Wim Verstappen (4 May 1937 – 24 July 2004) was a Dutch

film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...

and producer,

television director A television director is in charge of the activities involved in making a television program or section of a program. They are generally responsible for decisions about the editorial content and creative style of a program, and ensuring the prod ...

, and

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

. Verstappen grew up in

Curaçao Curaçao, officially the Country of Curaçao, is a constituent island country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located in the southern Caribbean Sea (specifically the Dutch Caribbean region), about north of Venezuela. Curaçao includ ...

. He began studies at the Netherlands Film and Television Academy in 1961, and released his first movie in 1966, ''De minder gelukkige terugkeer van Joszef Katus naar het land van Rembrandt''. He joined the editorial staff of the film magazine '' Skoop'' in 1963, working alongside Nikolai van der Heyde, Gied Jaspars, and Pim de la Parra. From 1966 on he directed and produced films with De la Parra, and in 1967 they founded a production company, Scorpio Films, becoming known as 'Pim & Wim'. Among their productions was the 1971 explicit film ''

Blue Movie ''Blue Movie'' (also known as ''Fuck'' and ''F,k'') is a 1969 American erotic film written, produced and directed by Andy Warhol. It is the first adult erotic film depicting explicit sex to receive wide theatrical release in the United States ...

'', which led to the abolition of the Dutch film rating system for adults. After the demise of Scorpio Films, Verstappen directed two films based on novels by Simon Vestdijk, '' Pastorale 1943'' (1978) and ''Het verboden bacchanaal'' (1981). While the first was a commercial success, drawing an audience of over a million, the second film flopped, as did two later films, ''De Zwarte Ruiter'' (1983) and ''De Ratelrat'' (1987). Verstappen stopped directing films and focused on film rights, founding an organization to secure authors' copyrights. In 1992 he was awarded the Dutch Filmmuseum Award for his contributions to the Dutch film industry, and in 1995 he received a

Golden Calf According to the Torah, the Bible, and the Quran, the golden calf () was a cult image made by the Israelites when Moses went up to Mount Sinai (bible), Mount Sinai. In Hebrew, the incident is known as "the sin of the calf" (). It is first mentio ...

for his body of work. He died of cancer in 2004, aged 67, in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

Selected filmography

*'' IJdijk'' (1965; an experimental movie about

pedophilia Pedophilia ( alternatively spelled paedophilia) is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of pube ...

, with Verstappen playing the pedophile) *' (1966) *' (1967; with Ramses Shaffy) *''Drop Out'' (1969) *''

'' (1971; with and ) *''VD'' (1972) *'' Frank en Eva'' (1973) *''Alicia'' (1974) *''Dakota'' (1974) *''Leren van Las Vegas'' (1974; 8 mm documentary, commentary by Kees Brusse) *''Mens Erger Je Niet'' (1975; with Rijk de Gooyer) *'' Pastorale 1943'' (1978; based on the novel by Simon Vestdijk); adapted for television) *'' Grijpstra & De Gier'' (1979; based on ''Het lijk in de Haarlemmerhouttuinen'' by Janwillem van de Wetering) *''Het verboden bacchanaal'' (1981; based on the novel by Simon Vestdijk) *''De Zwarte Ruiter'' (1983; adapted for television in 1986 as ''De Smokkelaar'') *''Leren van Las Vegas'' (1985; re-edited version of the 1974 original) *' (1987; based on the novel by Janwillem van de Wetering); adapted for television as ''Het Lijk In Friesland'')

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Verstappen, Wim 1937 births 2004 deaths Dutch film directors Dutch film producers Dutch television directors Dutch male screenwriters Deaths from cancer in the Netherlands People from Gemert-Bakel 20th-century Dutch screenwriters