Josina Schetzer as "Mooie Leen" and Harry Boda as "Willem Broerse"

Special screening
In the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater
Thursday, April 8, 2004 at 8 p.m.

The Academy presents a unique experimental 'restoration'
of the first Dutch 'sound' film from 1930

Screened as the opening night of the film series
"The Human Dutch: Films from the Netherlands"
at the UCLA Film and Television Archive

In association with the Consulate General of the Netherlands in Los Angeles and the Nederlands Filmmuseum

Zeemansvrouwen (Seamen's Wives) was made in 1930 and was intended to be the first Dutch sound film. For this reason, director Henk Kleinman cast two professional singers in the leading parts. However, Kleinman had underestimated the complications of using the new sound technology and the film was ultimately released as the last silent Dutch film.

The series "The Human Dutch: Films from the    Netherlands" will screen at the UCLA Film and    Television Archive from April 9-28, 2004.    Tickets are available at www.cinema.ucla.edu.    For more information, please call    (310) 206-FILM.    April 9, 7:30 p.m.    "The Fourth Man" and "The Vanishing"    Program introduced by director Paul Verhoeven    and Jan de Bont    April 10, 7:30 p.m.    "Metal and Melancholy" and "One People"    April 11, 7:00 p.m.    "A Question of Silence" and "Character"    April 14, 7:30 p.m.    "The Human Dutch" and "The Northerners"    April 16, 7:30 p.m.    "The Spanish Earth" and "Brass Unbound"    April 17, 7:30 p.m.    "Max Havelaar"    April 28, 7:30 p.m.    "Hush Hush Baby!" Sneak Preview

In 2003, Dutch composer Henny Vrienten transformed this film into the "first Dutch sound film" by replicating the soundtrack as Kleinman had envisioned it. Vrienten's new soundtrack is complete with music, sound effects and partly synchronized dialogue, reconstructed by lip-reading the words that the actors spoke on camera.

Set in Amsterdam, a city of gay lights and dark shadows, love, crime, happiness and misery, Zeemansvrouwen uses realism and authentic period detail to tell the dramatic story of a woman caught between the love of a worthy sailor and the criminal she cannot escape.

Zeemansvrouwen was first restored to its original version in the traditional photochemical manner, from the last existing nitrate print. The new sound version of the film is an experiment employing a high-resolution scan of the film in which frames were duplicated. This new sound version of Zeemansvrouwen is envisioned and presented as a "screening experiment" rather than as a traditional restoration.

Starring Harry Boda, Josina Schetzer, Joseph Pasch, Clara Vischer-Blaaser, Annie Barbas, Raas Luyben. Directed by Henk Kleinman. Director of Photography: Andor von Barsy. Production Company: Filmfabriek Holland, 1930. Sound version with English language intertitles courtesy of the Netherlands Film Museum. 35mm. Running time: 85 minutes.