ABSTRACT
The so-called ‘1,2,3 Group’ was a ludic group, if there ever was one in Dutch cinema. The group united five young filmmakers, described on René Daal-der’s webpage as ‘future architect Rem Koolhaas, director Jan de Bont, TV personality Frans Bromet, software tycoon Samuel Meyering and multimedia pioneer Rene Daalder.’ 1 In 1965, they made the 15-minute-long short De 1,2,3 rhapsodie [1, 2, 3 Rhapsody], consisting of five brief segments, which have a totally unpretentious appeal. In the segment ‘Hoe stoer Jan kan zijn’ [How Tough Jan Can Be], De Bont poses in front of the camera as an aviator and a fisherman among others and he is prancing around in a meadow, wearing only white underwear. In another segment, Koolhaas plays a lackey who crawls under the skirts of the English queen. Further, Daalder is portrayed as a maternity nurse who is extensively being praised in voice-over by a young mother: ‘She’s one in a million,’ but ‘My husband was constantly hanging around her. I have no idea why…. She’s not that pretty, is she? But she didn’t encourage him at all.’ Because it was a sloppily shot short, the black-and-white De 1,2,3 rhapsodie had an improvised feel.
