Watched The Dress (1996)

The film The Dress, also known as De jurk, is an arthouse project by Dutch director Alex van Warmerdam, who also played one of the main roles in it.

This is a story about several different people who are united by one thing – a dress, which they encounter at different moments in their lives. What is so interesting about this film that I decided to mention it?

It is rare to see a film in which the main “character” is a thing, the life path of which is shown here. It begins with a drawing by a designer who saw his inspiration in another dress, during a quarrel between construction workers working on the street and a resident of one of the apartments. Quite monotonous Indian music was heard from the apartment. During the conflict, a woman ran out into the street in a dress, the reference of which was the design of the future dress. Interestingly, the plot itself will develop like a thread from this very dress, which caught on a branch somewhere and pulled a series of events along with it.

This film is a perfect combination of arthouse, erotica, thriller and comedy. The film is presented in such a way that it cannot evoke any one emotion in you, so every second the emotion changes – from feeling for the main character through the episode that happened to her, and with elements of comedy, which are diluted here with scenes with a naked body.

I would even draw a certain allegory with the fact that the life path of the dress here is very reminiscent of a person’s life, divided into several stages, including childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, “second youth”, old age and death.

It’s hard to say whether the film’s author wanted to make a certain connection to the fact that since the thing originated during the conflict, its subsequent history demonstrates that it cannot carry any light or goodness, because it is because of the dress that people usually encounter problems. However, the idea that you cannot know the history that preceded how the thing came to you, and sometimes these stories can even intertwine, is also relevant.

On the other hand, the film is quite heavy, because it contains certain elements of violence against women, which can make it unpleasant to watch. Therefore, I would probably add thriller to the list of genres.

Do I recommend it? Yes. This is the same film that evoked enough emotions to make me want to write about it. I give it a bold 8 out of 10.