Alan Cumming, as comic sufferer of Nazi induced guilt, reaches theatres after three complicated years. July 2000 "For My Baby", the 1997 winner of the Golden Calf (the Dutch Film Awards) for Best Director Rudolf van den Berg, will finally be released this coming September. This event, which has taken nearly 3 years because of various complications, is awaited with great curiosity for a number of reasons: 1) to view the latest work of van den Berg (made in the baroque style of his earlier film "De Avonden") 2) the fact that the now well-known Alan Cumming plays the lead character of stand-up comedian Daniël Orgelbrand, and 3) the story, which revolves around a comic who painfully tries to work off the personal guilt feelings resulting from the Nazi's murder of his sister by confronting his audiences with a searing objectivity in his stage routine. Further info available at: http://i.am/formybaby Shooting is about to begin on the new Dutch feature film "Baby Blue" with a scenario by noted crime thriller writer Thomas Ross and directed by notorious Dutch director Theo van Gogh. This should prove an interesting combination. This "film noir" involves an insurance agent and airline stewardess who apparently are happily married and living pleasantly in the provinces until an English press photographer and his much younger wife move in next door. Due for release in February of next year. Further info will be available from next month at www.babyblue.nl Shooting will also be starting on Dick Mass' "Down" (the English language remake of his earlier Dutch film "De Lift" with a brand new script).This is the story of an elevator with a mind of its own, located in New York's 102 story Millennium Building. Production design by John Graysmark, Visual FX Supervision by Tim McGovern, and Cinematography by Marc Felperlaan.Included among the cast are David Lynch veterans James Marshall and Naomi Watts. Expected premiere for the 72 elevators is next Spring (no pun intended?). Further info at: www.downthemovie.com "Flowers and Blood: a retrospective of Takeshi Kitano's films, will be running from June 29th till August 9th in the Dutch Filmmuseum located in the Vondelpark in Amsterdam. Kitano, who established himself as a cultfilmer with "Hana-Bi" and "Kikujiro," is known for his work as actor and TV comic as well as director. The museum, distributor for Kitano's films in Holland, has decided that it is high time to organize a small festival which shows both the director's professional and anarchistic approach, especially considering that less than half of his work has been shown in this country to date. Those unfamiliar with his name may remember him as the fanatical and sadistic sergeant Hara in Nagisa Oshima's MERRY CHRISTMAS, MR. LAWRENCE (1983). Among the films on show are "Violent Cop" (1989), "Boiling Point" (1990), "A Scene at the Sea" (1991), "Sonatine" (1993), "Getting Any?" (1994), "Kids Return" (1996), and KIKUJIRO (1999) as well as "HANA-BI", the film which proved his breakthrough by winning the Golden Lion in Venice. A new film house exists on the Overtoom in Amsterdam. It is called "Cinema Overtoom" and is to be found at number 301 on that street. Another smaller cinema called "Zaal 100" (Hall 100) is (of all places) at # 100 on the De Wittenstraat and "Mumiaplein" (Jodenbreestraat 21). Luckily, new art houses pop up like mushrooms and this helps prevent the decline created by the closing down or demolition of larger art houses in Amsterdam which has become a trend of late). The Dutch Film Yearbook for 1999 is now available in your better bookshops. News regarding this annual will be cited more extensively in next month's buzz. © 1994-2006 The Green Hartnett