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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
Character, the 1997 Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film, is an Oedipal struggle both primal and epic with a Dickensian sweep and a dark Kafka-esque center. The film starts with a heated argument between two men, and when the elder is found dead with a knife in his chest the younger man is arrested and revealed to be his son. The story begins in flashback: the father, Dreverhaven (Jan Decleir from Antonia's Line), is a fearless Scrooge-like moneylender who has cold-heartedly built his fortune by collecting debts and foreclosing on the poor. His son, Katadreuffe (Fedja van Huet), is the offspring of a single night's passion with his housekeeper--in an interesting twist he hounds her to marry him, and she leaves with the boy to raise him on her own. When she dies, father and son become locked in a fascinating battle: as Katadreuffe finds him calling in the law, Dreverhaven buys up his debts and attempts to drive him into bankruptcy. Katadreuffe eagerly takes up every challenge his father throws at him in a perverse show of strength and filial defiance. Adapted by first-time director Mike Van Diem from the 1938 novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk, this handsome epic is assured from the first frame, and excellent performances by Decleir (whose imposing Dreverhaven seems to tower over all by will as much as by size) and van Huet bring to life this study of two tortured psyches whose love emerges only through conflict and competition. --Sean Axmaker
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - The Pyschological Family Feud - tense and thrilling...
Dutch film with English subtitles. Winner of the 1998 Academy Award for best for foreign film. Set in the Netherlands in the depression era of the 1920's. The movie opens and ends with scenes of the death of Dreverhaven, a notorious, cold and heartless bailiff who evicts the poor from their dwellings after they fall past due on rent or their debts.
Jacob Katadreuffe is taken in by the police and charged with Dreverhaven's brutal death. The police learn that Dreverhaven is Jacob's ... Read More
Rating: - No one gives an inch in psychological twister "Character"
I visit CHARACTER,1997 Foreign film of the Year,ever so often and never tire of it.This Netherlands-made Mike Van Diem written and directed thriller based out of a 1938 novel entitled "Katadreuffe und Dreverhoeven en Karakter" ages like a fine wine and gets deeper and more character complex every time I view it.
CHARACTER was released the same year as fellow epics TITANIC AND AMISTAD;and in the Foreign category,CHARACTER brought home another Oscar just as two years prior another Netherlands film,the ... Read More
Rating: - Excellently executed acting and directing
This film contains all of the best features that a moviegoer relishes in a superior dramatic film. The story grabs you suddenly at the beginning and takes you through the frustrations of a hard-working young man. I don't want to give any of the plot away, so I can't say too much about the storyline. When I originally watched this film, it seemed like it was paced too slowly, but near the end I began to see that the pacing had purpose--and ended satisfactorily. Must see.
Rating: - Worth while
For some reason the review I submitted right after seeing this DVD didn't make it onto the website so I'm writing another. Since it's not fresh in my mind I'll just add my "vote" to the others who recommend this.
To me, some stories are worth telling and some aren't. This is one that is! And it's brilliantly filmed and acted. Others' have recounted the story so I won't repeat it. But it's a tale of substance, worth your time and attention.
Rating:  - Generally well made movie, with dubious final message
A generally well made movie with a very dubious message: the best way to raise your children is to treat them like garbage. This movie is based on a 1920s book, and that message might seem resonant with the values of that era. But it's strange to listen to this kind of litany in a contemporary movie. To summarize the plot a bit, the film is about a young man, son of an unwed and stern woman, whose career is made almost impossible by his natural father, a thoroughly repellent individual, whose job seems to be ... Read More
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