and film actress. She appeared in more than forty films since 1996. Personal life and career Koole graduated in 1995 with a Bachelor of the Arts from the ''Kleinkunstacademie'' in Amsterdam ...

as Chantalle

Reception

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Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 80% based on 10 reviews, with an average rating of 6.90/10. David Rooney of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' magazine said that "Dutch director Alex van Warmerdam, spins an eventful narrative out of the story of an inanimate object in his third feature, ''The Dress''. Charting the effect the titular garment has on a string of men and women, the director does a mechanically impressive job of sustaining what feels like an exercise in narrative construction".

References

External links

* 1996 comedy films Dutch comedy films 1990s Dutch-language films Films directed by Alex van Warmerdam {{1990s-comedy-film-stub