Ben van Os

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover

When churlish mobster Albert Spica acquires an upscale French restaurant in London, he dines there nightly, effectively scaring off the clientele with his bad manners. His wife, Georgina, is especially disgusted by him, and soon begins an affair with regular guest Michael. Despite their best efforts to keep it secret, Spica learns about their trysts, and he plots a terrible revenge.

Girl with a Pearl Earring

This film, adapted from a work of fiction by author Tracy Chevalier, tells a story about the events surrounding the creation of the painting "Girl With A Pearl Earring" by 17th century Dutch master Johannes Vermeer. A young peasant maid working in the house of painter Johannes Vermeer becomes his talented assistant and the model for one of his most famous works.

The Libertine

The story of John Wilmot, a.k.a. the Earl of Rochester, a 17th century poet who famously drank and debauched his way to an early grave, only to earn posthumous critical acclaim for his life's work.

Max

In 1918, a young, disillusioned Adolf Hitler strikes up a friendship with a Jewish art dealer while weighing a life of passion for art vs. talent at politics

The Gambler

Under pressure from his publisher, Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky gets work on his latest piece, 'Rouletenberg'. In the 27 days it takes for him to complete the novel reality and fiction become blurred; in this feverish atmosphere of excess Dostoyevsky's characters come to life as he struggles to complete his work.

1,000 Roses

In a small, unnamed European town the entire population depends upon the local, ailing factory. When American investors arrive, prosperity fever infects the residents.

Orlando

England, 1600. Queen Elizabeth I promises Orlando, a young nobleman obsessed with poetry, that she will grant him land and fortune if he agrees to satisfy a very particular request.

Blonde Dolly

Prostitute Dolly co-finances the purchase of a Vermeer painting with art expert Eddy Cremer. When they find out the painting is fake, she returns to the red light district, where conditions have worsened over time.

The Baby of Mâcon

In 17th-century Tuscany, a church play is performed for the benefit of young aristocrat Cosimo. In the play, a grotesque old woman gives birth to a beautiful baby boy. The child's older sister is quick to exploit the situation, selling blessings from the baby, and even claiming she's the true mother by virgin birth. However, when she attempts to seduce the bishop's son, the Church exacts a terrible revenge.

All Men Are Mortal

Melodrama about a man cursed with immortality, who tries to declare his undying love for a depressed actress.

It's All About Love

The story of two lovers and their attempts to save their relationship in a near-future world on the brink of cosmic collapse. John, and world-famous ice skating star, Elena, are about to sign divorce papers when they realise that, in spite of everything happening around them, their love is worth fighting for. It's All About Love is a fresh take on modern love and future life as two lovers struggle in a conspiracy of epic proportions.

Sailors Don't Cry

The story centers on Hilde, a bar owner in a small port town who raises her young son, Stijn, alone after his father, Paul, abandoned them right after his birth. Hilde has since built a new life and found comfort with her new partner, Guy. The tension rises when Paul, a wandering sailor, suddenly returns after years at sea. His unexpected arrival creates an intense love triangle, reopening old emotional wounds. As Paul tries to re-seduce Hilde, conflicts explode between the three adults. Amidst this chaos of love, jealousy, and anger, young Stijn is left shocked by these complicated adult problems, trying his best to fix what is broken.

Drowning by Numbers

Cissie Colpitts drowns her cheating husband and, in the ensuing cover-up, enlists the help of lonely coroner Henry Madgett, an old friend with a longstanding weakness for her charms. But when Cissie's daughter and granddaughter—both also named Cissie Colpitts—decide to resort to the same methods for solving conflicts with their own frustrating husbands, the women and their repeated appeals for help begin to wear on Madgett's conscience.

A Strange Love Affair

Film professor Michael falls in love with one of his students and is confronted with his pupil's father, with whom he had an affair over 15 years ago. This unexpected meeting abruptly overturns the lives of all the characters. When the tutor decides to undertake a planned trip to London, not with the son but with the father, he is once again forced to choose; this time between his wife and his friend.

The Triumph of Love

A princess is determined to restore her homeland's throne to its rightful heir, a young prince with whom she falls in love.

Dark Blood

Filmed in 1993 but never completed due to River Phoenix's death, Dark Blood tells the story of Boy, a young widower living on a nuclear testing site in the desert. Boy is waiting for the end of the world and carves Katchina dolls that supposedly contain magical powers. Boy's solitude is interrupted when a Hollywood jet-set couple who are travelling across the desert become stranded after their car breaks down. The couple are rescued by Boy, who then holds them prisoner because of his desire for the woman and his ambition to create a better world with her.

A Zed & Two Noughts

Identical twin zoologists lose their wives in a car crash caused by a white swan. They become obsessed with the death and decay of animals, and develop a strange and unusual relationship with the driver of the car, a woman who is now an amputee.

Keep It for Yourself

Sophie comes to New York from France with the intention of joining a man she met a few months before. She finds herself alone in the apartment of the guy, who left town because he was scared stiff at the idea of seeing her. Originally commissioned as one third of an omnibus feature showcasing the Figaro, a Japan-only retro throwback car.

Eline Vere

This melodramatic film follows Eline Vere, as she attempts to break free from the confines of her narrow existence in The Hague through three tumultuous and ultimately disastrous courtships. Adaptation of Louis Couperus' novel Eline Vere.

Prospero's Books

An exiled magician finds an opportunity for revenge against his enemies muted when his daughter and the son of his chief enemy fall in love in this uniquely structured retelling of the 'The Tempest'.

The Belly of an Architect

Stourley Kracklite, a driven, detail-obsessed architect, travels from America to Rome with his much younger wife, Louisa, to oversee an architectural homage to a personal hero, 18th-century master builder Etienne-Louis Boullée. En route by train, Stourley and Louisa conceive a much-wanted child — but Stourley's obsession with his wife's expanding belly, her perceived infidelity, and his own recurrent bouts of abdominal pain reach epic and dangerous proportions.

Last Call

Old entertainer gets a last chance to play a serious role.

Affair Play

A merchant marries a woman who looks exactly like his former lover, who died because of him. But the man has a morbid jealousy, he sees a rival in every man. Then he asks an attractive man to seduce his wife for money.

Mathilde

An old man comes across a fascinating archive, then meets a woman who introduces him to the life of a banker, patron and philanthropist. A moving essay that is part documentary, part film diary.

Arabian Nights

Targeted for assassination by his first wife and his evil brother, a young sultan must marry by the next full moon or he will lose his kingdom. His uncertainty over his newfound bride causes her to stall the sultan with a series of fantastic stories to ease the tension and stall her impending execution.