Cloaca

2003 [DUTCH]

Comedy / Drama

1
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Certified Fresh 76%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 76% · 100 ratings
IMDb Rating 7.4/10 10 1967 2K

art collector minister divorce underage girlfriend college friends hooker

Plot summary

Four old college friends in their forties come together in a time of trouble and despair. Old joy relives, but the harsh reality of their problems can't satisfy them and eventually endangers their friendships.

Director

Willem van de Sande Bakhuyzen Photo
Willem van de Sande Bakhuyzen

Top cast

Matthijs van de Sande Bakhuyzen Photo
Matthijs van de Sande Bakhuyzen as Bram
Iwan Walhain Photo
Iwan Walhain as Drug courier on moped
Benjamin de Wit Photo
Benjamin de Wit as Actor in play
Marleen Stolz Photo
Marleen Stolz as Helena
720p.WEB
991.88 MB
1280*724
Dutch 2.0
NR
Subtitles nl  us  cz  dk  de  gr  es  fi  fr  hu  it  no  pl  pt  ro  sv  
25 fps
1 hr 47 min
Seeds 12

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by jgeerling 9 / 10

Cloaca shows that there are still good Dutch movies.

2003 was a good year for Dutch Cinema. Not only did we see the success release of 'Van God Los' and 'Phileine zegt sorry', 2003 also saw the release of Cloaca. This movie will appeal to a smaller audience than the other two i just mentioned, but if you read this, go see it. The movie is about four former student buddyies who meet each other in their mid-40ties. One just left his wife, another was a top lawyer but had a nervous breakdown. The 3th guy has a legal battle with his boss, and the last is a director of a stage play, and he is screwing his main actress, the 18 year old daughter of his best friend. The 4 meet and see that their dreams in college have not exactly come true. The question is, is there still a way out for any of them. This may sound like the beginning of a feel good movie, but it isn't. cloaca is funny, dark, depressing and ultimately without mercy. A must see.
Reviewed by Daangerous 10 / 10

One of the best Dutch movies ever (if not, THE best)

The play "Cloaca" was, in the year 2002, one of the most succesful plays of that year. And because of the fact that in Holland, we don't have lots of issues we want to film, 'they' decided to make a movie of "Cloaca", with the same (great) actors as in th play. 'They' succeeded. The movie is one of the best Dutch movies ever, if not THE best, I'm still thinking of calling it that. The story is about a group of men, who are all 40 years old. Back when they were students, they were best friends, but after several years, the relation between these men went down hill. One of the guys, Pieter (Pierre Bokma), has a problem, and to solve this problem he needs the help of his friends, in special the help of Tom (Peter Blok) while he is a lawyer. But Tom en his two other friends Joep (Gijs Scholten van Aschat), who is running for minister, and Maarten (Jaap Spijkers), a director, have enough problems for themselves. And the only thing they can focuse on, is there own problem. This delivers some great scenes, like the one in which Maarten is trying to tell Joep that he had sex with his 18 year old daughter, when they were preparing Maarten's latest play. When Joep enters the room, he tells Maarten how wonderful he liked the play, gives Maarten a hug and gives him no chance to tell his story.This is typical for this movie; no one listens to the other, and this is brilliantly played by the best actors we have in Holland. Gijs Scholten van Aschat (who had the chance to play the raper in Lars von Triers "Dogville", but didn't do it because he wanted to make "Cloaca") plays Joep on a wonderfull way, and also the other die hard theater actors Pierre Bokma, Peter Blok and Jaap Spijkers give a fantastic performance. If you like good acting: GO SEE THIS ONE!!!
Reviewed by imdb-3362 8 / 10

Well done

Even though this is 'just' a TV movie, it has the look and feel of 'real cinema'.The lead roles are played by Dutch stage actors (the movie is based on a successful stage play with the same name, featuring the same actors), but most of these actors were in motion pictures and TV films before, so they know very well (or even remarkably well) how not to play to the balcony.The cinematography is simply beautiful and the editing is what I would call 'fluent'. A nice rhythm of long, medium and close-up shots and some dolly work at the right times. Some Dutch movies try to look like a reality-TV show, but this one has cinematic qualities.Since the main theme is friendship eroded by ambition, secrets, and betrayal, it does not really matter that the storyline and settings are a bit 'overburdened' (I mean, a future cabinet minister, a stage director chasing the lead actress in his play, a homosexual civil servant accused of stealing paintings, and an attorney with a cocaine addiction and a tendency to cut himself up - that's richer than Holland's Golden Age ..).The supporting roles are fine, with Laura (the 18-year old daughter of one of the friends and femme fatale for one of the other friends) delivering some magnificent Lolita eye candy.Well done, and good news for Dutch cinema. This movie deserves to be on wide-screen celluloid in a theater near you.8/10.
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