To Play or To Die

Starring:Joost Hienen, Simon Gribling, Tjebbo Gerritsma, Titus Muizelaar, Diane Lensink, Cock van der Lee, Marc van Uchelen, Mike Starink, Hilde Van Mieghem, Geert Hunaerts, Wim Van Der Grijn
Director: Frank Krom
Studio: Water Bearer Films
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

Which hour will be your last?
There is NO English audio track. It is entirely in Swedish
Not for the faint of heart!
Spelen of Stevern
Low-key drama rewards patience

To Play or To Die
Starring: Joost Hienen , Simon Gribling , Tjebbo Gerritsma , Titus Muizelaar , and Diane Lensink
Director: Frank Krom
Manufacturer: Water Bearer Films
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Art House & International | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Gay & Lesbian | Genres | DVD | Video

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( T ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
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ASIN: 6305415331
Release Date: 1998-11-11

Customer Reviews:

Which hour will be your last?.......2006-10-16

This film is not exactly what I expected, but even though I was a little disappointed, I liked the film. It's the story of a young gay man named Kees (the adorable Geert Hunserts) who is bullied by his all boy dutch school mates for being gay. He sets out to lure the ringleader of his bullies for a little one-on-one. His aim is to make Charel either love him or fight him. Hunserts give a shining performance and shows off a little more of his talents as well in a locker room scene. Great casting, superb acting, unusual plot but it will hold your attention. I could have written a better ending but all in all, I liked it and highly recommend it.

There is NO English audio track. It is entirely in Swedish.......2004-08-04

This movie is entirely in Swedish with English subtitles. It is incorrectly listed as havng an English audio track.

Not for the faint of heart!.......2002-03-09

Good video, good drama but very VERY disturbing!

You want the "nitty gritty" of gay adolescents? This is the video to add.

Spelen of Stevern.......2002-01-02

A beautiful movie which examines the emotions of Kees, an intellectual lonely teen who clearly falls in love with a more
street wise class mate. His friend Charel does not have the intellectual acumen to see above the society he currently lives in, which is to obey the laws of the norm. As a consequence
there is a clash of two different worlds and unrequited love.
It is a sad end which many gay teens fear will happen to them and of course it does. It happened then as it does now.
Maybe time changes everything: maybe not; I listen to each tick of the clock as the tears fall as snow upon frosted ground.

Low-key drama rewards patience.......2000-11-24

Frank Krom's impressively doom-laden Dutch drama "To Play or To Die" (Spelen of Sterven, 1990), based on a short story by Anna Blaman, has made a welcome appearance on DVD courtesy of Water Bearer Films. But it's somewhat alarming to discover that this short feature (it runs a mere 46m 50s!) has arrived on disc in a no-frills edition, priced the same as any mainstream DVD. The film originally premiered on VHS along with two other gay shorts under the umbrella title "Boys on Film" (vol. 2), and many potential customers may be unwilling to pay full price for this somewhat abbreviated presentation. But interested viewers are urged to suspend judgment and check the film out for themselves - "To Play or To Die" is a grim, unyielding examination of teenage emotions, played out against the stark backdrop of a Dutch boys' school.

The film focuses on the plight of Kees (Geert Hunaerts), a bright, handsome kid, crippled by shyness, whose life is devastated by a group of school bullies. Nevertheless, Kees is attracted to the ringleader Charel (Tjebbo Gerritsma), a beautiful thug whose macho posturing is little more than a show for his like-minded circle of friends. Kees invites him back to his (Kees') home when his parents are away, ostensibly to take revenge and seduce the older boy, but Charel's inability to drop the pretence and succumb to Kees' infatuation leads to a painful conclusion for them both. Or does it?

Beautifully photographed in muted colors by Nils Post (an accomplished cinematographer who also shot the highly controversial "For a Lost Soldier" in 1992), the film takes place in an emotionally desolate world where the characters are unable to connect with one another in any kind of meaningful context. Gerritsma and Hunaerts are superb as tormentor and tormented, respectively, with Hunaerts in particular giving a truly committed performance, especially towards the end of the film during a moment of (non-explicit, non-salacious) sexual candor. "To Play or to Die" is NOT homophobic, as some have suggested; it's simply unwilling to play the Hollywood game of providing its viewers with easy answers and a neat resolution. Gay filmmakers have a responsibility to depict the broad range of experiences which affect their community, and that means confronting the harsh realities of their daily lives as well as their triumphs over adversity. Some gay men are driven to tragic extremes by circumstances beyond their control, and failure to address these issues on film would make for a very one-sided view of an extremely complex subject. As such, the film may not be a pleasant experience for some, but it dares to be bleak and uncompromising when others might have hidden behind wish-fulfilment fantasies. That's honesty, not homophobia.

In any event, Krom's rich visual style distinguishes the film from many of its American counterparts, and the expert editing (by Krom and Sander Vos) maintains a keen sense of rhythm amidst the slow-burning tensions inherent in the drama. Incredibly, Krom (whom the packaging informs us was once an assistant to Paul Verhoeven) doesn't appear to have directed anything since, and his subsequent involvement in filmmaking has been relegated to technical support only. That's a real shame, because "To Play or To Die" seemed to herald a bright new talent on the European movie scene, especially in light of the New Queer Cinema movement which emerged from the US shortly after this film was made, boosting the production of gay-themed movies on an international scale.

Water Bearer's non-anamorphic presentation is framed at approximately 1.66:1 and is derived from a print that's beginning to show signs of age (the faded color scheme isn't entirely an artistic choice). The overly-large subtitles are permanent and the sound format is two-channel stereo, though the soundstage rarely expands beyond an appropriately melancholic score by Kim Hayworth and Ferdinand Bakker. The disc isn't regionally coded, and I suspect Water Bearer'sprint was derived from a PAL master at 25fps, in which case the original running time would be 48m 47s.

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