It's gardening time again, as Thomas Piper's FIVE SEASONS: THE GARDENS OF PIET OUDOLF opens in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles

The idea of a garden as "art" may not seem that far afield, but the idea of a garden as "modern art" or perhaps "contemporary art" may require a bit more work. Yet in FIVE SEASONS: THE GARDENS OF PIET OUDOLF, we meet a man -- the titular Mr. Oudolf, a landscape designer by trade -- who has spent his adult life creating just such garden art, from its initial design and, yes, "architecture," to the finished, blooming then fading result. (The garden, after all, is a year-long thing.) As shown to us by director/ producer/cinematog-rapher/co-editor Thomas Piper (shown below), the documentary is quiet, leisurely (even as it globe-hops all over the place) and generally interesting, especially, of course, for those viewers who love a garden.

From The Netherlands (Oudolf's home base) to New York City and the High Line and Battery and Botanical Gardens to Chicago, Germany, the UK and Belgium, then off to Texas to look at wildflowers and wolf down some barbecue, Piper globe trots near constantly, as we see much of Oudolf's work, hear his ideas and watch as they're put to use. (The man himself is shown above and below.)

Perhaps more important even than their artistic merit or beauty is the fact that his designs also protect the environment and the species that inhabit it.

Oddest among all that we see are probably Oudolf's initial drawings for a project, a sample of which is shown below. These are described by others in the film as "sexy," "elegant" and "genuine," looking themselves like some kind of contemporary art.

Along the way, we hear a number of Oudolf's ideas on color ("Brown is as important as any other color in the garden"), the garden as theater ("I put plants on stage and let them perform") and aging and the life cycle ("I won't come back, but the plants will").

While TrustMovies was not bored by this film, he must admit that his own eye did not pick up on much that Oudolf says and does. Often pretty and colorful, these particular gardens still seem like mostly a jumble to me. Your eye may read things differently. In any case, the film is nowhere near as unusual and riveting as was the 2016 delight, Portrait of a Garden.

In archival photos early on, we see Oudolf, his wife Anja and their two children. Anja seems to have stuck around, but of those two kids, we hear and see nothing further.

The documentary offers time passing but little sense of goal or destination. But if, as they say (and with which I am sure Oudolf would agree), "The journey is all," then this fellow ought to be more than satisfied with his blooming career.

From Argot Pictures and running just 75 minutes, Five Seasons: The Gardens of Piet Oudolf opens in New York City at the IFC Center this Wednesday, June 13, and in the following weeks will hit cities across the country. In Chicago, you can see the film on June 15 at the Siskel Film Center. The documentary makes its Los Angeles debut on June 29 at Laemmle's Royal and Playhouse 7. To view all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters, click here.

Personal appearances! 

At NYC's IFC Center on Wednesday, June 13, 

Q&As with director Thomas Piper 

and subject Piet Oudolf at the 5:30 and 7:30 shows. 

In Chicago, director Tom Piper will appear in person 

at the Siskel Film Center on June 15, 

and in West Los Angeles, Piper will appear in person 

on Friday, June 29 at the 5:10pm & 7:30pm screenings.

Gardeners, arise! Rosie Stapel's gorgeous doc, PORTRAIT OF A GARDEN, is your new must-see

Who'd have imagined that spending 98 minutes (that span a full year) inside the incredible garden on a large estate in The Netherlands could provide such pleasure and interest? For anyone who is a gardener, or loves gardening, TrustMovies should think that PORTRAIT OF A GARDEN will be a "must." Even for someone like me, who hasn't tended a garden since around age eight, the movie proved captivating. It is certainly one of the most beautiful visual and philosophical looks at the productive collaboration between man and nature to find its way onto film.

