Bastards & Bridesmaids is a summery Amsterdam comedy about relationships between modern twenty-somethings. The film in fact comprises two interwoven parts. One has ‘Bridesmaid’ Dimitri (Marc van Uchelen) as protagonist. Dimitri has for years had a platonic relationship with Esther (Rifka Lodeizen), but she has no plans to share her bed with him. His interests – blind chess and astronomy – do not seem to attract the opposite sex. His complaints are largely heard by his friend Maarten (Daan Ekkel), who encourages him to be less of a shoulder for women to cry on and to behave more like a mysterious macho. In the other part, we see the Bastard, Gino (Arthur de Boer). He has no troublegetting girls into bed. His ‘loose’ girlfriend Susan (Nadja Hupscher) doesn’t think that his aggressive behaviour fits in with his claim that he loves her and is in search of shelter. The lives of both men cross regularly, without them really meeting.Bastards & Bridesmaids is a fresh morality play about Amsterdam at the end of the twentieth century. Themes such as relationships, friendship and sex are lightened with plenty of couleur locale: marijuana, the Vondelpark, the beach in summer and the creative chic of the inner suburbs. Bastards & Bridesmaids was made for 40,000 gulden, outside the usual grant channels but with the unpaid support of an enthusiastic crew and cast.
