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The Last Days of Emma Blank (2009) poster

2009 · comedy · absurdist · deadpan

The Last Days of Emma Blank

Directed by Alex van Warmerdam1h 29m2009

In a large country home, the owner Emma Blank is very ill and is cared for by her household staff: Haneveld the head housekeeper, Bella the cook, Gonnie the maid and Meier the man-servant. Despite her desperate need for loving care, Emma is a steely, avaricious dictator whose demands become ever more absurd, to the extent that her staff are driven to madness. That is, until the day they discover that they stand to inherit nothing whereupon they drop their charade of caring and concern and instead plot their revenge...

Our read: The Last Days of Emma Blank (2009) reads as a sombre, steady, surreal comedy · absurdist · deadpan entry — measured in intensity, intimate in scope, cold in temperature, nihilistic in outlook, with a strong directorial signature.

Movie DNA

Sombre, steady, measured comedy / absurdist, surreal in texture. Nihilistic, intimate, cold.

ElsewhereIMDb6.82kTMDB6.037
  • sombre
  • surreal
  • cold
  • intimate
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DNA · twelve axes

How The Last Days of Emma Blank feels to watch.

Each axis is scored by hand, not from votes or genre averages. The bar uses the film's own colours.

MoodHeavy ↔ Cosy
PacingSlow-burn ↔ Kinetic
IntensityGentle ↔ Extreme
WeirdnessConventional ↔ Surreal
HopeNihilistic ↔ Redemptive
StakesIntimate ↔ Epic
HumourNone ↔ Broad
RealityGrounded ↔ Fantastical
DensitySparse ↔ Twisty
WarmthCold ↔ Tender
AuteurTransparent ↔ Signature
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What watching it is actually like.

“You want a surreal Dutch black comedy about a tyrannical dying woman and her staff.”

ends unsettlingit stays with yousteady all the waygrips by minute 12attention 3/5breezes bysubtitles: full
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around
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Skip it tonight — You want warm stories or dislike black humor about power and decay.

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