Dutch Treat of Comedy and Crime

American filmgoers love to criticize Hollywood for its steady diet of violent films. But when they leave the video store, chances are good that "Die Hard" and "Terminator II" will be firmly tucked under their arms. Dutch movie lovers are prone to the same habit. Sex and drugs, they sigh, are the only things Dutch directors seem interested in filming, just as they complain that outsiders only associate Amsterdam with the red light district and relaxed drug laws. But oh, how they love their "Flodder" -- a crazy comedy that has its share of all of the above.At the Illuzion Theater this week, the Netherlands Embassy and the Russian firm Most Media will present five of Holland's best movies, from the international thriller "The Vanishing" to a new "Generation X"-genre film titled "The Three Best Things in Life." Through Wednesday, the films will be presented with Russian dubbing. On Thursday and Friday, the movies' 7 P.M. showings will be in Dutch, with English subtitles.The series kicked off Monday with "Flodder" (1986), and its sequel, "Flodder in Manhattan" (1992) Tuesday. The Flodder family is very poor, but they strike it rich, so to speak, when a new experiment in social welfare puts them into a high-rent house in a wealthy neighborhood. Mayhem ensues as the house gets destroyed and the Flodder teenagers use sex and photography to blackmail their neighbor for money. The sequel has more of the same adventures, this time set in New York. Wednesday night will feature the movie "Amsterdamned" (1988), produced by Dick Maas, who did the screenplay and composition for the "Flodder" films. In this cliffhanger, a female killer crawls out of the Amsterdam Canal, setting the city into a panic. An experienced detective tries to stop her. The film plays at 5 P.M. and 7 P.M.On Thursday, see the original version of "The Vanishing." In this romantic psychological thriller, a young Dutch woman, Saskia, disappears during a vacation in the south of France. Her husband, Rex, tries in vain to find her. Three years later, about to remarry, he has a dream that compels him to cancel the wedding and search anew for answers to her fate. Soon he is confronted in Amsterdam by a Frenchman who reveals himself as the abductor. This man explains that he chanced upon Saskia as the random victim of a crime he had invented. If Rex wants to learn what happened to Saskia, he must allow himself to be drugged. Rex decides he would rather die than never know what happened to his wife. "The Vanishing," directed by George Sluizer, will play at 5 P.M. in Russian and 7 P.M. in Dutch, with English subtitles. On Friday, the angst of a generation gets expressed in "The Three Best Things in Life" (1993), the feature-film debut of Ger Poppelaars. Described as a "melancholy comedy," the film tells the story of Sacha, a Dutch violinist who lives in Paris. She discovers she is pregnant and takes a train to Amsterdam to give her rich boyfriend the news. On the way, she meets and falls in love with a poor, charming drifter named Caspar. In the end, she denies her boyfriend's rich and materialistic life and chooses Caspar. But Caspar disappears. Bereft of illusions, she returns sadly to Paris, where, as she walks, she hears Casper call her name. "The Three Best Things in Life," will play at 5 P.M. in Russian and 7 P.M. in Dutch, with English subtitles. Tickets are available for 1,000 rubles at the Illuzion Theater, 1/15 Kotelnicheskaya Naberezhnaya. Nearest metro: Taganskaya.