Floris (TV series)
Floris is a 1969 Dutch action television series starring Rutger Hauer and Jos Bergman, written by Gerard Soeteman, and directed by Paul Verhoeven.
Concept
The success of television series like the British Ivanhoe, the French Thierry La Fronde and the Flemish Johan en de Alverman inspired, manager of NTS to make a similar series, set in the Netherlands. It was written by Gerard Soeteman. The series was filmed in black and white, and has been aired in reruns through the years. It has also been shown in East Germany and in Scotland.Historicity
Apart from Sindala and Floris, many of the characters are based on historical figures. A divergence from history is the presence of the pirate Greate Pier: although a contemporary, he was not active as a pirate before the death of Philip the Handsome. In the series, Pier is either guarded or surrounded by members of the Arumer Zwarte Hoop.Although intended as a children's series, it was very popular with adults; for example, Floris's sword fight with two swords in the castle in the first episode looks surprisingly realistic. The series also had an educational element: customs, like timekeeping with bells, and the origin of words such as vernagelen, are explained by example. While Floris is portrayed as a typical knight-hero – not too bright but a good swordsman – Sindala is the clever one, using Oriental scientific knowledge for practical applications.
Locations included the medieval castles of Doornenburg, Loevestein and Hernen, all in the Dutch province of Gelderland, and the Belgian cities Bruges and Ghent.
Storyline
In the early 16th century, during the Guelders Wars, the knight Floris van Roozemond, accompanied by the Indian Sindala, returns home from a trip around the world only to find his castle occupied by Maarten van Rossum, the commander in chief of Charles, Duke of Guelders. Charles, who controls Guelders, is involved in a power struggle against Philip the Handsome who rules the Burgundian Netherlands, the rest of the Low Countries. Floris had so far been neutral due to his absence, but after he finds his castle stolen, he sides with Wolter van Oldenstein, who is allied with Burgundy against Charles. Charles and Maarten are aided by the Frisian pirate Greate Pier partly as an ally, and partly to do the dirty work.Cast
- Rutger Hauer... Floris
- Jos Bergman... Sindala
- Ton Vos... Wolter van Oldenstein
- Jacco van Renesse... Rogier
- Hans Culeman... Maarten van Rossem
- Tim Beekman... Sergeant
- Pollo Hamburger... Diederik
- Henk Admiraal... Wilhelm
- Diana Dobbelman... Ada
- Ida Bons... Viola
- Hans Boskamp... Lange Pier
- Sacco van der Made... Aernout
- Nico Deegen... Ubbe
- Peter Aryans... Boer
- Frans Kokshoorn... Molenaar
- Ad Hoeymans... Barend van Hackfort
- Niek Engelschman... Zweden
- Carola Gijsbers van Wijk... Isabella
- Hans Kemna... Govert
- Lex Schoorel... Roland
- Eric Schuttelaar... Wobbe
- Tony Verwey... Waard
- Paul van Gorcum... Priester
- Jan Apon... Personal Physician of the Duke of Guelders
Production
Finding actors for the series was not easy because television was still regarded as inferior to the theatre. Hauer was introduced to Verhoeven as "maybe not such a good actor, but he will do and dare anything". Verhoeven was indeed worried about Hauer's lack of acting experience, but he looked good physically, could handle swords and ride horses well and did most of his stunts himself. The original name of the series was Floris and the Fakir and Verhoeven used two shot filming just in case. Hauer learned the TV acting fast enough.For the time it was a major production with 80 actors and 2500 extras. Verhoeven overspent the budget of 355,000 guilders by more than 300%. When this became clear, it was already too late to stop the production because Verhoeven used "vertical planning", in which the filming was done per actor instead of per episode. Stopping the production would mean that all work was lost. As a TV production of this scale had never been done before in the Netherlands, there was a lot of pioneering. Recordings were usually made in the studio, but Floris was mostly shot outside. Everyone on the set, including Verhoeven, had to learn the trade as they went. Tasks were also not strictly delineated, like they are these days; everyone was a bit of a jack of all trades. "We didn't stand with our arms folded smoking a cigarette when it wasn't our turn." Ironically, finding good locations for this TV production was difficult because the popularity of television had resulted in potential shooting locations spoiled by the television antennas that had by then become ubiquitous.
Collaboration
The series was the first major undertaking of both Hauer and Verhoeven, as well as their first collaboration. It was followed by Turkish Delight and Soldier of Orange ; ideas not used for the series were later included in the film Flesh and Blood, also directed by Verhoeven with Hauer in the lead role.Related video media
United Kingdom
The series was sold for redubbing to channels in the UK. In the UK, the series aired on Yorkshire Television in 1970 as The Adventures of Floris. None of the English dubbed episodes survive.Germany
In 1975, there was a West German remake of the series, Floris von Rosemund, again starring Rutger Hauer, but with German actor Derval de Faria as Sindala. This version, directed by Austrian director Ferry Radax, put much more emphasis on the comedic aspects of the stories and provided the female characters Ada and Viola with larger parts than the original.In 1977, the East German dub of the original Dutch series was made.