Willy Mullens

At the beginning of the 20th century, Willy Mullens and his brother Albert ran the travelling cinema Alberts Frères. Their screenings soon grew into proper film shows in which Willy often acted as the narrator. Because of their high-quality, opulent screenings, the brothers were considered the most important film exhibitors of the Netherlands. During the same period, they also shot local films, and later added fictional elements. In particular, their film De mésaventure van een Fransch heertje zonder pantalon aan het strand te Zandvoort [jaartal] brought them a good deal of notoriety. Starting in 1909, the Mullens brothers became increasingly involved with screening films in theatres or cinemas. Albert worked in Haarlem and Amsterdam, and Willy in his own Residentie-Bioscoop in The Hague. When the Alberts Frères travelling cinema stopped in 1911, Willy increasingly devoted himself to producing films. He produced and exhibited under the name Alberts Frères until 1918, and then set up his own company to produce his films: de ’s-Gravenhaagsche Filmfabriek, which after several months was renamed Haghefilm. Until the 1950s, Haghefilm would remain one of the Netherlands’ major producers of corporate, business, and advertising films. Around 1920, Willy Mullens was considered one of the key figures in the Dutch film industry. He stood at the helm of the Nederlandsch Centraal Filmarchief, and had major films to his name, including de Leger- and vlootfilm (1917), Nederland (1921), and many industrial and corporate films. He also shot endless footage of the Queen, for example in November 1918, when he shot a reportage about the monarchist demonstration on the Malieveld in The Hague that would go on to become famous. He also filmed the equally nationalist-tinged visits of Queen Wilhelmina to South Limburg and Zeelandic Flanders in 1919. These films reinforced his reputation as a ‘filmmaker of the fatherland'. In 1924 and 1926 - 27, Willy Mullens made film expeditions to the Dutch East Indies. The first expedition on commission from the Bataafsche Petroleum, and for the second he managed to snare financiers and clients including the Ministries of Education and Colonies. Throughout the 1930s, Mullens’ fame gradually waned. He still played a prominent role in ceremonies and celebrations -- including the 1935 anniversary of forty years of cinematography -- but as a producer he had to make way for new stars like Lou C. Barnstijn and Filmfabriek Polygoon. Shortly after the Second World War, Mullens was again heard from with the film Uit de oude doos, a compilation of short films and clips from the first years of cinema. In 1949, he was grandiosely honoured on ten occasion his fiftieth anniversary in the movie business.