Queen Wilhelmina
In 1916 the Ministry of War commissioned the director Willy Mullens to make a propaganda film to show that, despite the fact that the Netherlands were neutral during First World War, the Dutch army was ready for resistance. Queen Wilhelmina is the star of the film. She can be seen on a horse while inspecting her troops and, what’s more important, for the first time in her 20 years of “film career” she acts as if she is aware of the impact the effect of the camera can have on her people. It turned out her appearance also made an impression abroad. The British praised the images of the queen on a horseback considering them a symbol of the Dutch democratic attitude.
Princess Wilhelmina was crowned Queen of the Netherlands on 6 September 1898. She had turned eighteen on the 31 August and – after eight years of regency by her mother Queen Emma – she had acquired the right to succeed to her father King Willem III, deceased in 1890. The coronation of the young queen took place in Amsterdam, in the Nieuwe Kerk. Later that day, Wilhelmina and Emma appeared on the steps of the Koninklijk Paleis on Dam square and were cheered by a massive crowd.
The young Queen of the Netherlands was already a very popular figure and the sympathy of the Dutch people increased even more in the days around the ceremony. The footage of the coronation was shown to enthusiastic audiences at the Amsterdam theatres Carré, Variété Flora, and Circus Renz. The films were also a great success outside the capital, where the people felt they were a part of the event through the new medium. It was a historical moment in the development of film in the Netherlands. Film wasn’t a novelty or just light entertainment anymore. Film had a new role: it could be information, education, or propaganda. In the wake of the popularity of the new queen, film had gained legitimacy.
In the following years, royalty remained an extraordinarily popular subject in the Netherlands. Especially when, on 7 February 1901, after four months of engagement, the young queen married the German Duke Heinrich von Mecklenburg-Schwerin in The Hague. Both the engagement party and wedding were recorded and became movies shown in vaudeville theatres in the major cities by travelling screeners in carnivals and fairs all over the country. Wilhelmina was indeed the first real Dutch diva. Like the German Emperor Wilhelm II and the British monarchs, she became a star of the silver screen.
Queen Wilhelmina may indeed be the most popular movie star of the first decades of Dutch cinema, although she seemed unaware of and almost embarrassed by her status. In the films, we see her in constantly making contact with the people along the streets but always ignoring the camera. She never poses for the operators or looks for close-ups, she never acknowledges the film crew. This in contrast, for example, with the German Emperor Wilhelm II, who had several cameramen at his service and staged many of his “performances”, in order to be always in control of his image.
The years following First World War were a period of uncertainty for Europe: revolutions broke out in Russia, Austria and Germany; inflation and poverty marred many countries; political relationships were shaky. In the Netherlands, the social democrat Pieter Jelles Troelsta called for revolution, while Belgium attempted to annex South Limburg and the Zeeland Flanders as compensation for the wartime suffering it had endured. Both uprisings were nipped in the bud and thus reinforced her popularity even further.
From the twenties, especially after the introduction of newsreels from Polygoon, Profiliti and Orion, members of the royal family were a regular presence in Dutch films. People could share the joys and sorrows of their monarchs: the funerals of Hendrik and Emma, the many visits to the Dutch provinces and foreign cities, the engagement and marriage of Juliana to Bernhard von Lippe-Biesterfeld and, of course, the birth of the princesses. Bernhard himself introduced a more relaxed attitude towards the media. Formality was replaced by spontaneity and joviality. The monarchy got a human face.