January 17, 2019

Seventies Dutch Marines recruitment film should sell lingerie

Filed under: General,History by Orangemaster @ 5:51 pm

Spokesman for the Netherlands Ministry of Defence Klaas Meijer tweeted about this groovy, James Bond-esque recruiting film for the Dutch Marines, which for 1972 was possibly seen as quite ordinary. However, on Twitter, it made a lot of people twitch because of the way it portrays women.

Sexism and good looking women in lingerie is as late 1960s-early 1970s as it gets, and this would never ever be made today except as a joke. I like the music, though. I can laugh about it today because it’s generally accepted that you have to see something like this in context: women were still housewives back then in this country.

Instead of getting outraged, let’s all have a good laugh at how ignorant it is, but yet still very funny. All the men in white underwear look completely ridiculous as well.

Photo: www.lc.nl

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November 28, 2008

Jeroen Krabbé has no time for Grey’s Anatomy

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 8:00 am
Krabbe

World-famous Dutch actor Jeroen Krabbé, known for many Dutch and English-language roles (playing a meanie in the James Bond film ‘The Living Daylights’ comes to mind quickly) has refused a guest role on one of the most popular American television shows, Grey’s Anatomy. Dutch television show ‘SBS Shownieuws’ said on 26 November that Krabbé’s schedule is so full that he had to turn the American medical series down. He said they’d probably ask him again soon. What kind of character would he play? Hopefully not some Russian general called Koskov with a weird accent.

(Link: zappen.blog.nl)

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August 20, 2007

“2000× dick” for Bruna’s birthday

Filed under: Art,Design,History by Branko Collin @ 10:00 am

Dutch designer and artist Dick Bruna will turn 80 this week, and in his honour the main office of the public library of Rotterdam is hosting an exhibition of his book covers called 2000× dick. Admission is free, and the exhibition runs from August 16 till September 16.

bruna_golden_gun.png
Illustration: cover of the Dutch translation of the James Bond story The Man with the Golden Gun, illustration and cover design by Dick Bruna.

Outside the Netherlands, Dick Bruna is probably best known for his series of books for very young children, revolving around young bunny rabbit Miffy, but within the country, his book covers for series such as Maigret, James Bond and The Saint are probably as famous. Bruna was born to a long line of publishers, and his father wanted him to follow in those footsteps. However, Bruna had other plans, and went for a career in design and illustration.

His father had started a line of book shops at railway stations, where the publisher sold its own range of Zwarte Beertjes (black bears) books. They were pocket novels that went over well with travellers who wanted something easy to read while in the train. Bruna translated a number of these books, and typeset and illustrated thousands of them. Being a great fan of the minimalist De Stijl, both his children’s books and book covers are remarkable for their clean and simple look.

There are several anthologies of Bruna’s book covers, both printed and electronic. On the web you can find pictures of book covers at Retrobook.com as tiny thumbnails, and at De Boekenplank as bigger scans, but unfortunately not sorted by cover designer (google the site for “omslag Dick Bruna” or “omslagillustratie Dick Bruna”).

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