Suite 16 (1994)

User Rating:

5.5/10   

Director:

Dominique Deruddere

Writers:

Charlie Higson (writer)
Lise Mayer (writer)

Release Date:

24 November 1994 (Netherlands)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

Plot Keywords:

Hustler | Male Prostitute | Gay Interest | Wheelchair | Prostitute

Cast

Pete Postlethwaite	...	Glover
Antonie Kamerling	...	Chris
Géraldine Pailhas	...	Helen
Tom Jansen	...	Paul
Bart Slegers	...	Rudy
Suzanne Colin	...	Woman with Dog
Viviane de Muynck	...	Woman Scene 1
Dirk Roofthooft	...	Marc
Corinne la Riviere	...	Shop Manageress
Henri Masini	...	Cashier
Stéphane Lévêque	...	Room Service Waiter
Valerie van Nitsen	...	Prostitute
Marielle van Sauers	...	Prostitute
Françoise Le Bihan	...	Prostitute
Florence Risler	...	Prostitute

MPAA:

Rated R for strong sexuality and language, and for some violence and drug use.

Runtime:

106 min

Country:

UK | Belgium | Netherlands

Language:

Dutch | English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Australia:R | Finland:K-16 (video premiere) | Germany:16 | UK:18 | USA:R | South Korea:18 | Argentina:16

Company:

Corsan Productions N.V.

Great director, mediocre movie…

Director Dominique Deruddere is a much more interesting person that this mediocre movie leads you to believe. Other than this "thing", he made some of the greatest Belgian movies ever, like "Wait until Spring Bandini", "Hombres Complicados" and especially "Crazy Love". This latter one can easily compete with prestigious American movies when it comes to drama, cinematography and plot. For "Suite 16", Deruddere had the opportunity to work with a bigger budget and some important names here and I fear that's what caused him to deliver a seemly-unfinished film. Some good dialogues and interesting content can't prevent this film from being a tedious and uninteresting social portrait. The plot introduces a young crook (Antonie Kamerling) on the run for other villains and he ends up in the suite of the wheel-chaired manipulator Glover. At first, Glover appears to be a sad and frustrated impotent guy from whom Chris can easily take advantage of but it's actually the other way around…or something. There are absolutely no exciting moments in this film and the young Dutch actor Kamerling suffers way too much from his ego. The film is stuffed with sex sequences but they're not exactly interesting or meaningful (Glover constantly hires prostitutes to make Chris stay). Suite 16 is very boring and not at all controversial, although it obviously tries to be. I advise you to skip this one and go straight for some of the other film's on Deruddere's repertoire.