The filmmaker, Rosie Stapel, shown at left, is a relative newcomer to the documentary field, though she has worked in art departments, on production design and as an art director for nearly two decades. Though this is her first film, as director, producer, cinematographer and editor, she has very skillfully woven together visuals, conversations and ideas into a tapestry that takes us through a full year in the garden, beginning in January, 2013. Winter has set in, yet there is, as always, plenty to do, and her film's two protagonists, who, we see constantly at work -- Jan Freriks, the 85-year-old pruning master (shown below, left), and Daan van der Have (below, right), the estate's owner and gardener -- must get that job done.

The movie may put you in mind of that little-seen gem, A Little Chaos, directed, co-written by and starring the late Alan Rickman, and not only because some of the vegetation here is descended from cuttings from the palace garden of King Louis XIV, but many of the rules of pruning used in this garden date back to that time period, as well.

The pruning master and the gardener have a number of conversations throughout the film, and these are pertinent not only to the garden but to the lives we're living today, and to the way the world is changing. The film's subtitle, Everything Has Its Time, turns out to be applicable not just to the pruning and harvesting -- of which we see much -- but to our world outside that garden, as well.

Unless you are yourself a gardener or are very well-acquainted with a multitude of fruits and vegetables, you will not have seen so many varieties as you will here. While we don't learn all that much about any single one of these, the very act of seeing them and knowing that they exist proves its own reward.

What we do learn is something of the character of the two men we spend most time with: Daan and Jan. The former tells us early on, "To have a beautiful garden, you have to have a very strong desire -- and also be able to deal with the fact that this desire will never be fulfilled." Learn to love what is beautiful and special, he advises, rather than feeling only the frustration. The old-timers have a dry sense of humor, too. "I wish I were 60 again," says Jan. "You mean really young," answers Daan.

Along with all the pruning, and eventually the copious harvests (really something to behold!), we learn some interesting history (fifty years ago, folk spent nearly half their income on food; today it's more like 10 percent) and even a get a recipe or two (fish fried on a fig leaf will capture a delicious taste in the skin). We watch as apprentices are trained, mildew hits the grapes, and seasons change from (seemingly) barren (below) to verdant and lush (at bottom).

By year's end you will have experienced a garden as beautiful and fruitful as any you're likely to see -- by a filmmaker we are sure to hear from again -- and soon, I hope.

From Grasshopper Film, in Dutch with English subtitles, Portrait of a Garden opens this Wednesday, October 26, in its theatrical premiere for a one-week-only run at New York City's Film Forum. It will then play The Screen in Santa Fe on November 18, Time & Space Limited in Hudson, New York, on November 27, and then the Cleveland Museum of Art in Ohio, come February 5, 2017. Click here (then click on Where to Watch) as the weeks go by to see if further playdates/cities have been added.

Sunday Corner with Lee Liberman tackles ADMIRAL -- and the epic Dutch naval warrior Michiel de Ruyter

"Our enemies think 

we are too rich and too free" 

Naval hero Michiel de Ruyter (1607-1676) is the subject of an unusually big film (for the comparatively small Dutch film industry), ADMIRAL, now streaming on Netflix. Made in 2015 by Roel Reiné, L.A.-based Dutch director (Death Race 2, The Condemned 2), it was second only in cost to Paul Verhoeven's Black Book, although modern CGI helped make it more epic. The largeness is not misplaced, as de Ruyter was, according to one writer, "one of the most amazing seaborne murder machines to ever pound his enemies to death," with seven wars, 40 engagements, and 15 massive full-scale battles under his belt in 55-plus years at sea. He waged and won so much that he became as mythic as Braveheart's hero. He went to sea as a child and grew up into a combat genius. He died in battle at 69, cut down by an enemy cannon ball after having been sent on a suicide mission by political enemies -- or so this film tells us. (On the poster above, shown left to right, are William III, de Ruyter and his wife Anna; below, a portrait of de Ruyter.)

A Dutch maritime and political historian, Gijs Rommeise, denounced the many inventions used to bring de Ruyter's story to life but he does conclude "that the viewer is treated to spectacular battle scenes...and a lavish view of the social, economic and religious life of the Dutch Golden Age." Much of the specialness of Admiral is the wide-angle look at the world of little Netherlands out of sight on the North Sea and out of mind of our own Anglo-American history. Since the film hurls you into an ocean filled with great sea warships and cannon fire debris without much historical context, here is some.

