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'Yes Nurse' is good medicineNew Dutch flick camps it up at the Castro Theatre. By Sabrina Crawford | Staff Writer San Francisco Examiner Published on Friday, September 3, 2004 |
| Move over Fred
and Ginger,
there's a new game in town. "Yes Nurse! No Nurse!", the new film by
Dutch director Pieter Kramer, is a glorious, imaginative homage to the
golden era of the late, great Hollywood studio musical -- and a
celebration of all its camped up, Technicolor glory. Saturated with eye-popping candy-coated colors, "Yes Nurse", paints an on-screen 1960s world where the streets are filled with singing and dancing, carnivals always come to town and the biggest problem in everyone's' lives is that mean, old, nasty neighbor. With a wink and a nudge, the film opens with a classic pairing of innocent lovebirds -- a shy, nervous young lady (Tjitske Reidinga) and her crime-prone, but good-hearted handsome suitor (Waldemar Torenstra). Whisking along the streets through the center of some imaginary town that looks very much like a Hollywood back lot, rain dousing them, umbrellas twirling in sync, the couple sing their newly enamored hearts out. And that's just the beginning. Following the misadventures of Nurse Klivia's (Loes Luca) rest home for the somewhat off-kilter, weary and otherwise wayward, the retro romp serves up choreographed numbers by nurses in matching white frocks, hats, and red patent tap shoes, a gay hairdresser who helps save the day and a dottering old engineer who just wants to make the world a better place with his happy pills. The only trouble with this film for American audiences is that it's foreign. And let's face it, isn't one of the greatest joys of a musical that the words are so simple you can catch on mid-song and join in, screeching at the top of your lungs in a broken falsetto annoying all your seatmates? Or maybe that's just me... Even so, if you love old musicals, this film will have you nodding "ya sizster, ney sister," in the aisle and dancing out the door muttering to anyone who will listen on the way home, "Ah, they just don't make 'em like that anymore." |
| YES NURSE, NO NURSE Ja zuster, nee zuster |
 2002
–
Netherlands
Director:
Pieter Kramer
Review: Oh, man. I tried really hard to find a single reason not to give this movie a full pie, because I sort of feel like y'all are going to think I give high ratings away like candy. The only thing I could come up with was the fact that it's fluff, but that's no reason to waste a single second getting your ass to the next screening of Yes Nurse, No Nurse as fast as your legs or perhaps wheelchair can take you. This rollicking camp-o-rama will have you rolling in the aisles! There are some movies where, within the first five minutes, you think to yourself, Dear god, this is already the best movie in the world! This movie embodies that feeling for its entire duration. Some campy treats set the bar high early on, then lose steam and fail to live up to their own standard (somewhere out there, Camp's ears are ringing). Not in this case, my friend. Based on a Dutch television show from the '60s, Yes Nurse, No Nurse is consistently funny, outrageous, and surprisingly raunchy. Yay! Yes Nurse, No Nurse is the musical tale of Nurse Klivia (Loes Luca), who runs a rest home populated by a gang of lovable nutcases next door to the über-cranky Mr. Boordevol, who can best be described as "if The Duke from Moulin Rouge lived in Amsterdam today, and was capable of even more evil facial contortions." Mr. Boordevol is constantly looking for a way to get Nurse Klivia and her rowdy "patients" evicted, and may finally have found a way when a young, hunky burglar with a heart of gold (Waldemar Torenstra) moves in with them. The movie is packed with silly and memorable characters and musical numbers, with camera work that's as fun and inventive as the singing and dancing itself. I would go into details, but honestly, all I can tell you over and over about this movie is that it looks great and it's SO. DAMN. FUN. Yes Nurse, No Nurse is simply the most pure and hilarious camp fun you'll have at the movies all year. Also, it's quite unique in the fact that it doesn't take itself seriously for even a single second. If nothing else, how can you resist honesty like that? |
Synopsis:
Busby Berkley
goes Dutch treat in this
delirious,
all-singing, all-dancing romantic comedy revolving around the eccentric
denizens of an Amsterdam rest home and the killjoy neighbor who wants
the whole lot of them evicted. Chock full of over-the-top '60s set
design, tinted postcard tableaux and lush, split-screen visuals, the
film's musical numbers give new meaning to the word "camp" (typified by
a cheerfully rude "Fuch... Fuch... Fuchsia" routine that needs no
subtitling).  
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|
YES
NURSE! NO NURSE! Metro
Weekly Rating: by Alex MacLennan
Fans of Chicago, Down with Love, and especially Moulin Rouge should flock to the fluffy story of Nurse Klivia, Jet, Bertus and Bobby, the Engineer, the Hairdresser, nasty Boordevol, and Gerit, the handsome thief. The movie's plot (twisty and extraneous as it is) involves at least three romances, a threatened eviction, a series of robberies, and a pill that change personalities from bad to good. One romantic interlude includes the smoothly muscled thief, in the tightest of tighty whities, singing on the rooftop to his pigeons and then his girl. It's like a Pierre et Giles photo come to life on the set of Little Shop of Horrors.
|
THIS
BIG, SUGARY
gumdrop of a movie is chock full of musical numbers, colorful outfits,
and eccentric performances that conspire, beginning with the exuberant
opening credits, to offer a flat-out pleasurable, original, and
unexpected treat. 
The
gay plotline may be small, but the gay sensibility is overwhelming, as
is the sheer fun of watching this film. Yes Nurse! No Nurse!
enjoys the benefits of a respectable budget, judiciously (and joyously)
spent. Carnivals, circuses, and parades regularly move down Klivia's
street, and the characters swing into song and dance without fail.
There are more than one moments of true beauty, plenty of laughs, and a
surprisingly moving denouement.