Borgman (2013)

 

 

Today we go overseas for the Dutch psychological thriller Borgman.  Jan Bijvoet (Embrace the Serpent and The Forgotten Battle) stars as Camiel Borgman a hobo, bum, homeless guy.  What do they call them over there anyway?  Probably none of that because they don’t speak English.  I mention that because this movie isn’t in English but it is subtitled.  Some of you know I don’t watch many subtitled films, that’s because I don’t have great vision, even with my glasses on.  And honestly, when I watch a film, I don’t want to read it I want to watch it.  But I went for it anyway as I’ve heard some great things about the film.  Also starring is Hadewych Minis (Forever Rich and Met Mes) as Marina and Jeroen Perceval (Bullhead and The Ardennens) as Richard, an upper middle class  married couple. 

 

One day Borgman shows up on their doorstep claiming to know Marina saying she was his nurse when he was in the hospital.  Borgman demands that they let him in and give him food and a bath.  Richard gets pissed and beats him up.  Without Richard knowing, Marina allows Borgman to stay in a shed in the yard.  Over time Borgman becomes friends with Marina and her three kids.  Soon, Marina begins to hate Richard, and it is shown that it is because Borgman can control her mind through her dreams.  Borgman next brings other people to the house.  One of the others is a man named Ludwig who is played by writer and director of the film, Alex van Warmerdam.  Another is Pascal who seduces the family’s live-in nanny after which the nanny, Stein, begins to hate her boyfriend.  The entire household is thrown into turmoil and Borgman and his entire crew sit back and enjoy their spoils. 

 

 

About three months ago I saw Parasite which is very similar to Borgman.  I gave Parasite four stars so how does Borgman stack up to it?  They are close to be honest.  While Parasite is definitely more gory and violent; Borgman is more of a psychological film.  With Parasite I sort of liked the family that took advantage of the upper-class family they invaded.  Here, I didn’t like Borgman and his crew as much, but I was in awe of how they worked their con.  Borgman also had me laughing pretty hard in a few parts as well.  Is Borgman an early influence of Parasite?  Who knows and I’m not going to debate it, but I do know the words influence, homage, rip-off, and adaptation have been thrown around when comparing the two films.  As it is, I will say that while they are similar films; they are not the same film and maybe I will call Borgman the Dutch Parasite, and I mean no disrespect to either film.  Maybe Parasite is the Korean Borgman since Borgman came out first.  Screw it, ya know what, I'm going four buckets of wet cement out of four.  I like Borgman as well as Parasite just in different ways.