A brief History: Twee Zeeuwse Meisjses in Zandvoort

Twee Zeeuwsche meisjes in Zandvoort (Two girls from Zeeland in Zandvoort) is a short comedy produced by the Filmfabriek Hollandia. The film was made in 1913 and stars the diva of the Dutch silent cinema Annie Bos. The other leading lady is Christine van Meeteren, wife of the director of the movie; Louis H. Chrispijn sr.

Annie Bos began her stage career in Belgium in 1909 and after a number of small parts she decided to return to her native country, Holland.  She was spotted there by Maurits Binger, an industrialist keen on photography and cinema.  In 1912 he started his own film company, the Maatschappij voor Wetenschappelijke en Artistieke Film (Company of Scientific and Artistic Film), which he one year later renamed into Filmfabriek Hollandia.  Maurits Binger was considered to be one of the pioneers of fiction films in Holland.  Later on, Hollandia would develop into the biggest and most influential production company for feature films, producing more than thirty feature films during the First World War.  It was in these prosperous times that Binger gave Annie Bos the chance to become his favourite actress.

Binger speculated on a big international break-through after the war; especially after the successes of a couple of his films abroad.  But like most European companies, Hollandia couldn't compete with the invasion of American films.  Binger tried to save his company by co-operating with an English distribution company, but that was only a temporary solution.  In 1923, shortly after the untimely death of Maurits Binger, the company went bankrupt.

However in 1913, Hollandia and Binger had their future ahead.  They produced mainly short documentaries, but Binger had the ambition of producing features.  For that purpose he formed his own theatrical ensemble with Chrispijn as its director.  They started to make short comedies and tragedies, of which Twee Zeeuwsche meisjes in Zandvoort is one of the earliest.

In her unpublished memoirs Christine van Meeteren describes the making of Twee Zeeuwsche meisjes in Zandvoort.  She tells how she and Chrispijn went early one morning to Binger’s office.  He was in a splendid mood and described the short plot of the movie.  Two peasant girls should go by tramway to the beach resort of Zandvoort.  During the ride they should meet two young gentlemen - Binger had already sent his aide Benno to Amsterdam to engage two young actors.  The rest of the story they should improvise.  Then Binger left, he had a busy day ahead of him managing his factory.  They left for the tramway station and shot the movie.

Alas there are no records of the screenings of this movie.  Given the existence of the English intertitles - which wrongly mention Benno as its director - the film must - or should -  have been screened in Great Britain.  In 1957 a copy of the film was donated to the Nederlands Filmmuseum by the exhibitor and collector J.R. Verwey.   This makes Twee Zeeuwsche meisjes in Zandvoort one of the oldest Dutch feature films in the collection of the Filmmuseum.

The original music for this film was composed by Martin de Ruiter in 2009.