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UvA student Billie Slagboom visited 39 film locations for book: “This is where Rex met his killer”
Foto: Sara Kerklaan
actueel

UvA student Billie Slagboom visited 39 film locations for book: “This is where Rex met his killer”

Wessel Wierda Wessel Wierda,
23 augustus 2024 - 10:40

UvA history student Billie Slagboom (23) wrote a book about 39 film locations with her father. To do so, she travelled all over the world, from Japan to the US, in search of a particular road, bus stop or house. “It still feels like you give a little extra credit to a place like that,” she says.

“This is where Rex met his girlfriend’s killer,” says Billie Slagboom (23). “Finally, after years of searching.” She points to a blue and white staircase of a gallery flat in the Amsterdam suburb Buitenveldert. Many a passer-by walks right past it, not even giving the stairs a glance. But Slagboom, an UvA history student and avid film buff, definitely does not fall into that category. Her curiosity immediately takes over, her heart beating a little faster. “This is where it happened, this is the place.”

 

The staircase in question at Marius ten Catehof was used as a backdrop in the 1988 Dutch thriller film Spoorloos. It is here (spoiler alert), on the outskirts of Amsterdam, where Rex (played by actor Gene Bervoets) is given the choice of getting into the car with his girlfriend’s killer. If he does not, he will never know how she died. If he does, he will have to suffer the same. “It’s really a key scene in the film,” Slagboom says.

The blue and white staircase from Spoorloos.
Foto: Sara Kerklaan
The blue and white staircase from Spoorloos.

“Key scenes, it is also the title of her new book. Together with her father, writer and journalist Maarten Slagboom (54), she travelled to places around the world where key scenes from films have been shot. The American alley where the character E.T. from the film of the same name cycled into the air, for instance, or the living room where Frank and April Wheeler’s marriage from Revolutionary Road ended, or the apartment blocks in Clichy-sous-bois from Les Miserables (2019). And so on... A film location from Spoorloos, like this one in Buitenveldert, didn’t make the strict selection of father and daughter for the book in the end, but as far as Billie is concerned, it could have been one of the final 39 films. It is a film from which there is a lot to get out of.”

 

How did the idea of writing a book about film locations come about?

“It’s a bit of a hobby that got out of hand. Just like the two photo books on abandoned places my father and I did before this. At some point, you think: we’ve already visited such beautiful film locations - we should do something with that. We ended up going to Japan, America, Taiwan, Estonia and Italy, among other places, for the project.”

 

You then wrote an essay about each film location. What was that like doing it with your father?

“Occasionally a battlefield haha. If we both wanted to write an essay on the same film, it became quite a negotiation: “If I can do Stalker, you get Melancholia.” That’s how we ended up. But anyway, it’s nice to do this with your father. The other person points out something you didn’t get out of it yourself. And that makes you see a film differently, you pay attention to other details. Because my father and I took turns writing an essay on a film, our different stages of life become clearly visible to the reader. That is ultimately what the book is about: how you draw on your own imagination at different stages of life. You notice that we have different emphases or identify with different characters.”

Do you have an example of that?

“Yes, take Revolutionary Road. Those two marriage partners completely destroy each other in the film. My father then thinks: oh, how nice that didn’t happen to me! For me, the thought comes more like: I hope I don’t end up in a relationship like that... You look at a film from two different moments in life. I still have a lot of choices and big moments ahead of me. Of course, my father also has a whole life ahead of him, but the big choices around children, a house and work are already behind him. Then you look at life differently, you experience more resignation.”

 

At the same time, you go through a development as a person yourself. Does that change your view of a film?

“Certainly, when I first saw the film The worst person in the world, I identified strongly with the lead actress, who is rather searching in life. I was then too. But later, when I found myself in a similar relationship, I mostly identified with her boyfriend and found that searching actually quite irritating. Of course, it’s just what you experience yourself in life.”

Billie Slagboom (23)
Foto: Sara Kerklaan
Billie Slagboom (23)

And standing here like this, in Buitenveldert, on the spot where Rex from Spoorloos in total despair (spoiler alert) chooses to go with his girlfriend’s killer, can you identify with him?

“Of course, it goes totally against your reasoning: getting into the car of your girlfriend’s killer. Exactly what we were taught from childhood to absolutely not do. Yet he does it, because otherwise he cannot go on with his life. He is indeed enormously desperate and simply surrenders to that desperation. I do understand him. That curiosity, that inability to completely shut off from a loved one... But it’s definitely not a wise decision and I hope I wouldn’t make the same choice if I ever found myself in such a situation.”

 

Do you often look for situations from your own life in scenes from films?

“I don’t think you look for it so much as it often just presents itself. It can happen very quickly; even if it’s just how Rex and his girlfriend go on holiday. Something so small and mundane. How, for instance, they stop at a petrol pump and go to get coffee. And then that vending machine doesn’t work. Stupid things like that. By watching such scenes and recognising them from your own life, you also accept them better. They belong. That’s also the beauty of good films: they reflect real life.”

 

How do you find all these film locations? I imagine they are not all easy to find out.

“That can be quite tricky, indeed. You have film locations that are all beautifully preserved for tourists, with clear signs attached. But for some you have to search quite a bit. That can be done on Google Street View with a screenshot from the film attached, as a kind of treasure hunt. But we have also sometimes approached a location scout (someone who finds suitable film locations for the director, ed.). Because you want to know where exactly someone drowned in the film. Not a bit nearby, no: the exact spot. But when you’re there, it’s great fun. Then it does feel a bit like you are paying some extra honour to a place like that.”

Film location from Once Upon a Time in the West. This place Billie and her father visited and photographed on one of their trips
Foto: Billie and Maarten Slagboom
Film location from Once Upon a Time in the West. This place Billie and her father visited and photographed on one of their trips
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