Broadcast Long Live the Brown Monster
the football documentary by Sherman De Jesus
NPO 1 | June 14th | 23:25
Because we have to miss the UEFA European Championship this year due to the corona virus, the classic Long Live The Brown Monster will be broadcast again after 20 years so we can still enjoy some football. Watch the trailer below.
The film, made with only historical film material from the early 20th century to the late 1950s, sketches a time in which the passion for the ball and the love for the game are central.
While the youth, on the then almost car-free streets, make the game their own, football players and their coaches creatively and peculiarly lay the basis for the great international successes that would follow. The first Dutch national football team is a fact. Training camps are unknown. The sponsor is the milkman around the corner.
The film is told by Gijs Scholten van Aschat and Huub Stapel and contains texts and poetry by Dico van der Meer, Cees Buddingh’, Hans Heesen, Nico Scheepmaker, Jan Tetteroo, Wilem Wilmink and the recently deceased Jules Deelder.
Adorned with fedora and cigar, supporters flock to the Olympic Stadium to cheer on their phenomena. Young and old are listening to the live report by Han Hollander on the radio. Faas Wilkes and Abe Lenstra become true heroes. The eternal struggle between the Netherlands and the German national football team also plays an important role in this time.
When the film was first broadcast in 1998, it was received very positively. A small selection from the many praise: Paul Onkenhout wrote in de Volkskrant: ‘Long Live the Brown Monster is so endearing, humorous and surprising, due to the compilation of authentic, presumably lost black and white images… ’ In the Algemeen Dagblad, Ab Zagt wrote: ‘Sherman de Jesus’ film offers many wonderful examples, which are complemented with football literature and poetry that perfectly link up with what is shown’. And Dana Linssen wrote in the Filmkrant: ‘It is almost impossible to watch Long Live the Brown Monster without an unmistakable sense of nostalgia.’.
LONG LIVE THE BROWN MONSTER
scenario Hans Heesen director Sherman De Jesus camera Albert van der Wildt editor Maurits Guépin original music Ruud Bos sound design & mix Tom Stamrood broadcaster AVROTROS producers Sherman De Jesus & Cécile van Eijk, Memphis Film & Television