While America was covered in forest and populated by Indians, the Netherlands were appended to Spain by Catholic King Phillip ll until the Protestants of the lowlands revolted in 1572; seven Southern provinces declared themselves independent in 1581 under the leadership of William l, Prince of Orange. The period encompassed by the film (mid-to-late 1600's) was during the Dutch Golden Age. The Netherlands was the only republic in the world and possessed an empire that included New Amsterdam in America (Governor Peter Stuyvesant surrendered it to a British naval blockade in 1664 and the city became New York). Holland was the richest and most urban county in the world. It had the first stock exchange (1602), Rembrandt and Vermeer were part of its flourishing art scene, and its merchant class was prosperous and high in status. (Below is shown the Rembrandt painting of wealthy burghers).

The Dutch economy was based on sea trade, its navy tasked with guarding shipping routes and foiling invasion. They were free-traders, transporting goods around the world minus the trade duties imposed by other nations, costing the coffers and insulting the egos of the monarchs -- England's Charles ll, for instance -- of its larger rivals abroad.

Most significant to Americans, the young Republic was a federation of provinces with a representative federal government seated in the Hague (below). It had two major parties -- Orangists and Republicans. The former were conservative loyalists to King William III (played by Egbert Jan Weeber, above), wanting monarchy restored, while the Republicans were patrons of freedom of speech, religion, and legislative autonomy. Our framers were heavily influenced by the constitution of the Republic of the Dutch United Provinces.

The film meets up with Michiel de Ruyter in middle age. He had already served on whaling ships, progressed to command of vessels hunting raiders and aided in war against Spain. He bought his own ship and got rich as a trader before being redrafted into service, protecting merchant traffic from Barbary Pirates in the Mediterranean and battling the English.

A series of wars by the English sought to strangle Dutch trade. De Ruyter (Frank Lammers, shown on poster, top, and three photos below) is 46 when the film opens at the battle of Scheveningen in 1653. Republican Johan de Witt (Barry Atsma) has just been elected prime minister; and as he put it, 'Our enemies think we are too rich and too free' (that's de Witt addressing the assembly, two photos above). The film makes it seem the Anglo-Dutch wars were one long battle during which de Ruyter and his family don't age or change, though from 1653 until his death (see funeral sketch below) 23 years had passed. But what does that matter in the making of a movie hero?

During his political and professional maturity, we see his collaboration with de Witt to modernize the navy and infuse military strategy into naval battles, each more effective than the last. His most daring feat in 1667, in which he invented and deployed his newly trained corps of sea soldiers or "marines", was to sail his war ships up the Thames where they torched half the British fleet and stole flagship, HMS Royal Charles, towing it home as a trophy. King Charles ll was humiliated and met Dutch terms for peace. (Charles Dance, shown below, who plays the British monarch, is only half-seriously said to have been cast to leverage some of Dance's Game of Thrones fame.)

Sanne Langelaar (below, left), as Anna de Ruyter, is not a minor figure eclipsed by her husband's fame. To this production's credit, we see Michiel's life through her eyes, as she yearns for him to stay home yet begs him to rejoin the Anglo war being waged off shore. If he doesn't go, she says, there will be no life to come back to.

Anna's character, the political wrangling at the Hague, and the ongoing naval battles are capped by de Ruyter's majestic funeral. And there you have it. The film lacks a suspenseful Braveheart-like story arc, although the horrific murder of the democratic de Witt brothers was a match to William Wallace's demise. Admiral won't be the best epic you've ever seen, but it will be as entertaining, revelatory, and satisfying to join the Netherlanders in opposing our mutual British enemy in the 1600s, as much as we Americans fought them off in the 1700s.

The above post is written by our 

monthly correspondent Lee Liberman