The Last Days of Emma Blank

Looming like a giant blot on nature, there's a tar-colored mansion in the dunes of the Dutch North Sea. There, cut off from civilization as well as any sense of reality, a group of sullen servants waits hand and foot upon a despicable tyrant with the no-nonsense name of Emma Blank. Emma Blank has come to the black house to die, and she demands that everyone cater to her every last whim. They must cook incredible delicacies on short notice and stand at attention as she dines alone; they must mix her paints and hold them out for her attentively. Emma Blank insists that her butler grow a mustache overnight and that one servant act the role of family dog. Gradually the relationships among these put-upon servants become clear, explaining why they all can't wait for Emma to get her dying over with. THE LAST DAYS OF EMMA BLANK is as dark as comedies come, a hilarious and unsettling meditation on mind games and family power struggles. (In Dutch with subtitles) – B.B.