Simon van Collem (Amsterdam, March 27, 1919 - Amsterdam, June 21, 1989) was a Dutch journalist and television maker who focused on film journalism.
Van Collem worked as a sales manager at a film company in the 1950s.
He was asked by Volkskrant editor Bob Bertina to write a series of articles about the history of the Dutch film industry.
The series of articles under the title De oude draaidoos appeared in the Volkskrant from December 24, 1954 and led to the invitation in 1958 to make television programs for the VPRO under the title Uit de oude draaidoos.
In 1959, Van Collem also wrote the book Uit de oud Draaidoos, which, despite its juicy anecdotes and atmospheric descriptions, was for many years the most important book on Dutch film history.
Film historians later ruled that it contained several inaccuracies.
Until 1970 he made his film column for the VPRO.
That year he switched to the AVRO where he continued the program under the title Avroskoop.
In 1975 he moved to TROS and the program was renamed Simonskoop.
Van Collem died in 1989 in the harness due to cardiac arrest during the gala premiere of the James Bond film License to Kill in the Amsterdam cinema Theater Tuschinski, shortly after he had interviewed Bond actor Timothy Dalton.
(From Dutch Wikipedia)
A mysterious diver hiding in Amsterdam's canal system embarks on a rampage of gruesome murders, terrifying city officials and leaving few clues for the city's best detective, who doesn't suspect that both his new girlfriend and twelve-year-old daughter may be closer than he is to finding the killer.
Cornelis van Doorn is the CEO of VD, a meat factory as well as a developer of contraceptives. Cornelis is the patriarch of the Van Doorn family: a decadent bunch of loose morals who only lust for money and power. When the man is thinking about retiring, he has to find the right heir to take over the family business.
At the beginning of the 1913 Mexican Revolution, greedy bandit Juan Miranda and idealist John H. Mallory, an Irish Republican Army explosives expert on the lam from the British, fall in with a band of revolutionaries plotting to strike a national bank. When it turns out that the government has been using the bank as a hiding place for illegally detained political prisoners -- who are freed by the blast -- Miranda becomes a revolutionary hero against his will.
This film takes a decidedly satirical look at the inner workings of the gangster underworld. Alfred Lowell is a washed-up actor sent to London to take care of some mob business. Alfred's mind is not on his job, as he prefers to probe his past for the reasons why he has failed as a thespian. He entertains thoughts of suicide, but his involvement in the gang prevents him from ending his life.