I am sort of a location nut and tremendously enjoyed this beautiful, nightmarish movie, noting that the town of Vlissingen stars prominently in it. Taking into account that the movie is symbol laden, I must assume that the choice to film in Vlissingen was a deliberate one. Has it a history of witchcraft or something? Or is it just that the railway ends there? Anybody enlighten me, please.
shareNothing so fancy, just that the book by Gerard Reve, on which the movie is based, opens in 'the southern city by the sea V.'.
Meaning Vlissingen, or Flushing in English.
Regards.
You can see how the city looked back in the eighties, for now the boulevard has been modernised, the rest of the movie is shot elsewhere though, for the beach cannot be found around Flushing
Timeo Danos Et Dona Ferentes,
Beware Romulans Bearing Gifts...
Gerard Reve - in the movie - lives in Amsterdam, the self-proclaimed cultural capital of The Netherlands. Vlissingen is almost as remote as possible; that's why GR had to spend the night overthere.
If the lecture had taken place in say Haarlem GR easily could have returned home the same evening.
As far as I know - and I am Dutch myself - the location of Vlissingen does not have any symbolic meaning.