De Van Waveren Tapes

2012

While looking for old home movies in Amsterdam, filmmaker Wim van der Aar comes across a box of reel-to-reel tapes at a fleamarket. As Van der Aar starts to listen to these recordings the story of Guido van Waveren begins to unfold. The son of a once-wealthy and eccentric family who has become a recluse in Amsterdam and obsessively records his telephone conversations with his domineering mother and an old school friend. Using these tapes as a starting point Van der Aar tries to piece together Guido's life and fill in the blanks. He reconstructs his apartment on a sound stage, adds sensual images to some conservations and tries to find people who knew him. In a way, Van der Aar's film seems like a real-life version of Samuel Beckett's play 'Krapp's Last Tape' and deals with similar themes of isolation, longing and loneliness. Along with the documentary, one extra is included about the Van Waveren family.