The Dutch film scene is a very disappointing business. And in Dutch film history there also seems few to be proud of. Only the (mostly documentary) contributions of Joris Ivens are true lights in the darkness. Even the Helsingin Sanomat recently realized that Ivens was something special, even though treated as a dinosaur, which he should never have become. Here some more on Joris Ivens by a proud fellow-country man, even though nationalism was something extremely disliked by Ivens.
Not just from stylistic point of view is his work revolutionary, his entire oeuvre seems pervaded with a political message as well. As the times were revolutionary in the early decades of this century, so was Ivens inspired by the socialist dreams and ideals and he held on to them all his life. In the early twenties when he started to make his first movies, he experimented with Russian technics of montage editing. Resulting in some very boring to watch, but technically speaking, highly sophisticated movies. Of which especially 'Regen' (Rain), 1929, is notable: four months of shooting raindrops of all sorts and kinds, put together in one movie.
His enormous amount of work, however after that, was mainly politically inspired. Especially a movie made with Ernest Hemingway, who wrote and narrated the script, Nieuwe Gronden (New Grounds), 1937, about the cruelties of the Fascist regime in Spain brought Ivens international fame. In 1952 he won the international peace price for his Stromenlied ('Song of the Rivers), 1952, a movie seen by more than 250 million people world wide. But his zeal didn't change as later movie titles make clear: several have titles like, 'the will of the people' about socialist revolutions in Asian societies. There is also for example one interview with Ho Chi Min in the late sixties. Being a political radical all his life combined with award winning talent as a visual artist, he left an oeuvre of over ninety movies. Leaving such an incredible heritage did not set a pattern for Dutch film; inspired and talented people are nowadays nonexistent in the Dutch filmscene.