First Dutch chick-flick - and in colour, too

Jenny was the first Dutch feature film in colour and to commemorate the occasion, first time director Willy van Hemert tried to perform a Wizard of Oz style trick. The lead character is part of a female rowing team, so during the credits we are treated to the entire team rowing the canals of Amsterdam. At one point they pass under a bridge, and when they come out the other side - voilá - colour. Unfortunately the effects is all but ruined by the fact that Hemert failed to get a shot of the bridge itself, just two different shots looking down from either side of the construction. So unless you notice the shadows on the water of the people on the bridge, most viewers will completely miss out on the intended effect.

What follows is a remake of the 1932 German film Acht Mädels Im Boot. Interestingly enough, this Jenny was also a Dutch/German co-production and an alternate language version was being shot at the same time with German actors (directed by Alfred Bittins) to be released a year later. All these versions center on Jenny (directors daughter Ellen van Hemert), an 18 year old who gets pregnant during her busy training schedule for the rowing contest. Her boyfriend Ed (Maxim Hamel) fancies himself rather a swinging jet-setter and is therefor quite unprepared for fatherhood. Ah, there's the rub. To make matters worse, Jenny's only relative, her father (Ko van Dijk) is always to busy thinking about her acting career to notice his daughter's woes. Luckily she finds help from two unexpected sources: a friendly doctor friend of Ed's (Peter Brusse) and her stern rowing coach Greet (Andrea Domburg). The latter being modeled after real life rowing coach Greet Dusseldorf.

"Jenny" would nowadays be called a chick-flick. It is difficult to imagine any man willingly putting bum on seat for this film in 1958, although there are a surprising amount of shower scenes featuring Jenny's teammates (or course they all wear swimming suits in the shower cubicles). Critics weren't kind to Jenny, saying that the Dutch films in general couldn't compete with Bert Haanstra's documentary features that were all the rage at the time. Even director Van Hemert saw the project as a stepping stone to get over with so he could go on to do his own projects. Unfortunately for him, his production partner Jan Kemps died shortly after both Jenny's were completed and this never happened. Van Hemert subsequently made the jump to television, where he became quite renowned, but never got to helm another feature film.

7 out of 10

Dutch cinema often combines understated realism with offbeat humor, tackling moral ambiguity and social change. It balances intimate storytelling with bold, sometimes provocative, visual styles. Dutch films combine art-house sensibility with grounded storytelling, reflecting the country's open, yet quietly complex culture.

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The sport genre features the world of sports, capturing the excitement, competition, and personal journeys of athletes, coaches, and teams. The stories cover a wide range of sports and activities, each with its own unique characteristics and themes.

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Jenny gets pregnant, but her lover doesn't want to become a father yet.

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Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Schiphol, Haarlemmermeer, Noord-Holland, Netherlands

Ko van Dijk and Ellen van Hemert in Jenny (1958)

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