Yes Nurse, No Nurse (2002/2003/2004) (AKA
Ja zuster, nee zuster)
It's hard to imagine a more kooky,
colorful and fun-filled movie coming to theaters than
"Yes Nurse, No Nurse." This Dutch import will have
you humming with its catchy tunes, even if they are
rather old fashioned and in a foreign language, laughing
at all the wacky character, incidents and dialogue,
and drooling over the hunky lead actor playing Gerrit
(Waldemar Torenstra) who does a scene in a pair of
briefs that will revolutionize the way you think about
underwear. Yes Nurse, indeed!
There's really great performances
here too. Loes Luca, as Nurse Klivia, the head of
a "rest home" for wayward souls at the center of the
film, is perfect as the matriarch here. We respect
her and find her thoughtful and charming, just gruff
enough but also with a lot of heart. Tjitske Reidinga
is charming as the lead patient Jet, Garrit's love
interest, a ingenue who out Bjorks Bjork as well.
But it is Paul Kooij who steals the show as the cranky
and sourpussed Boordevol, the neighbor and landlord
of Nurse Klivia. This character is so wonderful and
Kooij plays him with such unabashed glee at his villainy
that sparks fly whenever he is on the screen. It's
an outstanding performance and has just enough twists
and turns to make it utterly fun!
These characters, including the
hunky Garrit, would be plenty entertaining if they
just acted out the witty script. But they also perform
musical numbers and dance sequences that are astoundingly
fun to watch. It's hard not to have your pants charmed
right off of ya!
The plot here is simple and even
has a wonderful gay-themed secondary story that works
perfectly. This is another good and fun-loving film
where the homosexuality of a character is just incidental.
The plot wouldn't work as well without it, but, oddly,
it has nothing at all to do with the plot at all,
really.
Language is fun here too. The voices
used by Luca and Kooij almost sound cartoonish, but
that only enhances the delightfulness of it all. As
Americans, we get to sit back and listen to the kooky
Dutch dialogue and understand almost half of it due
to its similarity to English, but the voices used
by the leads lift it up and make it work even more
perfectly charming. This is carried into the singing
voices as well. Even the title song is easy to understand
when we realize that the "zuster" of the title is
a form of "sister" and "Sister" is often what we call
nurses. You'll be singing "Ya zuster, nay zuster"
for days after. And while half of the dialogue is
almost easily understandable, the song lyrics are
actually translated into rhyming text on the screen
to make everything click into place.
This is a zany musical comedy that
will please fans of MGM's classic cinematic song fests
as easily as it will please fans of Jaques Tati and
of absurdist humor. It's hard to imagine a more colorful,
goofy, delightful movie.
Note:
In Dutch with English subtitles
that were obviously translated by a Britainer.
Directed and co-written by Pieter
Kramer.
Based on a TV series from the late
60's that ran in the Netherlands and the surrounding
areas. On-line sources say that series also had gay
characters and was very groundbreaking for its time.
Apparently very few of the shows still exist on tape
and many episodes are considered "lost."
As the symbol of a red cross is
used often in the colorful film, a disclaimer appears
before the movie promoting the charitable organization
in a humorous way.
The film first played in the Netherlands
in October 2002 and played at Cannes in May, 2003.
The film began a limited release in the U.S. in September,
2004 through Here! Films.
Viewed
in September, 2004, as a part of Agliff.
