Bloemenvelden Haarlem

Summary

Short handcoloured film of a family in the flower fields near the city of Haarlem.

In the vaults of the Film Museum is a short film which, when it arrived in the 1950s, was given the title Bloemenvelden in Haarlem (The Flower Fields of Haarlem). The film shows the visit of two women and a child to the bulb fields. One woman buys a bouquet of flowers from a farm labourer who is hard at work. At the end of the film, a man joins them. He also buys a bouquet of flowers. Both the husband and wife give their bouquets to the child.

In all likelihood, this is the second part of the film De legende over het ontstaan der bloembollencultuur te Haarlem (The Legend of the Origins of Haarlem’s Bulb Cultivation) by Alberts Frères, the production company run by the brothers Albert and Willy Mullens. This two-part film – the first part gave an overview of bulb cultivation in the 17th century – was made in 1909, and can be seen as an attempt to create an 'art film'.

That year, in step with the international developments of the day, Filmfabriek F.A. Nöggerath also tried to elevate the medium film from popular entertainment to art form. Nöggerath produced De greep, a film adaptation of a play. In both cases, this was to remain a singular attempt: the high cost of producing these films, and the difficulty in selling them (film distribution was then still in its infancy in the Netherlands) formed too much of a barrier.