That old adage, that the book they said could never be written is now the film they said could never be made, seems even more applicable to the latest cinematic opus of Erik de Bruyn, produced by CTM Pictures.

Madcap, absurdist, funny, rude, poignant and at times outrageously un-PC, J.Kessels is an adaptation of the best-selling novel by PF Thomése that details how the author Frans (a thinly-veiled portrait of Thomése himself) deals with writer’s block by undertaking what may or may not be an imaginary road trip to the Hamburg Reeperbahn with his favourite fictional creation, the chain smoking, Country and Western loving, boozing, schmoozing J.Kessels (who incidentally has a heart of gold). Ostensibly the journey is to apprehend a fugitive, but for Frans it turns into an odyssey to locate his first love, muse and pre-pubescent fantasy, the Lolita-like Brigitte, known as BB.

De Bruyn was inspired not only by the idea of two older guys (played by Fedja van Huêt and Frank Lammers who starred together in de Bruyn’s Wild Mussels) having a midlife crisis, but also by a line in the book when the novelist writes of his frustration that his story seems to be going nowhere. “I thought that’s interesting, how to make a film out of a book which has such an absurd story. It’s the whole concept. He has writer’s block and time stands still. And so everything has to get back into motion again. I thought it was very funny, very drily comical and interesting with many layers.”

In the film, the characters are continually aware of their status as fictional constructs and openly discuss their ‘development’, as well as the trajectory of the film narrative. De Bruyn was insistent however on minimizing the book’s eventual descent into slapstick, while retaining its essential Beat aesthetic.

“The book was always referring to aspects of this literary generation, these writers like Bukowski and this dirty realism, Kinky Friedman, Jack Kerouac, using a lot of interior monologue, so for me and the scriptwriter Jan Eilander it took quite a while to work out how we could put that into the film. But there were so many absurd things that by the end I had the feeling that I wanted something more. I wanted a turning point, a more emotional ending.” Without giving anything away, the ending de Bruyn and his screenwriter devised seeks to ease the pains of love Frans feels to his very core.

In Utrecht the festival will also premiere a newly mastered version of de Bruyn’s Wild Mussels, produced in association with EYE, Storm Post Production and Metropolis Film in Utrecht. In addition the director will pitch his animated 2WW project Lage Zwaluwe, produced by Submarine, at the HFM Co-pro Platform. Does he feel in any way daunted by the prospect of directing an animated film?

“Of course not. I’m very excited,” de Bruyn responds. “I am not an animator but all films need mise en scène and découpage and cutting, and you need to tell a story visually with sound effects and sound design. Of course there are animators and story-boarders and a scriptwriter but to bring all of them together you need an overall director. I will be very excited to work on a project like that of course. I love cinema in all its forms so I always like to try new things and in new ways.”

^{Erik de Bruyn}

Script: Jan Eilander Production: CTM Pictures (NL) Co-production: CZAR TV (BE)